unreality

Oh it was quite a tough shoot, here are just a few moments:

Stanley Kubrick forced Cybil Shepherd to do over 150 takes of a traumatic scene, despite not being involved with the production in any way. By the time Kubrick was escorted away from the set, Shepherd had suffered two heart attacks and lost all her hair. She quit and was later re-hired at ten times her salary, with a brand new wig and slightly used discount artificial heart.

An unnamed production assistant contaminated the catering’s guacamole with PCP, resulting in numerous sick crew members and the infamous and hallucinogenic “Projectile Ear Wax” sequence.

Producer Martin Scorsese went quite insane during his time in the Philippines jungle. As the jungle did not feature in the film, nobody to this day, including Scorsese, have any idea why he was there.

The animatronic sharks infamously didn’t work as their foam interiors got weighed down by the seawater, resulting in the entire shark attack scene having to be removed. Thus the presence of the dead shark in the ballroom remains unexplained in the finished movie.

Studio interference resulted in nearly 2 hours of cuts to the 3.5 hour film, including the original version of the death of Sigourney Weaver, the cameo by Elijah Wood (who would not be able to make another film until after his birth in 1981), the sewer orgy, and the pie fight ending.

Robert De Niro had to shave his mustache for another role when filming went several months over-schedule. Its presence on the upcoming Criterion Blu-Ray is CGI.

Terry Gilliam was fired on the first day of filming. He was never to have directed the film, but was fired anyway, as was the tradition in Hollywood.

Marlon Brando behaved so poorly that he scared the director up a tree.

Hello gonchers!

We are a project intending to bring Goncharov to the screen! We try to incorporate as much of the gonchlore as possible, but of course it's not possible to include all of it. We are not trying to cement this specific canon as "the correct one." They are all correct. Goncharov (1973) had a truly impressive number of director's cuts and extended editions /j

If you would like to contribute to the project, check out our discord <3 This link will never expire, share it with anyone and everyone. We're always recruiting, and if you think "oh man, I'd love to help but I don't think I have anything to contribute" you're probably wrong. Here's a list of roles we have at the moment, note the "misc." category :)

UPDATE: here are the roles for actors, here is our casting call post

UPDATE 2: here is our Patreon :D

Things to expect:

updates about the project

content and promotional materials, as they become ready

various forms of gonchposting for fun, including reblogs

possibly other gonch-related things

Is Goncharov a real movie?

Why the fuck is no one talking about the symbolism of jewelry in Katya's relationships?!?!?

Like, Katya is a woman who takes pride in her appearance which obviously becomes a reflection of her mental state, and by extension the state of her relationships with Goncharov and Sofia, throughout the film. In the beginning of the film, Katya is wearing diamonds and pearls (both of which form from adverse circumstances), which reflects her elegance and sophistication as Donna Goncharova but it's also a subtle way to show the cracks in her marriage. Goncharov uses expensive jewelry as a way of avoiding hard conversations about their issues, always finding a way to bring up how much each piece costs as a way of trying to cut off Katya's frustrations, and the snide way he jokes about it during the cocktail scene is telling of how fragile their relationship has become, especially when the film juxtaposes the elaborate diamond and pearl necklace he gives her right before the infamous carnival scene with the simple pearl earrings that she tells us were a gift from their first anniversary.

In contrast, you have the sea glass bracelet that Sofia buys for her in the marketplace. It is, in Valery's words, a "cheap trinket" but Sofia picked it out for her because it matches her eyes!!! To Sofia, the bracelet is a token of affection but to Katya it is so much more because for the first time in years, someone gave her a gift because they wanted to make her happy, not show off how much money they spend on her! And we as the audience can clearly see how much she cherishes that bracelet, the way she leaves her expensive jewelry all over her vanity, not caring even when she loses the new diamond earrings that Goncharov just bought while carefully tucking the bracelet into its own jewelry case whenever she isn't wearing it.

And the way that the film contrasts how Goncharov and Sofia give her the jewelry; Goncharov is careless when giving her the new jewelry cases, tossing them around, barely even looking at Katya when he gives her a "present" because the gifts are obligations now, much like their relationship has become for the both of them, a part they play with each other, a hollow echo of past love. While Sofia doesn't just look at her when giving her the bracelet, she fastens it on Katya's wrist herself and tells her how beautiful it looks on her. She sees Katya, the good, the bad, and the damaged, and reminds her that like sea glass, her broken parts don't have to keep hurting her, that it's okay to let time soften the sharp edges of her grief.

Like it still technically makes sense because everyone obviously knows mortality is a thing, but it doesn't have room to breathe. You lose the nebulous, ever-building sense of dread from the actual ticking of the clocks, and the tension rising as the audience knows it's all going somewhere, and yet much like the characters overlook the obvious answer that the "somewhere" is just death, until oh yeah. That's where it was going, and sooner or later that's where we're all going.

It also makes the few times they keep the clocks in just kind of random.

Toastystats: Happy anniversary, Goncharov fandom!

In honor of two years since Tumblr went nuts over Goncharov, I've archived my original stats and analyses (including discussion/stats about the prevalence of femslash in the fandom), and I've done some follow up analyses.

That was her mother's dress. It was her mother's, and she had to pawn it off to buy a train ticket, and then as soon as she did she regretted everything. Every time we see her she's trying to get that dress back.

And then when she finally does, and she's ready to leave Naples behind and be with her love in the countryside... that gunshot was easily the most chilling in the film, bested only by the red blooming across the dress box before she fell down.

Reason: