#Goncharov spoilers

[stranded-ziggy]

Decided to throw together a study of a scene from Goncharov (1973).

Man, what a film. The framing of this scene is just astounding. I would go so far as to say genius.

[budugu]

Do you guys remember that scene in goncharov where goncharov eats vanilla ice cream with sprinkles on top?

I feel deep down he's such a softie.

[tacccja]

the ending scene in goncharov (1973) is truly beautiful, i cry at its symbolism every time

[mad-scientist-council]

there is a. There is a. There is an empty red letter on my doorstep. It seems to match the same red worn by all those who have died before me. I have worn a red shirt this day. Gee golly gosh this can’t be plot relevant at all <3

[lifegoalsofafish]

I've seen a lot of posts about goncharov pretty much ever since I joined tumblr, but I finally sat down and watched it last weekend and OH MY GOD YOU GUYS

THIS SCENE????

the LIGHTING

the OUTFITS

EVERYTHING ABT ITTT

LOOK AT HOW THE HEAD IS TILTED IM OBSESSEDDD

[chaotic-kass]

Goncharov (1973)

-Produced by Martin Scorsese and Directed by Matteo JWHJ 0715

[ifwebefriends]

[guinevereslancelot]

"i could fix him" "i could make him worse" i could make a plan to leave my mafia boss husband and run away with him and then accidentally kill him due to unforeseen circumstances after betraying everyone else in my life then fake my death in a boat

[fucked-up-mover-shaker]

fuck it 5k notes i'll cosplay Katya Goncharov (w/ what i have in my closet already) in that ICONIC white dress

[gothicashworld]

[juliafied]

There have been a lot of arguments over the years about why we never find out Goncharov’s first name - the loss of his identity beyond Goncharov the hardened killer, etc - but in the last part of the film, when Katya leans in and whispers in his ear just as he’s dying at her feet, she must be saying his name.

In Russian, to address someone by their last name is very formal and even reinforces a hierarchy, like a professor addressing their students, symbolic of Katya being the authority, the mind and the drive behind their operation. Moreover, for most of the film, Katya and Goncharov’s attention is focused elsewhere than on the intimacy that they so clearly share, on the operation in which they are more like colleagues, and on Sofia and Andrey, but in death, Katya truly sees him as he is: the man she grew up with, her sweet Kolya or Seryezha or Valya.

And it’s not for us to know or see him in that way. We only get a glimpse. It’s emblematic of the one of the film’s themes: how utterly terrifying, difficult it is to be known, and loved anyway.

[disghasting]

Is anyone else obsessed with how subtly important eye contact is in Goncharov?

Have you noticed how many times he says some form of “look at me” to katya? How, whenever andrey is in a scene his eyes seems to slowly maneuver from object to person to object, as if he’s scanning meaningless information, UNTIL goncharov is in the scene and suddenly his eyes follow him like he’s something worth studying? And what gets me most, how katya, the person who refuses to look at goncharov in the eye unless he all but begs, the woman who has never had the opportunity to yearn for a man because the men do all the yearning for her, looks at sofia like she’s hung the stars and moon, to the point sofia even says something!!! THE DIRECT PARALLELS BETWEEN GONCHAROV’S “look at me, why can’t you ever look at me” AND SOFIA’S “you can’t look at me like that, why do you insist on stopping my heart,” like yeah it was probably meant as a throwaway gag, the way it was said after sofia found katya drunk (don’t even get me STARTED on how katya hid the fact that she was prescribed medication for a preexisting condition from goncharov because she refused to be seen as weak but as soon as she sees sofia’s face in her weakest moment she collapses into her arms and sobs, like???) but that aside it paints such a lovely picture i can hardly stand it.

Heteronormative speculation in the film critic industry has always painted that scene as proof that katya really does care for goncharov because of the flashbacks to him in the middle of her talking to sofia and moments before The Kiss™️, i’ve seen the same take so many times “she was hallucinating that it was goncharov in front of her, not sofia,” but that makes literally no sense considering the way she acts around him for the rest of the film.

The flashbacks were all times that we’d already SEEN in the movie, except the beginning few which were of a younger goncharov, before the beginning of the movie, perhaps before they’d fled russia even. It showed a story, each change in memory was one of him mentioning her always being in her own head, or not paying attention, or even the one scene everyone knows and loves where he asks her what she’s thinking about. The way the first few were grouped together, then became broken up by glimpses of sofia, because the answer to the question “what are you thinking about,” changed as soon as sofia stepped into the picture. She used to dream of freedom from familial pressure, from her husbands line of work, from her countries political agenda, but recently freedom feels less like a pair of wings and more like long brown hair and warm eyes that she can’t help but stare into.

Katya’s character being so underdeveloped in favor of goncharov and andrey mentally fucking for a few more minutes is absolutely deplorable, all i want is for her to find gay peace!

(Btw if you remember any scenes that have to do with the importance of eye contact in the movie that i forgot to mention here, feel free to add on!)

[sunturine-ceo]

Guys look

LITERALLY GONCHAROV AND ANDREY OMG???

[eccentricextrovert]

i can never stop analyzing this movie

[hancockstan]

Man, I finally watched Goncharov for the first time and it’s crazy how so many spy/thriller/action movies have made obvious references to it that I never picked up before. Like that scene in Atomic Blonde with the umbrellas is just like the end of the second act when Goncharov realizes that Nickolas has betrayed him but still has to keep working with him so that his sister that runs the chop shop won’t back out of the deal with Sterling’s crew. And I only now realize what a clever twist atomic Blonde had on that scene since obviously the average person already knows the beats of Goncharov even if they never saw it, just through pop culture osmosis. So when she ultimately fails to protect Spyglass it comes as a double shock to the audience who has already seen a million parodies and references where this scene goes right for the protagonist. Also the end of the movie where Goncharov and Ivan are driving out to the middle of the wilderness and both of their actors are actually sleep deprived and suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning is more iconic the Jack Nicolson in the Shinning. Sorry not sorry.