Armie Hammer & Timothée Chalamet find love in Call Me By Your Name (2017)

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

It’s truly hard to put into words what a revelation Timothée Chalamet is as Elio. The 21-year-old actor is naturally charismatic, but how he communicates Elio’s emotions throughout the picture is simply breathtaking. Even when he’s depicting Elio’s inevitable moments of teenage angst there it’s never false or mannered. He’s a rock of naturalism on Luca Guadagnino’s gorgeous canvas.

Armie Hammer, on the other hand, simply gives the performance of his career.

....Guadagnino’s achievement is a historic landmark for gay male characters in a film of this caliber. Outside of a few short moments in Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s “Maurice,” and Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the love and intimacy between two male characters has never truly felt this real or emotionally heartbreaking in a theatrical context. It’s almost revolutionary. It’s cinematic art and it will want you to feel as loved as Elio and Oliver feel, even if it’s fleeting. [A]






http://theplaylist.net/armie-hammer-timothee-chalamet-find-love-luca-guadagninos-transcendent-call-name-sundance-review-20170123/


Sundance 2017 Review
Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet
Find Love in Luca Guadagnino's Transcendent
Call Me by Your Name

by Gregory Ellwood
January 23, 2017 8:07 am


Audiences would never believe it, of course, without the incredible performances of both leading men.
Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name



PARK CITY -- Ever since Oliver arrived at the summer residence of Elio Perlman’s parents in the Italian countryside, the 17-year-old has had something of a crush on the doctorate student seven years his senior. It’s 1983 and Oliver (Armie Hammer) has traveled to Europe for a six-week retreat to work with Elio’s father (Michael Struhlbarg), an esteemed professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture. Elio (Timothée Chalamet) misinterprets Oliver’s own initial courting, but his frustrated heart finally forces him to bravely reveal his feelings. This scene is one of the truly brilliant moments in Luca Guadagnino’s “Call Me By Your Name” which had its world premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival on Sunday night.

Guadagnino and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom chronicle the conversation in one extended shot that begins with Oliver and Elio on a bike trip to the local town square. Disembarking their bikes, they circle a war statue with Oliver walking around the farther side and Elio on the one closest to the camera’s eye. It’s framed so when Elio reveals he has been wanting to talk to Oliver about something the barrier around the monument forces Oliver to move further from away from Elio almost teasing the audience that he’ll reject his advances. After a heart-stopping beat he comes around the other side happily telegraphing that the feeling is mutual. The interaction becomes flirtatious when Elio takes a cigarette from Oliver and Guadagnino purposely keeps the camera distant enough so you see the attraction in their body movements and not their faces. Simply, Elio has fallen in love with Oliver and Guadagnino is going to make you fall in love along with him.

We quickly learn Elio is very lucky. He’s the son of an American father and an Italian mother (Amira Casar) who are both incredibly liberal for the time and may realize their son’s infatuation with Oliver before he wants to admit it (a significant departure from the 2007 book by André Aciman on which the film is based). He also cannot keep holding back his sexual desires waiting for Oliver to requite his love. While he pines over Oliver, writing in his notebook that he should have said one thing or another during their multitude of daily interactions, he begins a sexual relationship with Marzia (Esther Garrel), a local girl who warns him beforehand she doesn’t want to get hurt. That’s destined to happen from the moment the words come out of her mouth. While they hook up Elio keeps looking at his watch not wanting to be late for his secret rendezvous with Oliver later that night.

As he’s shown in his the last two films of what he describes as his “desire trilogy,” “I Am Love” and “A Bigger Splash,” Guadagnino is a sensual filmmaker who uses cinematic flourishes to let the narrative unfold at a pace he feels best suits the overall story (those flourishes are assisted by two new original songs by Sufjan Stevens). Guadagnino almost hypnotically lets the audience experience the dance of desire between Elio and Oliver in a masterful manner. When they are together he captures their affection in startling real ways. Guadagnino makes it explicit that their intimacy is more about love than animalistic release. No matter what your personal sexual orientation Guadagnino manages to find those intimate moments whether through a secretive touch, a fumbling first kiss, the stillness before the first move is made, or the eroticism of breaking the physical boundaries that form between all of us. It’s utterly beautiful.

Audiences would never believe it, of course, without the incredible performances of both leading men.

