Why the Internet Invented a Fake Martin Scorsese Film Called 'Goncharov' (theguardian.com) 34
"People just seem to really enjoy coming together to pretend fake things are real," writes the Guardian.
"Thousands of Tumblr users have been making posters, soundtracks, drawings and fan fiction for a 1973 Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro — but it never existed." Released in 1973, the little-seen Scorsese flick starred Robert De Niro as Goncharov, "a former discotheque owner who comes to Naples after the fall of the Soviet Union" with the goal 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 as Mario Ambrosini and Cybill Shepherd plays Goncharov's wife, Katya. Apparently, it was really good and was added to the Criterion Collection.
And you've never heard of it because it doesn't actually exist....
A few years ago, a Tumblr user posted a photo of some "knockoff boots" they had ordered online that had a very strange tag on the tongue: "The greatest mafia movie ever made. Martin Scorsese presents GONCHAROV. Domenico Proccacci production. A film by Matteo JWHJ0715. About the Naples Mafia." This mostly went ignored until 2020, when another Tumblr user reblogged a comment made on the original post, reading: "this idiot hasn't seen goncharov...."
The internet works in mysterious ways; earlier this month, Tumblr user beelzeebub made a fake poster for the film, tens of thousands of people were suddenly sharing it and lo: a new Scorsese film was born... [L]ike all of the best jokes, people have really committed to the bit. There's the film's poster, which has the tagline "greatest mafia movie (n)ever made". A music teacher in Indiana composed a theme song for Goncharov, inspired by The Godfather. There is also a cash-in video game, with an accompanying soundtrack, and a fake VHS.
"Academics" wrote essays analysing the film, which were published in (fake) film journals. A representative for the movie reviewing platform Letterboxd even told the New York Times that they had had to remove multiple reviews for the film that had been submitted by users.
"Thousands of Tumblr users have been making posters, soundtracks, drawings and fan fiction for a 1973 Scorsese film starring Robert De Niro — but it never existed." Released in 1973, the little-seen Scorsese flick starred Robert De Niro as Goncharov, "a former discotheque owner who comes to Naples after the fall of the Soviet Union" with the goal 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 as Mario Ambrosini and Cybill Shepherd plays Goncharov's wife, Katya. Apparently, it was really good and was added to the Criterion Collection.
And you've never heard of it because it doesn't actually exist....
A few years ago, a Tumblr user posted a photo of some "knockoff boots" they had ordered online that had a very strange tag on the tongue: "The greatest mafia movie ever made. Martin Scorsese presents GONCHAROV. Domenico Proccacci production. A film by Matteo JWHJ0715. About the Naples Mafia." This mostly went ignored until 2020, when another Tumblr user reblogged a comment made on the original post, reading: "this idiot hasn't seen goncharov...."
The internet works in mysterious ways; earlier this month, Tumblr user beelzeebub made a fake poster for the film, tens of thousands of people were suddenly sharing it and lo: a new Scorsese film was born... [L]ike all of the best jokes, people have really committed to the bit. There's the film's poster, which has the tagline "greatest mafia movie (n)ever made". A music teacher in Indiana composed a theme song for Goncharov, inspired by The Godfather. There is also a cash-in video game, with an accompanying soundtrack, and a fake VHS.
"Academics" wrote essays analysing the film, which were published in (fake) film journals. A representative for the movie reviewing platform Letterboxd even told the New York Times that they had had to remove multiple reviews for the film that had been submitted by users.
Keep it up (Score:3)
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Well, if they do, I made sure it already has a TMDB entry with a poster and backdrop so it displays nicely in your Kodi / Plex.
Now somebody add a "Announced" IMDB page for it.
Not the First Fake Film (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not the First Fake Film (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone else old enough to remember when people pretended there were sequels to The Matrix?
Oh man... thank goodness that never really happened! They probably would've been terrible.
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By comparison the fourth Matrix makes two and three that much better.
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I read a script that was pretty good. Obviously never got turned into a movie.
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The first Matrix hit when I was in high school. It was mind blowing. After seeing it in theaters multiple times, my dad bought a large (for the time) TV, a DVD player, and an AV system for Christmas. The first (only) DVD we had was the Matrix. I still remember watching the scene with "Spybreak" and the subwoofer going nuts.
So yeah, I loved the Matrix.
Smartest thing I ever did was never watch 2+3. Still haven't seen them to this day. I added 4 to the "never watch" list as well.
My "never watch" list has actua
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I never watched them either, but one afternoon of channel surfing, 2 was on the TV, so I let it play. IIRC, it was doing okay until right at the end when they did a massive ass-pull that made no sense, and I don't even remember any details. So I just say they tried to make a second movie but gave up.
Thanks to bulk thrift stores, I did end up with copies of 2 and 3 on DVD, which I actively don't watch, along with Star Wars 1-3, and the Star Trek "reboot" movies. As for STD, I only watched the first episode
Re:Not the First Fake Film (Score:5, Funny)
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Anyone else old enough to remember when people pretended there were sequels to The Matrix?
There was also a bunch of memes about there being a bunch of terrible Terminator movies after Terminator 2, they actually did release a not-horrible 3rd movie in 2019 but obviously chose to ignore the fictitious sequels [wikipedia.org].
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Re: Not the First Fake Film (Score:2)
There actually is a sequel [imdb.com] to The Matrix, but it is not live action.
Needs a little something (Score:2)
Why? (Score:2)
'Cause it's the Internet -- and people with way too free time simply can.
Creators are better than Deniers (Score:2)
Don't jump on the next bandwagon of "Birds Aren't Real" or "Helen Keller is a Fraud". It's too easy and passive to be a faux denier.
It's much more creative and joyful to generate something from nothing, even if you only added a little bit.
It's 21st Centuray "Stone Soup"
What are they talking about? (Score:2)
If it's on the internet it must be true.
They should ask Scorsese to direct part 2... (Score:2)
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Hey why not make it real? (Score:1)
time travelling mafioso? (Score:3)
Released in 1973... comes to Naples after the fall of the Soviet Union".
So it was released in 1973, and, somewhat prophetically, set in or after 1989.
when does amazon announce the gritty reboot? (Score:2)
or maybe "Goncharov, the animated series"
I heard GPT4 and Stable Diffusion actually are goi (Score:2)
Blew my mind (Score:2)
Counting down to the remake ... (Score:2)
Wait, have they already been casting it? I can't wait to read which directors have signaled an interest in helming it.
Internet, don't let me down!
XXX parody out yet? (Score:2)
Getheroff?