09/15/2020
Observing the tragedy of our growing divide in U.S., I remembered an old funny movie "Heart of a Dog", thinking indeed "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it"
"For us in Russia, communism is a dead dog, while, for many people in the West, it is still a living lion."
The plot
Unsure of the consequences, kindly surgeon Professor Filip Filippovich Preobrazhensky (Yevgeniy Yevstigneyev), with his love of galoshes and other “bourgeois” comforts, transplants the pituitary gland and te**es of a dead criminal into a stray dog called Sharik. The dog then begins its transformation into Polygraph Polygraphovich Sharikov (Vladimir Tolokonnikov) the “model” proletariat male, albeit with a few newly acquired criminal tendencies. Sharikov is quickly adopted by the proletariat which tries to turn him into the ideal Soviet man, at odds with the professor’s way of life.
"Heart of a Dog" story by Mikhail Bulgakov
Bulgakov wrote the novel in the winter of 1925 while under investigation by the Soviet secret police. Then, a year after he wrote the story, the secret police confiscated his manuscript. It was not to see the public eye for decades. The way in which Heart of a Dog explores themes of 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐨 𝐒𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬 and the inconsistencies of the Bolshevik system made it unpopular with authorities.
𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐨 𝐒𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐬 (Dog Latin for "Soviet Man") is a sarcastic and critical reference to an average conformist person in the Soviet Union also observed in other countries of the Eastern Bloc.
In the 1960s, more than two decades after Bulgakov’s death, Heart of a Dog became unofficially available to the Soviet public through “samizdat,” a form of dissident self-publishing. However, only in 1987 did the Soviet regime allow the story’s official publication in Znamya magazine. As such, this film adaption came to the screen exceptionally soon after the official release of the novel.
Today, many consider this 1988 Heart of a Dog adaption to be one of the finest works of Russian film ever.
Btw, “Pyotr Alexandrovich” representing the only true authority in obviously prefers using the country’s most talented surgeon for his own medical needs.