The Italian Version of “Heart of a Dog” by Mikhail Bulgakov

Abstract

Cultural history is by nature a continuous national and international dialogue. Thus, works by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov feature original interpretations of certain motives from the writings of the English science fiction classic author Herbert Welles. In turn Bulgakov’s legacy gets newfound relevance in creative works by succeeding generations, including masters of film adaptation. To a large extent screen interpretations of literature are defined by the social hermeneutic horizon, that is by the prevailing sentiment in this or that society at a certain moment in time. It’s no coincidence that one of the best works of Soviet fiction, the dystopic satire “Heart of a Dog” turns out to be relevant in different countries at the time of social and political upheavals. First Bulgakov’s story is made into a film during the “low-level civil war” in Italy in the 70’s, and later in the Soviet Union during “perestroika” in the second half of the 80’s.
Making use of hermeneutic and comparative methods the article analyses both adaptations — the one by the Italian director Alberto Lattuada in 1976 and the other made by the Soviet director Vladimir Bortko in 1988. The emphasis is made on Lattuada’s version as his works remain mostly outside the sphere of interest of cinema studies in Russia.
The article confirms that in accordance with the spirit of the time Bortko basically reconstructs Bulgakov’s story whereas Lattuada prefers a rather unexpected angle. He keeps the story’s anti-revolution pathos. The adaptation is skeptical, at times sarcastic, about radical social engineering from “below”. At the same time the director introduces the basic idea of “The Island of Dr. Moreau” by Welles, i.e. the moral aspect of a scientific experiment. Creating a pathetic, even likable central character, “a person of little mark” Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov, Lattuada brings the story up to date, drawing attention to moral responsibility of contemporary science. The adaptation turns out to be especially relevant in view of the sharp rise in the interest in the issues of bioethics.