Heart of a Dog (1988) poster
1988 · drama · satire · literary

Heart of a Dog

Directed by Vladimir Bortko2h 16m1988
  • inventive

In 1920s Moscow, shortly after the October Revolution, a stray dog named Sharik is taken in by Professor Preobrazhensky, a wealthy and respected surgeon. The professor performs a daring medical experiment on the dog that changes him into a human being. As the newly transformed Sharikov begins to navigate life in the professor’s apartment, his crude behavior and revolutionary ideas turn the household upside down.

Our read · Heart of a Dog (1988) reads as a neutral, steady, inventive drama · satire · literary entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, ambivalent in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Cast
Evgeniy EvstigneevBoris PlotnikovVladimir TolokonnikovNina RuslanovaOlga Melikhova
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The shape of Heart of a Dog

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
Nearest by DNA

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Geometric closeness in the twelve-axis space — pure DNA distance, not “people also liked.” Distance numbers are listed under each title for sceners who like to know the maths.

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