Analysis of The Master and Margarita Series Essay Sample

In 2005, Vladimir Bortko released his televised miniseries depicting Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, the Russian classic detailing the actions of the devil and his companions as they enter Moscow to terrorize the city’s citizens while unifying two long lost loves. Within the first two episodes of his adaptation, Bortko covers the plot from chapters one through seven of Bulgakov’s novel in which he is observed to keep the plot and characters nearly identical to Bulgakov’s novel while enhancing emotions or scenes in the book using cinematic elements.

In episode one, Bortko utilizes music, camera angles, and acting to present a visualization of the story’s beginning exactly as it was originally written. While Berlioz and Ivan engage in their religious conversation at the beginning of the episode, Bortko introduces the floating man with the use of cinematic technology to make him appear as if he were levitating and transparent. With the use of special effects, Bortko can display this initial supernatural encounter exactly as it’s portrayed in the book, refusing to initiate any differentiation in the plot or the development of characters.

Later, when filming Belioz’s death, the director continues to display the scenes exactly as depicted in the original story, only going further to exaggerate the emotions and actions of certain moments in the story. Before walking onto the turn still, the director introduces ominous, dark music to engage the audience in the mysterious tone of the upcoming scene. Then, once Berlioz first slips on the sunflower oil on the pavement, Bortko has the actor playing Berlioz throw his arms up into the air in an overexaggerated sense while he uses two zoomed in camera angles of the streetcar driver and Berlioz himself to exemplify the fear of both characters before Berlioz’s death. It’s after this that the music is speed up, screaming and panic of witnesses is included as another camera depicts Ivan’s shocked expression, only to then transition to Berlioz’s severed head. By incorporating these cinematic elements into this episode, Bortko successfully captures the scenarios and feelings detailed in Bulgakov’s novel. While not editing the actual plot itself, Bortko’s strategies do convert the story’s beginning into a visible film that can be interpreted through human actions, body language, and background effects.

Throughout episode two, this same trend is observed as Bortko continues to use film techniques to exaggerate the scenes of The Master and Margarita without initiating any change in the story’s plot. When depicting the scene in apartment no.50 with Styopa, Woland, Behemoth, and Korovyov, the director visualizes the story by adding effects to show Behemoth’s character, display Azazello walking through a mirror, and transport Styopa to Yalta as the room spins around him. For simple details like the spinning bedroom around Stoypa, the director expresses even the smallest points from the novel to stay true to Bulgakov’s design of the plot. Even in his critique of the show, Adam Groves explains that certain dialogue sequences are “taken verbatim form the novel” and that “if Bortko brought anything of his own to The Master and Margarita, it doesn’t appear to have registered.” Clearly, even when analyzed by a critic, Bortko’s main adaptation strategy is obvious as he simply copies the work of Bulgakov and displays his masterpiece using film effects, music, and acting to bring the story to real life. In short, his adaptation is a simple refurbishment of The Master and Margarita using visual effects to display the same story.

When constructing this adaptation, Bortko uses music as a primary tool to emphasize the emotion and tone embedded into each scene, giving viewers a preliminary feeling and understanding of each scenario. In terms of music, film composer and visual orchestra specialist Benjamin Batkin describes it as “the language of emotion” that can act as the “primary element that directs our feelings.” In this context, Bortko’s incorporation of music into this film adaptation guides the audience’s feelings as it alerts them to periods of tension and action, emphasizes periods of foreshadowing and malicious intent, or expresses the joyous, happy circumstances of certain situations. 

In episode one, the director utilizes music for the sake of highlighting secular supernatural instances in the plot or to intensify the suspense and dramaticism of Berlioz’s death. When filming the dialogue between Woland, Ivan and Berlioz, in times when Woland would disclose a fact he shouldn’t have known, such as Ivan or Berlioz’s names or facts about their lives, a short chord of notes is played to institute a feeling of dread within the audience while also incentivizing them to recognize his supernatural abilities. His use of music in this case then continues with Berlioz’s death, in which the scene first begins with an ominous piano chord that then accelerates into a dramatic, intense sound that defines the fear and panic of Berlioz and other witnesses of the tragedy. By incorporating music within this manner, Bortko’s adaptation of the novel expresses the underlying tones of these interactions while stressing the hidden meanings and indications that arise from certain scenes to the audience. 

This music is not only used to emphasize dark undertones, however, as it can also be utilized to display whimsical and joyous moods in particular scenes. In episode two, during the meeting at Griboyedovs, the director utilized a cheerful and optimistic musical chord to display the enjoyment for the patrons participating in the social gathering. Then, by cutting off the music the second Ivan enters, Bortko initiates a sudden change in tone immediately through the music transition as the audience will pick up on the absence of the joyful atmosphere, now replaced with confusion and tension as Ivan appears and exalts his claim of Woland’s incorporation in Berlioz’s death. Ultimately, by utilizing music within his adaptation, the director can successfully display both positive and negative connotations associated with certain events and signal a transition in the mood of the plot through transitioning pitches and soundtracks.

Overall, Bortko’s use of music is essential to his adaptation of The Master and Margarita. In terms of adaptation theory itself, according to Robert Stam, the source text offers an “informational network” that can then be “taken up, amplified, ignored, subverted, or transformed” by the adapting film. In terms of this definition, music serves as Bortko’s tool to amplify the plot of The Master and Margarita without straying away from its initial plotline. Whether a scene is laced with evil undertones or a pleasureful symphony, the incorporations of music offer the audience a realistic portrayal of the author’s envisionment of a scene, while detailing the transitions in tone between separating plot points through a changing musical dialect. In totality, the inclusion of music within Bortko’s adaptation is responsible for establishing the undertones of scenes, bringing Bulgakov’s masterpiece to life with his incorporated mannerisms and emotions depicted through live television.