Goncharov: why has the internet invented a fake Martin Scorsese film? - The Guardian

Sian, I’m seeing a batch of speech astir a Martin Scorsese movie called Goncharov. But I’ve ne'er heard of a Martin Scorsese movie called Goncharov. What’s going on?

Ah yes, there’s been a batch of speech connected Tumblr astir the top mafia movie ever made.

Released successful 1973, the little-seen Scorsese flick starred Robert De Niro arsenic Goncharov, “a erstwhile discotheque proprietor who comes to Naples aft the autumn of the Soviet Union” with the extremity of becoming a mob boss. Harvey Keitel plays the eye-patched Andrey (or Andrei) “The Banker” Daddano; Gene Hackman plays Valery Michailov; Al Pacino appears arsenic Mario Ambrosini and Cybill Shepherd plays Goncharov’s wife, Katya. Apparently, it was truly bully and was added to the Criterion Collection.

And you’ve ne'er heard of it due to the fact that it doesn’t really exist.

What.

So a fewer years ago, a Tumblr idiosyncratic posted a photo of immoderate “knockoff boots” they had ordered online that had a precise unusual tag connected the tongue: “The top mafia movie ever made. Martin Scorsese presents GONCHAROV. Domenico Proccacci production. A movie by Matteo JWHJ0715. About the Naples Mafia.”

This mostly went ignored until 2020, erstwhile different Tumblr idiosyncratic reblogged a remark made connected the archetypal post, reading: “this idiot hasn’t seen goncharov.” Like the bully lord himself and the Guardian’s java machine, the net works successful mysterious ways; earlier this month, Tumblr idiosyncratic beelzeebub made a fake poster for the film, tens of thousands of radical were abruptly sharing it and lo: a caller Scorsese movie was born.

So Tumblr conscionable made it up?

Yep! And similar each of the champion jokes, radical person truly committed to the bit. There’s the film’s poster, which has the tagline “greatest mafia movie (n)ever made”. A euphony teacher successful Indiana composed a taxable song for Goncharov, inspired by The Godfather. There is besides a cash-in video game, with an accompanying soundtrack, and a fake VHS. “Academics” wrote essays analysing the film, which were published successful (fake) movie journals. A typical for the movie reviewing level Letterboxd adjacent told the New York Times that they had had to region aggregate reviews for the movie that had been submitted by users.

People person created temper boards, utilized scenes from different films to make Goncharov gifs and drawn fanart of the champion scenes (apparently determination is 1 involving a boat) and their favourite “ships”, oregon romanticist pairings. This being Tumblr, a batch of the fanart is precise queer; seemingly Goncharov and Keitel’s quality Andrei person a batch of intersexual tension. And somehow, successful the abstraction of a mates weeks, determination are already more than 500 Goncharov fanfics posted connected the fanfiction website Archive of Our Own.

Has Scorsese got thing to accidental astir this?

Not yet – it is hard to ideate Scorsese knows what Tumblr oregon shipping is, but I consciousness helium could bask the enthusiasm astir it all.

But Wonder Woman and all-time hottie Lynda Carter did post 2 black-and-white photos of herself and Henry Winkler captioned, “Me and ‘The Fonz’ astatine premiere of Goncharov (1973) astatine Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.” The representation is really from the 1977 Golden Globe awards.

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Even Tumblr itself has joined in, tweeting: “Goncharov was inexplicably up of it [sic] clip and it’s publication to cinema is remarkable. Rarely does a movie archer arsenic galore diverse-yet-interconnected stories. Hard to ideate truthful fewer ppl person seen it.”

This week, Goncharov has been the No 1 trending taxable connected the platform. Scorsese was second.

I conjecture the past question to reply is … why?

Like Ratatouille: The Musical (a fake philharmonic based connected the movie that eventually was really made, aft radical began gathering connected a azygous opus posted connected TikTok) and Demi Lovato’s twin sister, Poot Lovato (just a atrocious photograph of the singer), radical conscionable look to truly bask coming unneurotic to unreal fake things are real. While that impulse tin pb to, er, sinister things that look to beryllium successful the quality each time now, it besides leads to sheer silliness – which, to my mind, should beryllium capable of a crushed to bash anything.

But someway on the way, Goncharov has go rather meaningful: implicit strangers, from each astir the world, forming a assemblage to archer a communicative and flex their originative muscles – simply for the joyousness of the joke.