Origin and release year: Italy, United States (2017)
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois, Amira Casar
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Screenwriter: James Ivory
Genre: Coming-of-Age, Romantic Drama
Synopsis: In the summer of 1983, a precocious 17-year-old Elio Perlman is spending the days with his family at their 17th-century villa in Lombardy, Italy. He soon meets Oliver, a handsome doctorala student who’s working as an intern for Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of their surroundings, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
This film made an intense use of realism. That’s the first thing that I noticed. It kind of dates back to Italian neorealistic films and highlights the telling of a story through pure cinema and happening; as opposed to a heavily imposed narrative that forces things to happen at certain plot points.
I did feel at some point like, “Oh great, another story about a teen who falls in love with someone that their not supposed to,” but I could actually see about halfway through the film, why it is so critically acclaimed.
It shows an unorthodox side to mainstream society through a relationship that develops without us even knowing.
It literally drags us through their story and as Chris Stuckman commented in his review, he even wondered if the flies present on the screen were intentional to highlight the location. I recall asking myself the same question when I watched it. Stuckman comes up with some deep philosophical justification, the flies are around spaces for a short time and thus represent fleeting time. I agree and it totally makes sense but I saw the flies as (obviously around because of geographical reasons) as a director’s decision to leave things unpolished, kinda like the end of Oliver and Elliot’s relationship, mostly as homage to neorealism.
Although, granted that it was neorealistic, I felt bored. I won’t elaborate (for reasons) but it dragged on a bit and overall I would say that the film was good. The chemistry between the two characters was convincing and I totally took the side of the intended protagonist in the end.
Another slightly disappointing note, It was an LGBTQI+ film that still represented a lot of its female characters as weak, particularly doting on Chalamat’s character. Selectively inclusive and odd.
Not a bad watch, but something I’d only watch again if nothing else was on.
What did you think of Call Me By Your Name? Let us know in the comments.