It’s truly hard to put into words what a revelation Chalamet is as Elio. The 21-year-old actor is naturally charismatic, but how he communicates Elio’s emotions throughout the picture is simply breathtaking. Even when he’s depicting Elio’s inevitable moments of teenage angst there it’s never false or mannered. He’s a rock of naturalism on Guadagnino’s gorgeous canvas.

Hammer, on the other hand, simply gives the performance of his career.  On the surface Oliver is overly confident, but Hammer gives him depth that is hard to imagine was dictated in the script. After their first night together, a quiet Elio seems to have grown emotionally cold as many who are still uncomfortable with intimacy can react. The look of pained concern on Hammer’s face communicates everything going on in Oliver’s mind without a single word being said. And as much as the film is from Elio’s perspective, Hammer surprisingly makes you root for Oliver’s happiness too.

While there have been some changes in the adaptation from the novel, Guadagnino and co-screenwriters James Ivory and [film editor] Walter Fasano keep the story intact up too a point. Unlike the book, the movie does not tell these characters stories over a 20-year span. It also changes the parents’ reaction to the affair that leads to a touching but perhaps slightly overlong scene of fatherly love and unsolicited life advice.

That slight quibble aside, Guadagnino’s achievement is a historic landmark for gay male characters in a film of this caliber. Outside of a few short moments in Ismail Merchant and James Ivory’s “Maurice,” and Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain,” the love and intimacy between two male characters has never truly felt this real or emotionally heartbreaking in a theatrical context. It’s almost revolutionary. It’s cinematic art and it will want you to feel as loved as Elio and Oliver feel, even if it’s fleeting. [A]


“Call Me By Your Name” was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics before the festival and should hit theaters sometime this year.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

During a Q&A after the screening Luca Guadagnino revealed that Sufjan Stevens surprised him by submitting three songs for the movie and that they listened to them on the set. He also note that “Call Me By Your Name” was the fasted film he’d ever edited. His previous movies took about a year to finesse, but “Call Me” was finished a month after production wrapped (July, 2016). Armie Hammer credited the month he and Timothée Chalamet spent before filming for helping to cement their character’s strong chemistry and Chalamet was grateful to have the novel by André Aciman as a reference.











https://theplaylist.net/call-name-steals-tiff-2017-opening-night-buzz-20170908/

Call Me by Your Name
Steals TIFF 2017 Opening Night Buzz


by Gregory Ellwood
September 8, 2017 2:22 am


Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name



TORONTO -- The official opening night film for the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival was “Borg/McEnroe.” Despite a unique tennis story and the kitsch factor of Shia LaBeouf playing John McEnroe (perhaps a little too on the nose), the were hardly any buzz from Roy Thompson Hall which was filled mostly by festival sponsors.  Instead, social media and the rest of the festival was ablaze over the TIFF premiere of “Call Me By Your Name” which earned rave reviews at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival in January (you can read mine here):  http://theplaylist.net/armie-hammer-timothee-chalamet-find-love-luca-guadagninos-transcendent-call-name-sundance-review-20170123/

Sony Pictures Classics closed the lid on all North American festival screenings after Sundance.  TIFF was the first time it was shown publicly since a large number of the world’s film critics declared the adaptation of André Aciman’s 2007 novel a “masterpiece.” Director Luca Guadagnino and stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer were on hand as the film earned a standing ovation which you can watch in the video embedded in this story.

Standing ovation for #callmebyyourname at #tiff #oscars
https://theplaylist.net/call-name-steals-tiff-2017-opening-night-buzz-20170908/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYw8hJhnsny/

Granted, standing ovations can be somewhat common at TIFF, but not necessarily in the Ryerson Theater where “Call Me” had its Canadian debut. The mandatory ones are usually for the gala premieres at Roy Thompson Hall and over the years this pundit has seen a few very deserving ones (“Silver Linings Playbook”) in that venue and some absolute head scratchers (“Mandela,” “Deepwater Horizon,” etc.). This audience’s reaction, however, was genuine. One woman in my row was audibly crying at the end and there were cries of “Bravo!” when the first credits rolled (it’s worth noting Guadagnino starts to display the credits on the final shot while it’s still emotionally in progress).

http://www.gramunion.com/callmebyurnameandillcallubymine.tumblr.com/163920289941
http://www.gramunion.com/tagged/michael%20stuhlbarg

During a Q&A after the screening Guadagnino revealed that Sufjan Stevens surprised him by submitting three songs for the movie and that they listened to them on the set. He also note that “Call Me” was the fasted film he’d ever edited. His previous movies took about a year to finesse, but “Call Me” was finished a month after production wrapped (July, 2016). Hammer credited the month he and Chalamet spent before filming for helping to cement their character’s strong chemistry and Chalamet was grateful to have the novel as a reference.

