| Sobachye Serdtse | |
|---|---|
 Russian Blu-Ray Disc cover
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| Directed by | Vladimir Bortko |
| Screenplay by | Natalya Bortko |
| Based on |
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov |
| Starring |
Yevgeny Yevstigneyev Boris Plotnikov Vladimir Tolokonnikov Nina Ruslanova |
| Cinematography | Yuri Shaigardanov |
| Edited by | Leda Semyonova |
| Music by | Vladimir Dashkevich |
Production companies |
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Release date |
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Running time |
130 minutes |
| Country | Soviet Union |
| Language | Russian |
| Budget | $5 million |
Heart of a Dog (Russian: Собачье сердце, translit. Sobachye serdtse) is a black-and-white 1988 Soviet television film directed by Vladimir Bortko. It is based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel Heart of a Dog.
Premiering show of the film aired on 20 November 1988 at 18:45 on the Central Television Programme One. The film consisted of two episodes. The novel written in 1925 was censored in the Soviet Union, but during perestroika, it was adapted for Soviet tgelvision.
Plot
The film is set in Moscow not long after the October Revolution. A complaining stray dog looks for food and shelter. A well-off and well-known surgeon and professor, Philipp Philippovich Preobrazhensky, happens to need a dog and, with a piece of sausage, lures the animal to his large house with an annexed practice. The dog is named Sharik and well taken care of by the doctor's maids, but he still wonders why he is there. He finds out too late that he is needed as a test animal. The doctor implants a pituitary gland and testicles of a recently-deceased alcoholic and petty criminal, Klim Chugunkin, into Sharik.
Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the following days. After his transition to human is complete, it turns out that he inherited all the negative traits of the donor (bad manners, aggressiveness, use of profanity, heavy drinking), but he still hates cats. He picks for himself the absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Sub-Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadrupeds (cats, etc.)," and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive the doctor out of his big apartment. Eventually, Sharikov turns life in the doctor's house into a nightmare by stealing money, breaking his furniture, flooding the apartment during a cat chase, and blackmailing into marriage a girl he met at the cinema.
Preobrazhensky and his friend and assistant, Dr. Bormental, see all of their efforts to reform Sharikov fail.
After a series of worsening conflicts, the doctor learns that Sharikov has attempted to denounce him to the Soviet secret police. The doctor then demands for Sharikov to leave the apartment immediately for good. Sharikov angrily refuses and draws a revolver. An infuriated Bormental attacks Sharikov and, after a short but violent fight, subdues him. The doctor then chooses to reverse the procedure.
Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik, he remembers little about what has happened to him but is not much concerned about that. To his content, he is left to live in the doctor's apartment.
Cast
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Details
- This screen version of M. Bulgakov's novel is famous for its attention to the original text. Practically nothing was deleted for adaptation. However, there are some differences between the novel and the film. In the novel, Bormental did not meet the typist in the cinema, and Pyotr Alexandrovich, an important official cured by Preobrazhensky, did not look like Joseph Stalin, as is shown in the film. The episode in which Bormental presents Sharikov who plays balalaika does not exist in the novel. However, the phrases of Bormental were taken from the diary of Bormental, which was in the original novel.
- Some scenes (spiritualism and circus) were taken from early Bulgakov's short stories, not from the novel.
- One of the scientists who witness the transformation of Sharik into a human is called Professor Persikov. He is the protagonist of another of Bulgakov's science-fiction novel, The Fatal Eggs.
Awards and honors
- Prix Italia (1989)
- Vasilyev Brothers State Prize of the RSFSR (1990)
See also
- Dog's Heart, a 1976 joint Italian-German comedy film directed by Alberto Lattuada based on a novel Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
External links
- Heart of a Dog at AllMovie
- Heart of a Dog at IMDb
- Heart of a Dog at Rotten Tomatoes
- Secrets of our cinema. "Heart of a Dog". www.tvc.ru (video)