Vladimir Bortko - 75: Why the director of "Heart of a Dog" and "The Master and Margarita" was so often criticized

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

May 7 marks the 75th anniversary of the famous director and screenwriter, People's Artist of Russia and Ukraine Vladimir Bortko. For more than 30 years, his film work has caused the most heated discussions among both viewers and critics. Many of his films were at first subjected to merciless criticism, and then extolled. One thing is clear: they become the most resonant events in the world of cinema and leave no one indifferent. What the director of "Heart of a Dog", "The Master and Margarita", "Gangster Petersburg" and "Taras Bulba" were accused of - further in the review.

Dog's heart

World recognition to Vladimir Bortko was brought by the film adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog". It was written back in the 1920s, but then it was declared a "poignant pamphlet on modernity" and was banned from publication. It was first published only in 1968 abroad, the first film adaptation of 1976 was also abroad. In the USSR, "Heart of a Dog" was published only in 1987, and a year later Vladimir Bortko took up the adaptation of the story.

Now this film is ranked among the recognized classics of Soviet cinema, and in 1988, the very next day after the premiere, a storm of angry criticism fell upon it. The newspapers wrote that the director needed to cut off his arms and legs for such work and throw him off the bridge. But abroad, "Heart of a Dog" was appreciated: the film received prizes in Italy, Poland and Bulgaria. And only after that, 2 years later, Vladimir Bortko and Evgeny Evstigneev received State Prizes.

Low genre

When, 10 years after "Heart of a Dog", the first season of the series "Streets of Broken Lanterns" was released, many could not even imagine that its director was also Vladimir Bortko. In addition, his name was not in the credits - he worked on this project under the pseudonym Yan Khudokormov. Two years later, he shot another series in the same genre - "Gangster Petersburg" (the first two seasons). Later, the director more than once heard complaints against him: they say, how can, after a brilliant film adaptation of the classics, turn to the "low genre" of detective stories and engage in romanticizing the underworld!

The harshest criticism of these works was the director himself - he did not consider them to be his creative peak and explained the motives for creating crime films as follows: "".

The Master and Margarita

Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" has long been called one of the most difficult works to film - filmmakers have tried to translate it on screens more than once, but, as a rule, in aesthetic terms, they all clearly lost the literary basis and inevitably caused a flurry of criticism. This happened with the series of Vladimir Bortko: although the director set himself the task of conveying the content of the novel most fully and adequately and coped with the set goals, negative reviews were voiced both to the actors selected for the main roles, and to the “Bulgakovskaya atmosphere ". Bortko was criticized for both camera work and the inconclusiveness of computer effects.

Writer and critic Roman Senchin wrote about Bortko's series: “”. Similar thoughts were expressed by Anatoly Kucherena: "".

Most of the reviews were devastating. Journalist and writer Ilya Stogov said: "". Bulgakov scholar Philip Stukarenko said: "". Writer and journalist Yulia Latynina saw the reason for the failure in the following: "". Poet and publicist Dmitry Bykov wrote: "".

Taras Bulba

Probably the most controversial was Bortko's drama "Taras Bulba" based on the work of the same name by N. Gogol. The director was accused of imperial propaganda, which he himself explained as follows: "".

In response to numerous accusations against both Taras Bulba and his other films, the director has repeatedly said that he carefully reads everything that is written about him, but nevertheless makes films not for critics, but for the audience. and their interest in his work is not waning, and this fact can only testify to one thing: his work has really found its addressee. Despite the ambiguous assessment of Bortko's works, he is already called a classic of cinema, to which he himself answers: "".

This work also became controversial for the actors: Why Bogdan Stupka considered the film "Taras Bulba" the most terrible in his career.