It goes without saying that they hype after Sundance (and a lesser point, Berlin) hasn’t helped “Call Me” with some (cough, male, cough) media members who had to wait to see it at TIFF or a few select few private screenings over the past few weeks (again, emphasis on “some”). Why they thought this was another “Moonlight” is beyond me. They are very different films even if they feature gay subject matter.  If anything, “Call Me” is closer in tone and story to “Brokeback Mountain” and even then it’s a stretch.  So, yes, there is a slight backlash (Ahem, “Why y’all so jealous? Get your ass to Park City or accept you’re gonna see movies later than others.”), but we’re still confident a substantial number of Academy members will give the picture the Best Picture nomination votes it needs. Now will Chalamet and Guadagnino get the Best Actor and Director nominations they deserve? That’s gonna be a battle SPC may need more help with than usual.


“Call Me By Your Name” opens in limited release on Nov. 24.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet have incredible on-screen chemistry as they go back and forth from a playful big brother/little brother vibe to passionate lovers. Both should be in the awards season discussion (Luca Guadagnino as well), but it’s Hammer who really shines. The Oliver role gives him the opportunity to really show off his dramatic chops and leading man charm.











http://www.businessinsider.com/call-me-by-your-name-review-2017-9

TORONTO
INTERNATIONAL
FILM FESTIVAL
TIFF 2017 Review
Call Me by Your Name
is a moving and playful love story that showcases
Armie Hammer's star quality

by Jason Guerrasio
Sep. 8, 2017, 9:01 AM


‘A touching portrait of a summer love affair’ ... Michael Stuhlbarg, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name




TORONTO -- Following Oscar hype at its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, “Call Me by Your Name” shows up at the Toronto International Film Festival with the hopes of increasing the buzz. And after its premiere screening here Thursday night, it did just that.

From director Luca Guadagnino (“I Am Love,” “A Bigger Splash”), with a script byJames Ivory, this adaptation of the André Aciman novel is a touching portrait of a summer love affair between student Oliver (Armie Hammer) and the son of the professor that’s taken him in, Elio (Timothée Chalamet).

Guadagnino has dazzled audiences in the past with lush visuals of rural Italy that makes you want to jump on a plane and vacation there. “Call Me by Your Name” is no different, as the “somewhere in Northern Italy” setting is a character all its own in the movie with its hidden ponds, cute towns, and a rustic villa. But what’s different this time around is that with the movie’s setting of the late 1980s, Guadagnino gives us a more playful feel. Similar to “A Bigger Splash,” the movie features fun music and a lot of sexual tension, but in “Call Me By Your Name” there’s no sinister third act. The movie is about sexual discovery and the feeling of finding your first love.

The movie is fueled by Elio’s fondness for Oliver, which turns into a mutual love over the six weeks they are together. Hammer plays the Oliver character as a macho American, who shows up with a confidence that at first intimidates Elio. But by the end, Elio doesn’t want to just sleep with him, he wants to be just like him.

Hammer and Chalamet have incredible on-screen chemistry as they go back and forth from a playful big brother/little brother vibe to passionate lovers. Both should be in the awards season discussion (Guadagnino as well), but it’s Hammer who really shines. The Oliver role gives him the opportunity to really show off his dramatic chops and leading man charm.

The movie might be a little too long (running time is over two hours). By the end it gets to the point where there are about three different endings. But buried in there is a fantastic scene between Chalamet and character actor Michael Stuhlbarg, who plays his father, that is an emotional high of the movie.


“Call Me By Your Name” opens in theaters November 24.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bby76VN7HI4[/youtube]

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME  Press Conference
TIFF 2017
Director Luca Guadagnino,
Armie Hammer & Timothée Chalamet

37:03 Published on Sep 9, 2017

Actors Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet join director Luca Guadagnino at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF press conference for their movie Call Me By Your Name  which had it's world premiere at the festival.

The movie is based on the book (of the same name) by André Aciman.

Plot: It's the summer of 1983, and 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 doctoral 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.





CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Directed By:   Luca Guadagnino
Written By:    Luca Guadagnino, James Ivory, Walter Fasano
In Theaters:   Nov 24, 2017  Limited
Runtime:       130 minutes
Studio:          Sony Pictures Classics







--and now, of course, we learn:

23:24 - 25:26

--and we learn this:

26:00 - 29:24

--and this:

29:29 - 31:53
and
34:24 - 35:35

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Armie Hammer’s career has been marred by high-profile bombs, but his impossibly good looks and consistently measured delivery serves him well here as a young man already hardened by living a deception. It’s a fine performance that works well within the character’s limitations.

Elio, on the other hand, is a character of range. He seems to feel free to try on personalities to see what fits best: he has a girlfriend in one scene, and lays in bed with Oliver in the next. Timothée Chalamet evokes so many shades of humanity, portraying a path of youthful self-discovery that is more raw, unhinged, and ultimately honest than many actors could manage. Whether the affair lasts or not, what hangs in the balance is just what kind of man this bright, young boy will become, and what the world will let him be. Mr Chalamet’s multi-faceted performance is one for the ages.







https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2017/09/what-lies-beneath



TIFF 2017 Review

What lies beneath:
Call Me by Your Name
is a work of beauty
Luca Guadagnino’s new film is preoccupied with questions of image and illusion

Prospero
by N.E.G.
September 8, 2017


“If you only knew how little I know about things that matter.” “What things that matter?” Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name



TORONTO - ART and beauty are inexorable; Pablo Picasso said that art exists to embellish, polish and “[wash] away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. Luca Guadagnino is one of cinema’s most aesthetically-minded directors; his films often probe the concept of beauty and its role in human relationships. His last film, “A Bigger Splash” (2015), placed two pairs of lovers—played by four gorgeous actors—in a picturesque Mediterranean setting, and watched as their jealousies and rivalries slowly ruined the placid, pleasing surfaces. His newest, “Call Me By Your Name”, recently screened at the Toronto International Film Festival. It features a more heavenly setting, a highly sensual story and a deeper critique of the surfaces on which we focus.

Adapted from the critically acclaimed novel by André Aciman, the film tells of a summer of love for teenaged Elio (Timothée Chalamet), who has been raised in a culture of aesthetic pleasure. His father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor, studies Greek statues. A warm but distant intellectual, he gets far more excited about the discovery of an arm—a bronze one, that is—in the ocean than anything his son’s mind or body might be experiencing.

It isn’t long before Elio finds a figure of his own to get excited about. Oliver (Armie Hammer)—a young, handsome American whose skin and hair evoke the golden countryside—comes to work for the professor, staying at their home for the summer. Although Elio, like most 17-year-olds, fiercely guards his vulnerability, Oliver is simply too attractive to ignore. Confident and immovable, Oliver resembles a Greek god in human form, or perhaps Superman (Mr Hammer was once in consideration to play the Man of Steel).

Mr Guadagnino depicts their friendship, and its eventual metamorphosis into something more, slowly and carefully. At first, Elio is simply intrigued by Oliver’s voracity. He watches in fascination as Oliver drinks a glass of apricot juice in one, large gulp, and dances without self-consciousness. They start to spend more time together: first, there are shared bike trips into town, then an afternoon swim. Oliver’s initial confidence belies his reticence, and it is Elio who proves willing to take the risk in initiating a relationship. When Oliver compliments Elio on his intelligence, he replies with affected wistfulness: “If you only knew how little I know about things that matter.” Oliver slyly takes his bait: “What things that matter?”

From there, “Call Me By Your Name” chronicles the secret ecstasies and public frustrations of their romance, maintaining a steadying naturalism that fits the material. There are surprisingly few deep displays of emotion; no love that isn’t measured by pain. Ostensibly, it is the end of the summer, when Oliver will leave them, that hangs over their heads. Yet Mr Guadagnino frames things so obliquely (these characters rarely state what they are actually feeling) that we perceive their fumbling towards and away from love as an internalised oppression. They cannot be who they are: not in 1983 (when the film is set), not when one of them is 17, and not when his father is the other’s employer. This fear laces every kiss with regret.

With such exquisite tension between pain and pleasure, “Call Me By Your Name” is a paradise for skilled actors. Mr Hammer’s career has been marred by high-profile bombs (“The Lone Ranger,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”), but his impossibly good looks and consistently measured delivery serves him well here as a young man already hardened by living a deception. It’s a fine performance that works well within the character’s limitations.

