#katya may understand evil but i don't think she comprehends good

[charismaquark]

Finally watched Goncharov (1973) and while I’m not generally into mafia movies... the Fruit Stand Scene???!!!

THIS LIVES RENT-FREE IN MY MIND NOW.

Katya gives Sofia the apple. Sofia hands Katya the pomegranate. The Eve-Persephone parallels (women whose destinies changed irrevocably after being tricked into eating a piece of fruit) are SPECIFICALLY invoked. But the real question is, which one is which?

The framing of the scene suggests that Sofia is Eve (about to lose her sense of innocence and be inducted into the knowledge of evil), and that Katya is Persephone (trapped by a marriage that binds her forever to the (criminal) underworld). Except, that also makes no sense because we don't see them eat the fruit. How could they reap the consequences for an action they didn't actually take?

I would argue that it's not about the fruits they RECEIVE... it's about the ones they OFFER. The fruits they have already eaten, and been doomed by.

Sofia doesn't need to learn about evil. She lost her whole family. She knows enough about evil already. And Katya doesn't need to be bound to anything, when her own choices have left her so deeply entrenched.

"That’s the first lesson. Always blame the Devil for your crimes." (0:15:24)

Katya is Eve. Katya got roped into this mess a long time ago and has so many regrets now that she understands what it all means. Katya plays her piano in the room next to a murder, not because she doesn't know what's going on, but because she DOES. Katya wishes more than anything that she could turn back the clock to some idyllic time before her daughter died, before she joined the mafia, before she ever had to steal a purse or put a gun to a man's head. She tries so hard to end that cycle of violence... and it doesn't work. It was never going to work. The Apple of Eden isn't part of a cycle; it's just the beginning of the story.

"Don’t you dare speak to me about Cosenza." (1:20:41)

Sofia is Persephone. Sofia is constantly arguing that murder isn't necessary- but she also nearly drowns Katya, and shows a bizarre fascination with death when Katya threatens her with the knife. Sofia is linked to nature (the green dress, the sunset motif, the vase of flowers in her first scene) but in paltry, disconnected ways (her dress has metal buttons, the sunsets are over the city, the flowers are halfway to wilting). Sofia is part of a cycle; moments of happiness and joy, interspersed and defined by recurring instances of death and violence. Her childhood in WW2. The incident where she lost her leg. Whatever happened that made her learn how to use a gun. Her whole bloodied dynamic with Katya now. But Sofia CAN escape... for a time. She can walk away from the violence and have her summer in the sunlight. At least until tragedy strikes again.

Which makes the ending of the movie really bittersweet. Sofia sails away on the boat (Charon's Ferry, making a reverse trip across the River Styx). And the scene closes as the first snowflakes start to fall. Winter comes to Naples, because spring follows Persephone when she leaves.

How long until she comes back?