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i think about this tweet literally every single day

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GONCHAROV (1973) dir. Martin Scorsese

“It funny because for many years people thought Goncharov was the main antagonist of the film, after all, he’s the one everyone’s out to get, right? But it seems people are starting to understand that in actual fact, it is time that is the main adversary in this story. There’s never enough of it and that torments a lot of characters, especially Goncharov, because he’s fighting so desperately to find his place in a world that is so keen on keeping him ostracized.”

[template by @bitchronan]

#goncharov #unreality

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the trouble is, you think you have time.

GONCHAROV (1973) dir. Martin Scorsese

#goncharov #unreality

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My husband is a man who collects things he can use. A pistol, a pocket-watch, a woman's love, a wife....

I'm obsessed with That Scene(tm) between Katya and Andrei in the California Director's Cut Rerelease of Goncharov, so I did a lighting study inspired by the film's Art Deco Posters! Little details like Katya never referring to her husband by his first name really add to Andrey and Katya's tense dynamic, which is one of the most underrated parts of the movie imo.

#goncharov #unreality

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Andrei, is time something we were gifted, or all we really have left?

#goncharov #unreality

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Rewatched Goncharov (1973) and did a few studies of my favourite scenes

#goncharov #unreality

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I think my favorite thing about Katya/Sofia is the way that, in their final scenes, they end up thematically switching places with one another in how they're set up as foils to one another through the rest of the film

Sofia, who starts off beholden to no one in terms of loyalty, family connections, patronage, etc; who to Katya represents a (very idealized) notion of freedom that she envies but can't access - ends up leaving with the collection of her mother's belongings that she was finally able to buy back (which does incidentally include a watch, where she hadn't been associated with that motif much up until then!). It's a better ending than most (since she, y'know, lives), but even then she's still fundamentally unfulfilled, because the ties she developed to Katya, the ones she wanted to maybe start building a life around, have been irreparably severed.

Meanwhile, Katya has been the nexus of so many personal ties of obligation through most of the film, even as she resents what they've contorted her life into. But she makes her ultimate decision to betray Goncharov and the goals she'd been helping him toward up until then, as a selfish one for nobody else's benefit, giving up the life of prestige she had/was close to having so that she wouldn't be emotionally tied down by the relationship they once had, the system of connections and favors and debts she came from. (Incidentally, this is why I think her plan was to fake her death, even if it's left ambiguous in the actual scene; what else could be a more complete severing of connections that would allow you to become a new, unburdened person entirely?) The fact that she's not thinking of Sofia as affected by her decision, because she's not thinking of her as a part of that same web of connections, is what makes that unintentional second betrayal so tragic! But even so, it means she ends in a place similar to what we first see as Sofia's position - independent and able to make her own way in the world, but having sacrificed something she didn't realize she'd miss for it, until after the deed was already done.

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Katya This, Goncharov That yeah yeah, the homoeroticism undertones are fantastic but y'all, this scene's stuck with me all this time, after I saw it.

Paolo Morelli, Y'know, Ice Pick Joe's implied son? Briefly intercut into the movie, but even he's important. We see this kid, this child on the edge of teendom as tangentially connected to the plot so you wonder, why do we even focus on this character near the end of the film?

Loss of Innocence? Freedom? No, not only those. One of the most important things, in any mafia media, but especially in Goncharov, is Legacy.

Goncharov cannot escape his past, his legacy--and his marriage with Katya is childless, which is ironic considering that the film hints that they were more than likely 'strongly suggested' to wed (re: an arranged marriage that wasn't). Ice Pick Joe's son randomly shows up, forgotten about by many people and afraid of his erratic father.

Now, when Paolo is narrowly avoiding all the chaos of the clashing mafia interests; as the scenes intercut there's the one sequence where we see Paolo find Goncharov's lost pocketwatch in his penultimate scene. Paolo looks at it and as we have a reprise of the clocks music, we can see what's going to happen.

Paolo has a choice to make; Keep the watch, embrace his legacy or leave it; forge his own path. Is Paolo a knife or a mirror? A reflection of his experiences? Or a knife that cuts his own path? Will he take up his father's Ice Pick, and cling to the past, the legacy of Ice Pick Joe?

Or will he become a man who leaves behind his legacy to forge a new one? It remains unanswered, as we do not see any indication in his final scene that he's kept it, nor do we see anything indicating the watch is gone forever.

We just see a man, grown up too soon, staring out at the horizon.

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Okay it started out as a joke but I’m deeply emotionally invested in Goncharov (1973) now. Mario Ambrosini is my blorbo I love that sad little criminal so much it makes me insane. I’m gonna run this shit into the ground until I reach the center of the earth and then I’m gonna keep going. You’ll have to pry Goncharov from my cold dead hands.

