Yeah sure everyone’s finally talking about Goncharov but it’s really disheartening to see everyone ignoring that it had been considered lost media till 2006 due to the actual mafia tracking the distribution to make sure almost every reel got destroyed. Please consider looking into the absolutely batshit history behind that, and then tell me that’s not just as interesting as the actual cyclical ending of the film!
As Goncharov lies bleeding out, his last memory is that of a clandestine meeting with Andrey, several decades ago. Both of them use aliases for this - Goncharov introduces himself as Rasmus Lofvgren, and Andrey as Felix Strauss. In long overcoats and felt fedora hats, the two meet at nighttime in a park overlooking the city. Andrey looks young and unburdened, and Goncharov greets him warmly like an old friend. They hug, they laugh, and make small talk, like they’ve been doing it for years and will do so for years more.
Then as their conversation fades, there is a gesture of sudden and unexpected intimacy. The two men still, turn to eachother and Goncharov lights Andrey’s cigarette with the fire from his own. He cradles Andrey’s face with shocking tenderness that speaks of a casual familiarity and Andrey leans into the touch, almost indulgent. There is a moment of tension between them before Andrey looks down, uncharacteristically coy. The camera lingers as they stare at eachother for a few seconds before turning away. As they turn towards the glittering city that will doom them, we fade back to a dying Goncharov.
The nature of the scene is intentionally ambiguous— Andrey has only known Goncharov a few months, so chronologically, it’s out of place. Is it a false memory, a hallucination, or the wish fulfilment of a dying man?
Further examination shows another layer. Goncharov’s chosen alias was that of an actor best known for playing a time traveller, a low-budget sci-fi show whose key theme was defying your destiny. Andrey’s was that of a thespian who was playing a London National Theatre post-modernist production of Odysseus at the time. They are pretending to be other people, who pretend to be other people — actors whose characters escape their tragedy, from stories that defy fate. As if, in telling himself a story where tragic characters can escape, Goncharov puts himself in a story where he, too, can survive.
But the story is already over and nothing can be changed. Goncharov dies a lonely, desolate man, having alienated everyone who cares for him and the last act of tenderness we see him commit never even happened.
—Francine Rubek, Violent Delights, Violent Ends: On Queer Readings of Masculine Tragedy (2003, Oxford University Press)
some of you are really gonna watch a movie made during the height of the cold war about an eastern european man on the other side of the iron curtain trying to survive in a world that alienates him while reconciling with the legacy of violence such survival will leave behind and the take you walk out with is “cool russian accent, but goncharov is a story about the american identity” just know that i am praying for your downfall
love how sometimes i’m like “oh, i should put this somewhere safe so i don’t lose it and know exactly where to find it later!” and about a month later i’m standing in my ransacked room trying to get into past me’s mindset like some kinda amateur historian on one of those history channel treasure hunting shows trying to get into the mind of a nineteenth century pirate to figure out where they hid some possibly nonexistent apocryphal loot
having memory problems is like being an archaeologist of your own life and it isn’t nearly as exciting as it sounds
homophobic that im not a man in 1845 but the sexy version of 1845 where im wearing a poofy cool shirt and its a stormy summer night so i run to the big abandoned mansion for shelter and as i light a candle and walk the corridors i see portraits of a dashingly handsome man who seemingly never ages and then with a clap of thunder the top of the stairs illuminate and i see him standing there wearing a cape and then he tops me for like 7 hours at least
