He’s so real for this: Martin Scorsese has officially acknowledged the greatest mafia movie (n)ever made. For the past week, his 1973 movie Goncharov has enjoyed an unmatched resurgence of popularity on Tumblr. The film is fake, but fans have not let that stop them from creating fan fiction and fan art about it, cosplaying as the characters, making posters, analyzing the symbolism in their favorite scenes, and even composing music for the soundtrack. Lynda Carter has claimed that she attended the premiere with Henry Winkler. The internet’s new favorite meme made it to Scorsese’s daughter, Francesca, who posted a screenshot on TikTok of a text where she sends her “Daddio†a link to a New York Times piece about the fake Scorsese movie. “Did u see this?†she asks. “Yes. I made that film years ago,†he confirms.
All of this can be traced back to a tag on a knockoff shoe that claims that Goncharov — presented by Scorsese and directed by “Matteo JWHJ0715†— is the greatest mafia film of all time. A Tumblr user posted a photo of the tag several years ago, questioning why a nonexistent movie was there instead of a brand name. But the Goncharov fandom wasn’t truly born until 2020, when another user chimed in to respond, “this idiot hasn’t seen goncharov.†Forget the fact that this was probably a misprint about the 2008 film Gomorrah (which was indeed about the Naples mafia and was also endorsed by Scorsese). Suddenly, everyone was an expert on Goncharov. Apparently, the movie stars Robert De Niro as the titular hit man and Cybill Shepherd as his wife, Katya. Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and Harvey Keitel round out the cast of the story that involves murder, a grandfather clock, and homoerotic subtext. And even director Matteo JWHJ0715 has his own backstory: Italian mother, license-plate father. We wish Francesca would ask Daddio to confirm that.