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I'm thinking again how Goncharov fandom really highlights the shipper's glasses most fandoms are seen through. Like obviously I'm a shipper myself. I multiship. I love the heartache of Katya and Sofia, I admire the desperate twisted emotions of Goncharov and Andrey, I nurse a quiet love of Valery and Katya, I tip my hat to the people who insist Sofia and Andrey are the true untold forbidden love and I gotta praise the rarepair shippers out here who would die for Joe x Kitty.

But all the shipping, all the discourse, skews the view from the very real and very fraught themes of family and connection and friendship in the film. Yes it's a mafia movie, an action film, something of intrigue, but there's such a heavy theme that romantic love is not all that matters, that there's more to life that matters than romantic love. And it's so interesting to see again and again how fandom favors Ships over the very real and important familial and friendly(and hesrtbreaking) relationships outside of the romantic lense.

I just have been thinking about how much it hurts when it's not your Romantic core but your family and friends that break you.

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I'm thinking again how Goncharov fandom really highlights the shipper's glasses most fandoms are seen through. Like obviously I'm a shipper myself. I multiship. I love the heartache of Katya and Sofia, I admire the desperate twisted emotions of Goncharov and Andrey, I nurse a quiet love of Valery and Katya, I tip my hat to the people who insist Sofia and Andrey are the true untold forbidden love and I gotta praise the rarepair shippers out here who would die for Joe x Kitty.

But all the shipping, all the discourse, skews the view from the very real and very fraught themes of family and connection and friendship in the film. Yes it's a mafia movie, an action film, something of intrigue, but there's such a heavy theme that romantic love is not all that matters, that there's more to life that matters than romantic love. And it's so interesting to see again and again how fandom favors Ships over the very real and important familial and friendly(and hesrtbreaking) relationships outside of the romantic lense.

I just have been thinking about how much it hurts when it's not your Romantic core but your family and friends that break you.

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there’s something i’ve been thinking about a lot with this rediscovery and resurgence of goncharov and the analysis that has followed, and it’s the idea of the main character.

there’s a sort of unspoken agreement in most film that if the movie or series is named after a character, then that’s the main character, right? take enola holmes, jack ryan, aladdin, bolt, forrest gump, etc etc. so the obvious association that i think most people make is that the main character of goncharov IS goncharov himself.

i’m not saying that’s wrong, necessarily. films are subjective—even the most meticulous plans laid by the most micromanaging director can be skewed and interpreted differently by the audience, and that’s how it’s supposed to be.

however! i would like to offer up another perspective, and that’s the idea of kayta goncharov as the real main character of the movie. here’s my reasoning:

there are a few different ways to identify the main character of a story. typically, the broadest definition is that the main character has the most influence over plot or on whom the plot has the most influence. there’s also an idea that the main character has to be dynamic and change over the course of the film. this change doesn’t necessarily have to be for the better, of course, it just has to take place.

now i won’t argue that katya is equal with goncharov in terms of screen time, obviously. but, her background manipulation of various plot points and characters cannot be overstated—it is essential to multiple developments throughout the film. from the death of ice pick joe to the boat scene to goncharov himself dying, katya plays an intrinsic role in advancing the plot of the movie and influencing the other characters around her. (and that’s entirely without touching the subplot of sofia, which is rich with influence from katya.)

i would also argue that she goes through more meaningful change than goncharov. obviously, there’s a motif of clocks and a theme of “running out of time” before death. in media, death often symbolizes change. it can take a lot of different forms: physical death, the death of a relationship, even the death of a part of you or an aspect of your personality. throughout the movie, katya lets go of the strict boundaries ruling her life as a mafia boss’s wife (death to a part of her) and subsequently lets go of her marriage (death of a relationship) before her husband himself dies (physical death). goncharov doesn’t really alter his behaviors or thinking much, besides the growth of homoerotic tension between him and andrey (but i don’t need to harp on that, i think it’s been discussed enough). 

the biggest argument to be made against this is, of course, the name goncharov as it relates to katya. shouldn’t it be goncharova if she’s supposed to be the main character? you ask. my rebuttal to this: it was released in 1973. as wonderful as these filmmakers are, i honestly cannot say i believe they would care so much about cultural continuity. additionally, katya introduced herself multiple times throughout the film as katya goncharov. after all, that’s the americanized version of it since we don’t really do gendered surnames and stuff. as much as we would all love for it to be culturally accurate, it is still an american film made by american filmmakers, and during the cold war nonetheless. 

this all isn’t to say that goncharov isn’t a main character or isn’t the titular character at that, but simply that he and katya deserve to be recognized as such. so. there. 

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katya stans be like I support women's rights and women's wrongs

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i mean, if goncharov looked at me like that, i'd also fall in love with him (also playing 'neruda' during this scene??? that's masterpiece right there!)

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I am so thrilled that Goncharov (1973) is getting a resurgence. I’ve always thought it was one of Scorsese’s most underrated, and it’s also one of my all-time favorite film scores.

Big shout-out to @caramiaaddio for uploading the main theme earlier. Since people seem to be enjoying it so much, I figured I’d dig up the fully-orchestrated version that plays over the end credits of the film.

Enjoy!