Goncharov (1973) - A Review

With the recent explosion in popularity of this film, I thought it was only right that I watch it and review it. As a rule I don’t particularly like this genre of film, however, it came highly recommended so I though, why not?

A/N: The cover picture (also used in the body of this blog) is not an official movie poster. It’s a fanmade piece by Cara James Eden, whom you can find on Tumblr, Ko-Fi, and Redbubble.

Summary

Written and released during the Cold War, Goncharov tells the story of a Russian organised crime boss trying to break onto the mob scene in Naples, Italy. A film filled with symbolism and subtext, it’s obvious why it’s been lauded as one of the greatest mafia movies of all time.

My Thoughts

Now, as a rule, I don’t particularly like gang/mafia movies because I’m not generally interested in watching a group of men make stupid decisions for 90 minutes. However, Goncharov is different. Whilst it is still a mafia movie, and admittedly there are men making bad decisions, there’s a lot more to this film as well. For starters, there’s more than one female character. Beyond that, the majority of the characters have interesting, developed backstories (and those that don’t haven’t for very good reasons), and there are excellent themes and motifs throughout the film.

Characters

Goncharov

Goncharov, also known as ‘Lo Straniero’ (Italian for ‘The Stranger’), is played by Robert De Niro. Despite being the main character, we know very little about him. We know that, as teenagers, he and his friend Andrey were inducted into the Russian mob, and that he is married to Katya, but beyond that Goncharov mostly remains a mystery. However, this lack of backstory doesn’t take away from the character. In fact, it plays very nicely with the Italian mafia’s nickname for him - Lo Straniero - as one of the main themes throughout the play is identity, or lack thereof, along with alienation. Along with this, Goncharov’s first name is never mentioned, lending credence to the other characters’ view of him, and his personal identity problems.

Katya

Katya (short for Yekaterina) is Goncharov’s wife, played by Cybill Shepherd. We find out that she was orphaned as a child and spent time living on the streets before she was taken in and trained as a spy by the Russian mob. What’s interesting about Katya, is that she is so integral to much of the story and a lot of Goncharov’s power and influence is due to the connections that she possesses. Goncharov and Katya wouldn’t have even been able to leave the Soviet Union without the connections of her father’s legacy giving her an upper hand.

Katya is beholden to many people at the beginning of the film, with personal ties and obligations and blackmail. She betrays Goncharov (I’ll talk about this iconic scene later on) in an effort to escape all this and be a free and independent woman. It’s widely debated as to whether Katya fakes her death, or actually dies for real, as the scene itself is left ambiguous but based on what we know of her and her motivations, I would say it’s far more likely that she faked her death as a way to escape the life she’d been entrenched in for far too long.

Sofia

Sofia, played by Sophia Loren, is almost the complete opposite to Katya, which partially why each finds the other so intriguing (more on that later!). Also orphaned, Sofia was raised by nuns in an orphanage in Assisi, before returning to Naples as an adult to look for her family. Unlike Katya, Sofia is beholden to nobody at the beginning of the film, and the envy of both women is obvious. Katya envies Sofia’s freedom (although it’s very idealised), and Sofia envies the roots and connections that Katya has. Whilst it’s implied that Sofia is married, we never actually see her husband, and she doesn’t talk about him - suggesting that despite having a husband she does not consider herself particularly connected to him. Again, we see here the theme of lack of identity; Sofia doesn’t know where she comes from, and her envious need for connection pulls her into a dangerous world of lies and betrayal.

Mario

Mario Ambrosini, played by Al Pacino, is a member of the Italian Mafia. There is some fan speculation that he and Sofia are long-lost siblings, although this isn’t touched upon in the film. Mario has a gambling addiction - something that can be observed in several scenes throughout the film. Mario wears slightly out-of-date clothing, once again bringing the theme of Time to the forefront, and his state of dress and general appearance becomes more unkempt as the movie progresses - a visual depiction of the idea that time catches up with all of them one way or another.

