Heart of a Dog (1988 TV Movie)

Boris Plotnikov: Dr. Bormenthal

Photos 

Quotes 

• Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : Oh well, so it's started. This is the end of this house. Now they'll get things rolling. First of all, there'll be community singing every evening, then the pipes will freeze in the lavatories... then the steam-heating pipes will blow up, and so on.

  Dr. Bormenthal : You paint too grim a picture, Philip Philipovich. They're very different now.

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : And I won't mention the boiler, my dear... Let them! When there's a social revolution going on, one does without central heating.

• Dr. Bormenthal : You sound like a counterrevolutionary, Philip Philipovitch.

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : Nothing dangerous. Nothing counterrevolutionary. Incidentally that's another word I simply can't stand. What the devil is it supposed to mean, anyway? Nobody knows. So, there's nothing counterrevolutionary in what I am saying. It's full of sound sense and a lifetime of experience.

• Dr. Bormenthal : How ever did you manage to lure such a nervous dog, Philip Philipovich?

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : By kindness. The only way to deal with a living being. Terror will get you nowhere. That I have maintained, do maintain, and always will maintain. They believe, terror will help them. Well, it won't. No matter which one it is: white, red or even brown.

• Dr. Bormenthal : It isn't done that way. You should first offer it to Philip Philipovich, then to me, then pour yourself a glass.

• Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : Why can't the proletariat leave... his dirty galoshes downstairs instead of dirtying the marble?

  Dr. Bormenthal : But the proletarians don't have any galoshes at all, Philip Philipovich.

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : Nothing of the sort. They do have galoshes now and those galoshes are mine! The very same galoshes that disappeared in 1918.

• Dr. Bormenthal : How do you find time for everything, Philip Philipovitch?

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : One can find time for everything if one is never in a hurry.

• Dr. Bormenthal : You, Sharikov, are talking nonsense. The most revolting thing is that you talk with such confidence and assuredness.

• Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : Food, Ivan Arnoldovich, is a subtle thing. One must know how to eat. And yet, just think of it, that most people don't know how to eat at all. One must not only know what to eat, but when and how, and what to say while eating. If you care about your digestion, my advice is: don't talk about Bolshevism or medicine at table. And God forbid: never read Soviet newspapers before dinner.

  Dr. Bormenthal : But there are no other newspapers.

  Professor Filipp Filippovich Preobrazhensky : So don't read any at all. I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And guess what? Those of my patients whom I forced to read Pravda... lost weight. And to top it off they had retarded knee reflexes, lost appetite... and exhibited symptoms of general depression.

• Dr. Bormenthal : Incidentally, why don't you like the theatre?

  Poligraf Poligrafovich Sharikov : Hell, it's just crap... talk, talk. Pure counterrevolution.