One last thing about Goncharov and then I’ll shut up but I can’t stop thinking about Katya & Andrei’s dance. I think people overlook the dialogue a bit because it’s admittedly very clunky at times (or maybe it’s a deleted scene?? Idk it felt Long but I still loved it) BUT these lines:
Andrei: You know he is my partner-
Katya, sharply: As he is mine.
Andrei: Loving him is a freedom.
Katya: Loving him is a prison.
Andrei, with an uncertain hopefulness: Caged birds can still sing a beautiful tune.
Katya, resigned: But they still aren’t allowed to fly.
These lines are WONDERFUL. Their back and forth during this conversation is almost like a dance itself. Where Andrei takes a step, Katya swiftly and effortlessly take another. Their conversation is a performance just as much as their dance is - Andrei can say that Goncharov is his partner, and he is, but not in the way Andrei wants to say it. Katya is quick to say she’s Goncharov’s partner, because she knows what Andrei is actually saying. And it feels almost like a misstep in their dance, but as they talk more about him we see their shared love and how much they get both joy and pain from this love.
Andrei can never say how he truly loves Goncharov, he can only ever sidestep it and speak in veiled sentences. But it’s still a freedom for him, it’s the truest love he’s ever felt and he has it, and that’s enough for him, for now. Katya does love Goncharov, she does, but she’s so stuck between her so-called duty as a wife and what she wants. And in a perfect world, they could explore all these feelings outright (because they acknowledged SO much of it - these so called missteps were quickly righted and they acknowledged each other’s feelings and validated if). But they’re trapped in a society where they’re a queer man and a (queer) woman in love with the same man.
And with that last moment, with their analogy about the birds. They know they’re stuck, but Andrei wants so desperately to believe that it’s still beautiful while Katya knows she’s still trapped. They both have that very real love but Andrei’s love is an escape from the pressures of their society while Katya’s is yet another reminder of their expectations, but they so deftly acknowledge it in that scene. It’s ironic, really, that by the end of the movie we see that Katya is the one who breaks the cycle while Andrei continues on with the violence, despite their initial view on their future. It’s tragic and beautiful all at the same time, but that conversation really gets to me. It’s like a final, real acknowledgment before everything goes to hell in the final act and it’s just SO expertly done!
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