Andrey

Andrey “The Banker” Daddano, played by Harvey Keitel, is similar to Goncharov in that we don’t know all that much about him to begin with. New fans of the film have speculated that Andrey is Sofia’s husband, but given the dynamics between all the characters, and the outcome of the film, I don’t think this is true. Andrey and Goncharov have a sort of love/hate relationship, and they’re also business rivals, giving them perhaps the most complicated relationship in the film. It’s alluded to that Andrey is Jewish, or has Jewish ancestry at least, which ties in with the themes of alienation and identity - particularly as the antisemitism was rife throughout the time period the film is set in.

Joseph ‘Icepick’ Morelli

Icepick Joe, played by John Cazale, is the character that embodies the cycle of violence theme. After the traumatic death of his brother at some point before the film begins, Joe suffers a psychotic break and is institutionalised. Whilst we never see any of it, it’s heavily implied in the film that he was badly mistreated and was scheduled for a lobotomy before he managed to escape the facility. He turns to crime and quickly becomes known as Mario’s rather violent henchman. He also has several dealings with Andrey, whom he views as an older brother figure - replacing the one he lost in an effort to regain some form of familial connection.

Best Scenes/Lines

Marketplace Scenes

There are two important marketplace scenes in Goncharov, and they parallel each other rather nicely. The first involves the first meeting of Katya and Sofia. It’s speculated that the meeting was orchestrated, after all it does seem like a coincidence, but I don’t think it was. The two women talk of marriage and temptation (cue the thinly veiled gay subtext). Sofia remarks that she never understood why the Forbidden Fruit was an apple, when it’s arguably the most boring fruit and something worth risking Hell for should be exciting. Her suggestion of an alternate fruit is pomegranate, as that’s the fruit that kept Persephone in the Underworld for six months of the year saying that “A fruit so powerful it can trap a Goddess seems like the kind of fruit that could banish humanity from Paradise.” The women then share a pomegranate panna cotta, with Katya remarking “I’d go to Hell for this.” which is pretty gay of her if you ask me, but we’ll touch more on that later.

This scene also contains one of my favourite lines from Katya: “What is marriage but a way to escape the names of our fathers?”

The second marketplace scene is between Goncharov and Andrey. Goncharov invites Andrey to the marketplace and offers him an apple (which Andrey accepts) from the same fruit stall we see Katya and Sofia at earlier in the film. This parallel is deliberate, as it allows the audience to see the apple as a metaphor rather than just an apple. Goncharov offers Andrey some kind of deal along with the apple, although the audience doesn’t hear what. Like it’s parallel, this scene also comes with some gay undertones, as Goncharov’s apple is very clearly meant to be an offer of temptation to Andrey, and not just in a business context.

Katya’s Death

I’m going to talk about this as if Katya faked her death, not only because I like it better that way, but also because apparently there’s a deleted scene in which Katya reappears later on in the film. Katya and Sofia are fighting on a boat just close enough to the shore that that a strong swimmer could probably make it back. The two women wrestle on the deck of the boat whilst Goncharov watches without intervening. The women suddenly cease fighting - Katya has almost succeed in pinning Sofia’s arms above her head - and the audience get a close-up of their faces. Katya leans in and we think she’s going to kiss Sofia, but instead she whispers in Sofia’s ear “Sofia, you know this isn’t how our time ends.” at which point Sofia smiles at her before using her legs to flip Katya overboard. Sofia holds Katya’s head underwater as she clings to the railing, and we see Katya stop struggling. However, all is not as it seems, as we get a close-up of Katya’s limp hands still somehow holding onto the railing, and we can see that her watch is still ticking. Now, normally that wouldn’t really mean anything (maybe she has a waterproof watch) but her line about their time not being at an end, plus the consistent clock and time motifs throughout the film, implies that Katya isn’t actually dead, and is merely faking it to escape her current life.

Goncharov’s Death

Goncharov dies at the very end of the film and there are two different versions of this; one where Katya attempts to kill him with Andrey finishing the job, and one where Andrey kills him of his own volition. In the scene with Katya involved (the deleted scene) we learn that after having started a new life, Katya couldn’t move on without ending the cycle of violence once and for all, and that having herself still tied to Goncharov meant she could never escape. Unfortunately, she ends up not going through with it, meaning Andrey has to step in. However, we do get an iconic last exchange between the husband and wife beforehand:

Katya: Of course we’re in love. That’s why I tried to shoot you.

Goncharov: If we were really in love, you wouldn’t have missed.

