I love that Goncharov is getting attention again, it's a great classic, but I am sad that everyone is only focusing on the characters when the cinematography and symbolism was so rich.
Like Ice Pick Joe, did you know his death was foreshadowed by the color yellow? I wish I had screenshots, but everytime they mentioned death, dying, mortality, sickness, etc, there is something yellow or gold on or near him. Like how he was playing with the gold watch when the conversation about Jimmy Bean getting "iced" took place (Ice and snow were another big symbol with Joe and death both) or when Goncharov opens up about seeing his mom die, Joe is standing in front of yellow curtains. All of this comes to a head when he dies wearing the yellow coat in the dirty yellow snow.
I could go on about this movie, (don't get me started on the use of red as a symbol of power) but in between all the shipping and character study, I just want everyone to remember how much visual art went into this film.
Okay, but have we considered the new Goncharov effect, which is that now posts about real movies sound fake?
...A film called Glass Onion, you say? (hmmm, like the parody site “The Onion”?) In which international heartthrob and Bond actor Daniel Craig plays a confirmed gay character? In the middle of a murder mystery? On a beautiful exotic Greek island? With the legendary and gorgeous non-binary bicon Janelle Monáe as a part of the cast as well? In a double role? All of my queer heart’s dreams coming true in one subtextually homoerotic action movie? Nice try, Tumblr. I’m not falling for that one twice.
everyone’s talking about Goncharov (1973) but so far I’ve seen no one talking about the novel it’s based off, Fyodor Dostoyevski’s 1868 epistolary novel The Goncharov Residence
Finding Goncharov | A documentary looking at the birth of this recently unearthed Scorsese classic.
If you want to see the full doc happen, please let me know! It would be a pleasure to get this off the ground and really explore the history of the world's greatest Mafia movie.
Thanks to @caramiaaddio, @mortal-ghost, @beelzeebub, @perplexingly, @rabdoidal and @merualeden for permission to use their excellent Goncharov content!
not to “that’s my blorbo” a background character, but i spent way too long absolutely howling and stomping my feet like a cartoon wolf when sascha took his pocketwatch out and did that smirk!! and that little hip sway when he walked away? like okay baby slut we get it!!!!!
Edward G. Robinson, in one of his last roles, as Luigi “The Caddy” Caccioppo, one of the most powerful and feared Mafia dons in Naples, in Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film Goncharov.
I don't think we talk enough about the added depth that composer Jára Cimrman added to the scenes of Martin scorsese's Goncharov (1973). The subtlety of tone shifts in the conversations and lack of big dramatic music to signify the trauma of the moment. The layers of the composition are amazing, you can hear the ticking of the clock in the music grow louder during the progression of the movie. And I think that is just neat.
something that frustrates me about the goncharov renaissance is that everyone's talking about it in relation to the godfather and not enough people are talking about the age of innocence! the age of innocence was released exactly 20 years before goncharov and scorsese and thelma schoonmaker both called it his most violent film; though there are no shootouts, no knife fights, and no on-screen violence, there is suffocating underlayer of emotional violence throughout the film. this is important when discussing goncharov because you can see that same emotional violence simmering under the surface of katya's storyline.
that's one of the reasons why i think it gets lost amidst discussions of goncharov and andrey (aside from the obvious homoeroticism). katya's storyline--full of betrayal, dead ends, and overwhelming emotional violence--is bloodless, almost eerily so. while goncharov threatens rybek in the bathhouse, katya meets with the italians to arrange for his death. at first the viewer thinks that she is having an affair with ice pick joe; but instead all she wants from him is a way out of the suffocating life she was born into! when people criticize cybil shepherd's performance they always point to this scene because they expect katya to cry, to scream or break down in the arms of a man who is not her husband so they can call he a hysterical slut. but katya does not cry. her voice wavers only once in the entire scene. but look at her hands while she talks, the way she lights a cigarette but does not smoke it, a solid two inches of ash waiting to fall off.
and that final shot of katya watching the husband she betrayed bleed out in the arms of another man because she has no comfort left to give him him....you have to wonder whether it was all for nothing. i get chills every time.