Sobachye Serdtse
Encyclopedia
Heart of a Dog 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
.
not long after the October Revolution
. A well-off surgeon
Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky implants a pituitary gland
and testicles of a recently deceased alcoholic and petty criminal Klim Chugunkin into a stray dog
named Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the next 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. He picks for himself an absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadruped
s (cats, etc.)" and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive Preobrazhensky out of his big apartment. Eventually he turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare, and the professor with his assistant are urged to reverse the procedure. Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik he does not remember anything that happened and is left to life in the professor's apartment.
Cinema of the Soviet Union
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia" despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history,...
television film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Vladimir Bortko
Vladimir Bortko
Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko , born on May 7, 1946 in Moscow, is a Russian film director, screenwriter and producer.-Biography:...
. It is based on Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...
's novel Heart of a Dog
Heart of a Dog
Heart of a Dog , a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, is a biting satire of the New Soviet man written in 1925 at the height of the NEP period, when Communism appeared to be weakening in the Soviet Union....
.
Plot
The film is set in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
not long after the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. A well-off surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky implants a pituitary gland
Pituitary gland
In vertebrate anatomy the pituitary gland, or hypophysis, is an endocrine gland about the size of a pea and weighing 0.5 g , in humans. It is a protrusion off the bottom of the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, and rests in a small, bony cavity covered by a dural fold...
and testicles of a recently deceased alcoholic and petty criminal Klim Chugunkin into a stray dog
Stray dog
Stray dog or stray dogs may refer to:Dogs:* Any sort of feral dog such as free-ranging urban dogs or canines without owners running lose in rural areas or around villages or small communities* Pariah dog, a specific type of feral dog...
named Sharik. Sharik proceeds to become more and more human during the next 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. He picks for himself an absurd name Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, starts working at the "Moscow Cleansing Department responsible for eliminating vagrant quadruped
Quadruped
Quadrupedalism is a form of land animal locomotion using four limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a quadrupedal manner is known as a quadruped, meaning "four feet"...
s (cats, etc.)" and associating with revolutionaries, who plot to drive Preobrazhensky out of his big apartment. Eventually he turns the life in the professor's house into a nightmare, and the professor with his assistant are urged to reverse the procedure. Sharikov turns back into a dog. As Sharik he does not remember anything that happened and is left to life in the professor's apartment.
Cast
- Yevgeniy YevstigneyevYevgeniy YevstigneyevYevgeniy Aleksandrovich Yevstigneyev was a prominent Soviet movie and theater actor and one of the founders of Moscow's Sovremennik Theatre. People's Artist of the USSR ....
as Professor Preobrazhensky - Boris PlotnikovBoris PlotnikovBoris Grigoryevich Plotnikov is a Russian film actor. His film debut was as Sotnikov in The Ascent, the acclaimed final film of Russian director Larisa Shepitko.- External links :...
as Dr. Bormental - Vladimir Tolokonnikov as Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov
- Nina Ruslanova as Darya
- Roman Kartsev as Schwonder
- Olga Melikhova as Zina
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 didn't meet typist in the cinema and Pyotr Alexandrovich - an important official cured by Preobrazhensky - didn't look like Stalin as it was shown in the film). The episode in which Bormental presents Sharikov who plays balalaika didn't 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, 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 Bulgakov's science-fiction novel The Fatal Eggs.