After this, we hear a gunshot and realise Andrey has shot Goncharov in the back before he turns the gun on Katya. But she is quicker than him, pulling her gun and shooting him in one fluid motion.

However, in the cut that made it into the film, Katya is obviously not there, although Andrey is still acting on the information Katya gave him when she betrayed Goncharov earlier in the film. When Andrey goes to kill Goncharov, he says “I used to know who you were. But I should’ve known better than to think Lo Straniero could ever be anything other than alone.” which speaks more to Goncharov’a character than anything else in the film. The fact that even Goncharov’s oldest friend/his lover doesn’t really know him suggests that Goncharov’s lack of identity is the reason everything has fallen apart around him.

Themes

This single piece of art illustrates most of the themes in the film with stark effectiveness. We’ve got the clock motif, violence, alienation (Goncharov is a different colour), homosexual undertones, and futility.

Alienation/Identity

Identity and feelings of alienation are prevalent throughout the film. Goncharov doesn’t seem to outwardly struggle with his lack of identity, but his actions and interactions with the other characters during the film speak more than any actual dialogue could. Goncharov is left reeling by Katya’s betrayal, and it’s clear that he never expected Andrey to be the one to kill him. Goncharov assumes that his identity in conjunction with other people is safe, only to be betrayed by both of them in different ways.

Katya and Sofia have opposite problems in regards to identity. Katya feels she has too much of an identity, and resents everything that comes with being involved in Russian organised crime and how beholden it makes her to other people. Sofia, whose childhood was similar to Katya’s, has the opposite problem. She never formed connections within the Italian mafia until after she met Katya, and her search for her family in Naples turned out to be fruitless - this leaves her in something of an identity crisis as she doesn’t know where she comes from, and doesn’t know where she belongs in the present either.

Clocks/Time

Clock motifs and mentions of time are consistent across the entire film. The characters are constantly trying to outrun their inevitable deaths, and this is illustrated through the use of time and clocks. Not only this, but we can frequently hear the ticking of a clock mixed into the score of some of the scenes. This is meant to symbolise Goncharov increasingly running out of time as the film progresses - the ticking stops when he dies.

Andrey tells Goncharov “The clock will strike for everyone. Even for you, Goncharov.” which parallels what Sofia says to Katya earlier in the film: “Time stops for no one, Katya. Not even us.”. This shows the futility of both pairs love for each other - it doesn’t matter how much they love, their actions and circumstances mean that they simply don’t have the time.

Conflict/Violence

Circumstances mean that the characters are all trapped in a cycle of violence. They are all trapped (willingly or not) in a life of organised crime, leaving them no choice but to partake in the violence if they want to survive. Katya tries to break this cycle for herself by faking her own death but even this doesn’t completely work, as her betrayal of Goncharov to Andrey eventually causes Goncharov’s death.

Of course as a mafia movie, violence is expected, but it’s the cyclical nature of the violence in this film that makes it interesting. Whenever one of the characters commits violence (physical or otherwise) against another, it eventually comes back around to them - with most of the characters doing everything they can to avoid death there’s a lot of space for retaliation in this film.

Homosexuality

Considering this is a mafia movie from the 70s, I was surprised by the amount of queer subtext present in the film. Not only do Katya and Sofia have, quite overt at times, sexual tension in most of their scenes but as the film develops it becomes apparent that Andrey and Goncharov have some kind of romantic feelings for each other. Andrey also seems to have feelings for Katya, giving us the bi representation we didn’t know we needed (except we did know).

It’s theorised that Sofia and Katya run away together at the end of the film, and that Sofia was in on Katya faking her death the whole time (she even helped carry it out!). The final shot of the film is Sofia absconding in Katya’s boat, and a shifting tarpaulin suggests there is someone under it, perhaps Katya as it is her boat.

While we can presume Katya and Sofia get their happy ending, the same can’t be said for Andrey and Goncharov. Andrey kills Gorbachev for his actions, albeit rather reluctantly, and it’s strongly implied that the grief is too much for him to bear and he commits suicide, although this isn’t shown in the film.

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I would 10/10 recommend Goncharov (1973). I don’t enjoy mafia films but I was so invested in the different storylines that I almost forgot I was watching a mafia movie.