Call Me by Your Name (2017)
In Northern Italy in 1983, seventeen year-old Elio
begins a relationship with visiting Oliver, his father's research
assistant, with whom he bonds over his emerging sexuality, their Jewish
heritage, and the beguiling Italian landscape.
Director:
Luca GuadagninoStars:
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and
transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André
Aciman. It's the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman
(Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy,
spends his days in his family's 17th century villa transcribing and
playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia
(Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father
(Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman
culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor
him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with
natural delights. While Elio's sophistication and intellectual gifts
suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet
remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of
the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar
working on his ... Written by
Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date:
24 November 2017 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Chiamami col tuo nome See more »Box Office
Budget:
€4,000,000 (estimated)
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Color:
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1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?
Trivia
Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet did not have to do a chemistry test for this film. Director Luca Guadagnino does not make chemistry test for his films and thought the two actors were going to be cool between one another. See more »Soundtracks
Lady, Lady
Written by Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey
Performed by Giorgio Moroder featuring Joe Esposito
Written by Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey
Performed by Giorgio Moroder featuring Joe Esposito
Never has this been more true than in “Call Me By
Your Name,” a lush and vibrant masterpiece about first love set amid the
warm, sunny skies, gentle breezes and charming, tree-lined roads of
northern Italy. Guadagnino takes his time establishing this place and
the players within it. He’s patient in his pacing, and you must be, as
well. But really, what’s the rush? It’s the summer of 1983, and there’s
nothing to do but read, play piano, ponder classic art and pluck peaches
and apricots from the abundant fruit trees.
Within this garden of sensual delights, an unexpected yet
life-changing romance blossoms between two young men who initially seem
completely different on the surface.
17-year-old Elio (Timothee Chalamet) is once again visiting his family’s summer home with his parents: his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an esteemed professor of Greco-Roman culture, and his mother (Amira Casar),
a translator and gracious hostess. Elio has the gangly body of a boy
but with an intellect and a quick wit beyond his years, and the
worldliness his parents have fostered within him at least allows him to
affect the façade of sophistication. But beneath the bravado, a gawky
and self-conscious kid sometimes still emerges. By the end of the
summer, that kid will be vanquished forever.
An American doctoral student named Oliver (Armie Hammer)
arrives for the annual internship Elio’s father offers. Oliver is
everything Elio isn’t—or at least, that’s our primary perception of him.
Tall, gorgeous and supremely confident, he is the archetypal
all-American hunk. But as polite as he often can be, Oliver can also
breeze out of a room with a glib, “Later,” making him even more of a
tantalizing mystery.
Chalamet and Hammer have just ridiculous
chemistry from the get-go, even though (or perhaps because) their
characters are initially prickly toward each other: testing, pushing,
feeling each other out, yet constantly worrying about what the other
person thinks. They flirt by trying to one-up each other with knowledge
of literature or classical music, but long before they ever have any
physical contact, their electric connection is unmistakable. Lazy
poolside chats are fraught with tension; spontaneous bike rides into
town to run errands feel like nervous first dates.
Writer James Ivory’s
generous, sensitive adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel reveals these
characters and their ever-evolving dynamic in beautifully steady yet
detailed fashion. And so when Elio and Oliver finally dare to reveal
their true feelings for each other—a full hour into the film—the moment
makes you hold your breath with its intimate power, and the emotions
feel completely authentic and earned.
The way Elio and Oliver
peel away each other’s layers has both a sweetness and a giddy thrill to
it, even though they feel they must keep their romance a secret from
Elio’s parents. (Elio also has a kinda-sorta girlfriend in Marzia [Esther Garrel],
a thoughtful, playful French teen who’s also in town for the summer.)
One of the many impressive elements of Chalamet’s beautiful, complex
performance is the effortless way he transitions between speaking in
English, Italian and French, depending on whom Elio is with at the time.
It gives him an air of maturity that’s otherwise still in development;
eventually his massive character arc feels satisfying and true.
But Oliver’s evolution is just as crucial, and Hammer finds the
tricky balance between the character’s swagger and his vulnerability as
he gives himself over to this exciting affair. He’s flirty but
tender—the couple’s love scenes are heartbreaking and intensely erotic
all at once—and even though he’s the more experienced of the two, he
can’t help but diving in headlong.
And yet, the most resonant
part of “Call Me By Your Name” may not even be the romance itself, but
rather the lingering sensation that it can’t last, which Guadagnino
evokes through long takes and expert use of silence. A feeling of
melancholy tinges everything, from the choice of a particular shirt to
the taste of a perfectly ripe peach. And oh my, that peach
scene—Guadagnino was wise when he took a chance and left it in from the
novel. It really works, and it’s perhaps the ultimate example of how
masterfully the director manipulates and enlivens all of our senses.
There’s
a lushness to the visual beauty of this place, but it’s not so perfect
as to be off-putting. Quite the opposite. Despite the director’s
infamous eye for meticulous detail, cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s
35mm images provide a tactile quality that heightens the sensations,
makes them feel almost primal. We see the wind gently rustling through
the trees, or streaks of sunlight hitting Elio’s dark curls through an
open bedroom window, and while it’s all subtly sensual, an inescapable
tension is building underneath.
Guadagnino establishes that raw,
immediate energy from the very beginning through his use of music. The
piano of contemporary classical composer John Adams’ intricate,
insistent “Hallelujah Junction – 1st Movement” engages us
during the elegant title sequence, while Sufjan Stevens’ plaintive,
synthy “Visions of Gideon” during the film’s devastating final shot ends
the film on an agonizingly sad note. (You’ll want to stay all the way
through the closing credits—that long, last image is so transfixing. I
seriously don’t know how Chalamet pulled it off, but there is serious
craft on display here.)
In between is Guadagnino’s inspired use of the Psychedelic Furs’
“Love My Way,” an iconic ’80s New Wave tune you’ve probably heard a
million times before but will never hear the same way again. The first
time he plays it, it’s at an outdoor disco where Oliver feels so moved
by the bouncy, percussive beat that he can’t help but jump around to it
and get lost in the music, lacking all sense of self-consciousness.
Watching this towering figure just go for it on the dance floor in his
Converse high-tops is a moment of pure joy, but it’s also as if a dam
has broken within Elio, being so close to someone who’s feeling so free.
The second time he plays it, toward the end of Oliver and Elio’s
journey, it feels like the soundtrack to a time capsule as it recaptures
a moment of seemingly endless emotional possibility.
They know
what they’ve found has to end—we know it has to end. But a beautiful
monologue from the always excellent Stuhlbarg as Elio’s warmhearted and
open-minded father softens the blow somewhat. It’s a perfectly
calibrated scene in a film full of them, and it’s one of a million reasons why “Call Me By Your Name” is far and away the best movie of the year.
FINAL RATING: 9/10 FOR THE GENRE AND ALSO VERY GOOD 8/10 OVERALL. Strong sexual content, adult themes in gay romance. But it works.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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