Elio, on the other hand, is a character of range. He seems to feel free to try on personalities to see what fits best: he has a girlfriend in one scene, and lays in bed with Oliver in the next. Mr Chalamet evokes so many shades of humanity, portraying a path of youthful self-discovery that is more raw, unhinged, and ultimately honest than many actors could manage. Whether the affair lasts or not, what hangs in the balance is just what kind of man this bright, young boy will become, and what the world will let him be. Mr Chalamet’s multi-faceted performance is one for the ages.

“Call Me By Your Name” is, above all, interested in appearances. The cinematography itself is well crafted, with lingering shots of lithe young bodies, Italian country houses and orchards of apricots and pomegranates. Mr Guadagnino was astute to choose a story of a forbidden, closeted relationship, a “love that dare not speak its name”. It reminds us that beneath surface impressions lie hidden depths and passions.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

It must be said that Call Me by Your Name  is a triumph in every regard. Michael Stuhlbarg’s role as Elio’s father isn’t necessarily a large role in terms of screentime, but he delivers a monologue towards the end of the film that felt like it made time stop. Luca Guadagnino and James Ivory’s script is measured and tight; thoughtful and delicate. Every inch of this movie is expertly crafted, right down to the stunning final shot. It’s at once a universal story of young love and a relatable, emotional story of a homosexual awakening. In that regard it’s a tremendous love story period, but also a winning entry in the legion of queer cinema.







http://collider.com/call-me-by-your-name-review/




Sundance 2017
Call Me by Your Name
Sundance 2017 Review
Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet
Astound in Sensual Triumph

by ADAM CHITWOOD
Monday 23 January 2017


Days filled with swimming, reading, and eating fresh fruit ... Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name




In my four years attending the Sundance Film Festival, I’m not sure I’ve seen anything as purely rapturous as Call Me by Your Name.  The new feature film from I Am Love  and A Bigger Splash  filmmaker Luca Guadagnino chronicles a summer romance that blossoms between a young boy and a visitor in northern Italy, and by the film’s end it solidifies its place as one of the queer cinema greats alongside Carol, Brokeback Mountain, and Moonlight.  The film is a tremendously sensual, hypnotic coming of age/coming out tale of first love. Anchored by a phenomenal breakout performance from Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer’s best work yet, and masterful craftsmanship, Call Me by Your Name is an instant addition to the best romances of the 21st century.

Based on the book of the same name by André Aciman, the film takes place in 1983 in Northern Italy, where a 17-year-old boy named Elio is spending the summer in his family’s 17th century villa. His father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a professor of Greco-Roman culture, enlists a research assistant named Oliver (Hammer) to come and spend the summer with his family. Elio is transfixed by Oliver at first sight, but approaches the handsome American warily, keeping him at arm’s length. As the summer continues and Elio and Oliver play a game of chicken, daring one another to make the first romantic overture, the two finally give into their feelings and spark a romance that is passionate, playful, and pure.

Chalamet is nothing short of a revelation as Elio. The actor is probably best known for his work on Homeland  or for a brief role in Interstellar,  but this is one of the biggest breakthrough performances in recent memory. He imbues Elio with complicated layers—a confident exterior; a precocious charm; a fearful undercurrent. All of these shine through and more and he’s so good in the role that at first you even doubt whether he actually likes Oliver. Of course he’s simply preparing himself for rejection by throwing out the first jabs, but this results in a relationship that is at first delightfully contentious, then playfully so before turning into full on flirtation.

But as a closeted 17-year-old, Elio is still working out his feelings by losing his virginity to a local Italian girl who has the hots for him. Their relationship never comes off as phony, more as an exploration, and there’s a ticking clock plot point towards the end of the film that raises the stakes in hilariously sexy fashion.

As the relationship between Elio and Oliver becomes physical, the film really digs into this as a first love story and a coming out story. Love is universal, so the feelings between Elio and Oliver are the same feelings felt by all, but it’s nice that Guadagnino doesn’t ignore the elephant in the room: that Elio and Oliver’s sexuality is a thing to be hidden at that point in time. There’s a reason their relationship began so contentiously, and Oliver makes reference early in the film that he’s “been good” so far and doesn’t want to do anything to mess that up. It’s heartbreaking, really, to see Elio so miserable at the start of the film, surrounded by such beauty.

