She's got a body like an hourglass That's ticking like a clock
Y'all are absolutely sleeping on a major part of Katya's arc.
Obviously we all love the queer subtext and shipping Katya and Sofia, but like. I'm honestly pretty tired of all analysis of media just boiling down to ships and romance. Katya is a really interesting character as-is, and it's worth exploring.
I've seen posts on here (this one by @notcaycepollard is really good) exploring the themes of food and eating in the film. And like yes absolutely. To quote that specific post (bold emphasis mine):
the rigid enforcement of domesticity as represented by the meals goncharov conspicuously fails to eat with katya [...] to me I think it speaks just as much about how trapped katya is by social expectations too. she tries so hard to perform the role of the good wife, polishing the fucking silverware and making blini [...] by the end of the film these conflicts are resolved with goncharov and katya at the table on the street, finally eating together but in a way thatās not constrained by the trappings of domesticity or the expectation of remaining true to your roots, katya is finally seen by goncharov as a whole person with her own internal life and heās able to break bread with her, that final shot of them drinking wine with the church behind them, itās just, the catholicism in this film is a lot okay
And this is an excellent analysis of these scenes, I totally agree with this take. BUT I think it leaves off a really important element. These scenes, Katya's struggle with performing domesticity with Goncharov, or arguably his failure to hold up his end of the marriage, are a direct metaphor for their inability to have children.
Throughout the film everyone's running out of time, the clock symbolism throughout, and then the scene where the men are assembling their weapons intercut with Katya getting dressed and putting on makeup ā because her body is her weapon, and instead of her life being what is at risk of ending, for Katya it is her biological clock that is ticking. Her figure gets literally compared to an hour glass by Mario, and visually that metaphor is implied a couple of times as well.
Yeah I know it's a kind of misogynistic trope nowadays but this movie is from the 70's and was honestly kind of groundbreaking at the time (but it's for sure written and directed by men so like). I absolutely 100% believe that Goncharov and Katya as a couple cannot have children.
It's really conspicuous when you start looking for it. Obviously all the times Katya tries to make her husband food, always always traditional russial food, she's so clearly trying to cling to a traditional family life when it absolutely is crumbling in front of her. And idk if she's literally infertile or if Goncharov just won't sleep with her or what, that's a whole other discussion tbh, but I think Katya wants, or believes she should want, to have children. When her brother Valery pops up he makes these comments about their house being quiet, immediately followed up by talking about his own wife being pregnant again ā very clearly implying like "why don't you have kids??". And once you look at the cinematography with this perspective in mind you can really see how shots of Katya and Goncharov are framed in these like kind of wide shots that really would make a lot more sense if there were kids in the shot, and like. Her walking past the playschool? The bit at the market where we see the mother and daughter, and then pan to Katya all by herself? Come on.
Which brings me to Sofia's character. And yes again we all love to read this relationship as sapphic af and this theory isn't necessarily incompatible with that? But basically fundamentally Sofia is written as a parallell to Katya. Really well portrayed in this image by @mimiadraws:
And a HUGE aspect of that is the fact that Sofia has children and Katya does not. Sofia's effortlessness when it comes to the gelato and the anchovies compared with Katya's struggles with food throughout the film really underscore the food as a parallel to motherhood to me. Katya sees in Sofia something that she does not believe she can ever have: this figure of the effortless woman, doing what she believes a woman is supposed to be doing: having children, making food, having a "normal" domestic life. Interestingly we never actually see inside of Sofia's own home, and we barely meet her children. But Katya still projects this perfect version of herself onto Sofia. (Which like I honestly think makes the sapphic reading more interesting? Who among us has not struggled to recognize wether we wanted to be her or be with her?)
And then you have Katya and Goncharov's final scene together, finally effortlestly eating together at the market. They have both finally embraced Naples and left their old life behind, and only then can they fulfill this element of their relationship...
Anyway Katya is pregnant when the movie ends. Change my mind. (You can't.)
