#me: …writing spoof film analysis on tumblr dot com?

[redvanillabee]

Hey Edna, I’ve been thinking a lot about the similarities between Katya (Goncharov 1973), and Peggy Carter in terms of agency and being heard within their respective communities. Would love to hear your thoughts

Oh where do we begin!

There are definitely parallels between Katya and Peggy. Like you said, both of them struggle at first with being heard. That opening scene of the mafia meeting, when the audience literally only see slivers of her through fancy Italian suits, and even her ‘yes’ to being told to bring more coffee is barely heard. It does remind me of Peggy’s line about how she’s invisible unless she’s got someone’s file or coffee or something.

Unfortunately, for the first half of the film, Katya actually cuts a much more tragic figure than Peggy. One distinct difference is, of course, that Peggy has got allies in her male-dominated world, while Katya does not. Peggy at least has got Jarvis and Daniel; Katya does not have that privilege. All the men around her are planted there by, well, other men. Her bodyguards are her husband’s henchmen. And unlike Peggy, who chooses to stay at the SSR despite the slights and abuses, Katya is stuck with Goncharov. Even Andrey Daddano, who is probably the nicest—comparatively speaking—man to Katya in the whole film, is too busy staring moon-eyed at Goncharov to really notice Katya’s plight and her call for help.

(Basically—imagine AC S1 if Daniel is entirely too preoccupied with staring longingly at Jack, and completely ignoring Peggy's struggles in the office. That’s how sad it is for Katya.)

We also see Katya relying a lot more on…well, being a woman than Peggy does, and Peggy does that a lot already. Because beneath the taking advantage of sexism and all, Peggy is a skilled spy. Once she has seduced a man into distraction (102 Sweet Dreams lipstick where would Peggy be without you), she can handle all the tasks herself. Katya could not do that. Both because of a lack of skill and because of physical confinement at times, not only does Katya have to rely on seducing men to get places, she has to manipulate them and sometimes even give them favours to get things done, which places her in a much more vulnerable position than Peggy has ever been in.

Then there is, of course, the kiss between her and Sofia, which does call to mind the kiss between Dottie and Peggy in 1x06. However, I do have to give credits to Goncharov for one thing: while AC plays into the kiss of death trope, Goncharov quite smartly subverts it. Because see—like Peggy, Katya falls victim to internalised misogyny and underestimates Sofia, writing her off as nothing more than a henchman’s arm candy. So when she kisses Sofia to incriminate her, on the surface, it reads like a kiss of death. BUT it actually is through Sofia that Katya finally finds her ticket to freedom.

In fact, I would even argue that comparing Katya to Dottie is more appropriate than comparing her to Peggy. Sure, on the surface it sounds like lazy analysis—just directly comparing two Russian characters. But from the perspective of both Dottie and Katya, their female connections are what give them a chance to escape and finally build their own lives. Dottie is used by Ivchenko, instead of being allowed to plan a mission herself. If she has struck a deal with Jack in early S2 instead of taking advantage of her connection to Peggy, she would never have had the chance to run free after the party. Same for Katya—she has kissed multiple men in the film, but by seducing and finally kissing Sofia, she found someone who can actually help her escape Goncharov’s control.

There is something almost Thelma and Louise-esque in the ending, when we see Katya at her husband’s funeral looking more relieved than mournful, and the teasing closing shot of Sofia observing—if not waiting—on the periphery of the funeral party. That is honestly a far kinder treatment of a lesbian relationship than I would ever have expected from a 1970s film. (And to think Marvel teased us a Cartinelli ending then never brought Angie back…for shame, Feige, for shame…)

References: [Link 1] [Link 2]