But this is no misery porn. The teasing that goes on between the two characters is magnificently handled by Guadagnino, who keeps a playful hand on the proceedings so as not to drown the film in self-serious romance. Summer flings are fun! So are first loves. And while this does blossom into something deeply felt, the summer season and Italian setting add a touch of lightheartedness to the scenes. Moreover, Guadagnino’s focus on sensuality over sexuality imbues the film with a romp vibe with an undeniable allure. One imagines that a more explicit or erotic version of the film would have downplayed how deeply felt the emotions are between Oliver and Elio.

Gorgeously shot by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Arabian Nights ), this is a film that you just want to soak up. The Italian scenery is milked for all its worth, and the days filled with swimming, reading, and eating fresh fruit are divine. But the secret weapon to immersing audiences into the world of Call Me by Your Name  is some incredible sound design. The footsteps on the gravel roads, the creaking floors in the ancient villa—you not only see this world, you feel it. That only allows the audience to fall deeper into the film’s trance, becoming infatuated with the romance between Elio and Oliver.

It must be said that Call Me by Your Name  is a triumph in every regard. Stuhlbarg’s role as Elio’s father isn’t necessarily a large role in terms of screentime, but he delivers a monologue towards the end of the film that felt like it made time stop. Guadagnino and James Ivory’s script is measured and tight; thoughtful and delicate. Every inch of this movie is expertly crafted, right down to the stunning final shot. It’s at once a universal story of young love and a relatable, emotional story of a homosexual awakening. In that regard it’s a tremendous love story period, but also a winning entry in the legion of queer cinema.

Rating: A

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Overlaying Oliver (Armie Hammer) and Elio (Timothée Chalamet)'s slow-motion courtship is Oliver’s study of classical archaeology, which visually echoes his attraction to Elio, who looks like a Greek bronze statue come to life — delicate aquiline nose, bedroom eyes under a heavy brow and hair just ever-so-slightly mussed. Several times in the film we see him draped across a sofa, the Barberini Faun in a Talking Heads T-shirt, Elio as a gay Pygmalion in reverse.










https://mic.com/articles/168595/berlinale-review-call-me-by-your-name-is-a-portrait-of-homosexual-intimacy-that-honors-the-book



BERLINALE 2017 Review
Call Me by Your Name
is a portrait of homosexual intimacy that honors the book

by John Sherman
@_john_sherman
Published Feb. 14, 2017


"--as if they’re daring you to desire them." ... Michael Stuhlbarg, Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer in Call Me by Your Name




BERLIN -- Call Me by Your Name,  based on the 2007 novel of the same title by André Aciman, premiered at Sundance earlier this year, and played this week at the Berlinale to eager crowds.

Set "somewhere in northern Italy" in 1983, the story takes place at the estate of Professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his wife, Annella (Amira Casar), who host a graduate student as a research assistant each summer. Oliver, portrayed by Armie Hammer, is an American student who not only charms the Perlmans, but catches the eye of their 17-year-old son Elio, played by Timothée Chalamet. Hammer stretches the imagination playing a 20-something, particularly in contrast to Chalamet’s lithe, nearly hairless figure (he’s 21 playing 17 but looks even younger) — still, the physical chemistry between them is electric.

Adapting any novel into a film is a unique challenge, as it often leaves viewers and readers at odds, but director Luca Guadagnino’s film achieves much of the spirit that runs through André Aciman’s novel. It may seem tautological to say so about a film based on a book, but Call Me by Your Name  is an intensely literary film. The novel drips with the Western intellectual tradition, a fact the film neither loses sight of nor apologizes for — its dialogue is in three languages (in order of appearance: French, English and Italian), and its characters are as conversant in Hellenistic statuary and classical composers as they are 20th-century painting and 1980s pop music. The breadth of this story, from the rich art-historical imagery to the bookshelves' worth of literary reference behind every conversation, has not been diminished in its translation from book to film.

