Maybe this is a stupid question and I did not notice something important but I dont understand why Katya is so frightened to have smoked fish when they eat lunch at Rudy and his mother's place. Did you guys get it?
shareI think she wasn's sure of how to eat it, with which fork etc and didn't want to appear as if she lacked the manners
shareExactly. Do you know with which fork and which knife you suppose to eat fish? chicken? etc...
shareAre you sure that was it?
I thought it was her realization that the family was trying so very hard to impress her that she was overcome by the guilt of fooling them all... especially in light of the strong feelings she was starting to feel for him.
I think that could have been part of it but remember that when she freaks out, it's right after Rudy's mother has gotten through talking about how Rudy's brother has no manners and doesn't even know which knife he's supposed to use for fish. Since she doesn't know which knife is the fish knife, she avoids the whole potentially embarrassing situation (which would also be telling of her upbringing) by lying and pretending that she is allergic to fish. After all, she wouldn't want Rudy's mother thinking that she is as ill mannered and stupid as Rudy's brother.
shareabsolutely
shareThat's the reason why. She pretended she was high society, which she was not.
This is why the little one was coached on how to eat the foot with a fish knife, they wanted to show her manners which they did not have either.
He dumped her and refused to help her with the child (let alone marry her) when they discovered she was just as lower class as they were.
That is what I liked in this movie. Communism is supposed to ban classes and ranks in society, but it obviously failed.
The movie shows that indeed classes still existed in the Soviet era.
It is very enlightening.
You're absolutely right about the reasons for Katerina's behaviour at lunch.
And classes indeed existed! Although, the distinction was not as obvious as it is now, and the number of people having a "standard" lifestyle was a lot higher than it is now.