But the literary depth of Call Me by Your Name  is set dressing to the soul of the story, which is the relationship between Elio and Oliver. Neither Aciman nor Guadagnino is openly queer — Aciman is married to a woman and Guadagnino has not publicly discussed his orientation [FYI, this is not correct. According to wikipedia, Guadagnino is gay, and in the NYT Sunday Weekend article (August 1 2016),  Guadagnino says he lives with a partner who is a filmmaker, although the partner's name is not mentioned--although I have an idea who!--JG.] — but each creates a tender portrait of a relationship between two men who cannot initially admit their affection, neither to one another nor to themselves. Both film and novel capture the unbearable privacy of closeted desire, which proceeds by degrees — a touch, a look, a certain preference that, by design, can be neither quantified nor directly confronted — the hesitant physicality between men who can’t be certain that the other won’t turn and run, or worse. When this tension finally breaks, the emotional and physical release of freedom — freedom to kiss, even simply to stare — is like finally breathing.

The delicacy of this dance is highlighted by interactions Oliver and Elio have with women, whom they pursue directly and forcefully — Elio in order to prove something, at least in part; Oliver perhaps out of a more genuine interest. Once Elio and Oliver finally kiss, the women are reduced to little more than interruptions.

Overlaying Oliver and Elio’s slow-motion courtship is Oliver’s study of classical archaeology, which visually echoes his attraction to Elio, who looks like a Greek bronze statue come to life — delicate aquiline nose, bedroom eyes under a heavy brow and hair just ever-so-slightly mussed. Several times in the film we see him draped across a sofa, the Barberini Faun in a Talking Heads T-shirt, Elio as a gay Pygmalion in reverse.

The film's title sequence features full-color slide images of classical Greek statuary, busts and chests and bodies of idealized young men, an inscrutable smile on every face, hair carved into artful tousles; any one of them could have been carved after Elio. In a scene between Oliver and Elio's father, cataloguing slides of bronze statuary, Elio's father comments on the inviting curvature of the male figures, saying it is "as if they’re daring you to desire them." Oliver gazes at the slides knowingly.

But for all the acceptance of Elio's parents — his mother seems at times to encourage their relationship, and his father makes clear he understands the weight of their affection for one another — Elio and Oliver are free only in darkness, and in private. Even after acknowledging their mutual attraction, in daylight and in public they are always in hiding. It’s only at night — in Oliver’s room, in the woods by the lake, in a pantry, in a dark alley outside the center of town — that they can give in to one another. This exhausted submission is the heart of the queerness of the romance between Oliver and Elio; they touch one another furtively but with determination, asserting a secret shared between them that can only be felt in private.

Viewers may take issue, not unfairly, with Guadagnino’s decision to cast non-queer actors to play queer characters, a choice that on paper feels out of step with progress. Brokeback Mountain  starred two straight actors in 2005, and Andrew Haigh's 2011 film Weekend  featured an openly gay actor in one of the two lead roles. Call Me by Your Name  is a film directed by an ostensibly heterosexual man [not  correct--see above, JG] based on a book written by a heterosexual man starring two heterosexual male leads — and yet its emotional resonance persists.

As a viewer, I’m the last to apologize for actors playing below their privilege, and I simply can’t explain how Call Me by Your Name  manages to pull it off. Perhaps it’s the increased normalcy of cishomosexuality, particularly between white men, which has erased the "bravery" of playing queer. Perhaps it's the relatively low profile of every actor in the film — Armie Hammer is well-known, but this is neither a typical role for him nor touted as any kind of dramatic breakout. For all its baked-in heterosexuality [again, what??  JG], Guadagnino’s film is a rapturous portrait of homosexual intimacy that is every bit as deep and tender as its source material.


“Call Me By Your Name” opens in theaters November 24.

The (partial) cast and crew of Call Me by Your Name

Front Row: Victoire Du Bois (Chiara) Esther Garrel (Marzia) Timothée Chalamet (Elio) André Aciman (Author--and Mounir)
Amira Casar (Annella) Luca Guadagnino (Director)
Center Back Row: Peter Spears (Isaac--and Producer) and, Far Right Back Row: Armie Hammer (Oliver)

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

FYI:

Luca Guadagnino at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Guadagnino#/media/File:Luca_Guadagnino_(cropped).jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Guadagnino

Does this look like a straight man to you?? PUH-leeze!!

[Front-Ranger]

Informative and very readable. I particularly like your clarifications and comments, JG!

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Informative and very readable. I particularly like your clarifications and comments, JG!

Thank you very much, Lee!
And just in case you missed this last addition:

 

FYI:

Luca Guadagnino at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Guadagnino#/media/File:Luca_Guadagnino_(cropped).jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luca_Guadagnino

Does this look like a straight man to you?? PUH-leeze!!

[Front-Ranger]