Author Topic: Armie Hammer & Timothée Chalamet find love in Call Me By Your Name (2017)  (Read 779673 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Well, here we go.

Warning: My thoughts are mixed.

I think this a beautiful film, a very successful transition from the novel to the screen—and I’d expect nothing less from James Ivory. I like this movie. I like it so much that the 136-minute running time passed like no time at all. I will watch it again, probably soon, but will I obsess about it as I did BBM? No. It just doesn’t affect me that way. I’m more likely to return again and again to the novel.

Timothee Chalamet is perfect, absolutely perfect, as Elio. The writing and his acting combine to give what in my opinion is a dead-on perfect portrait of a 17-year-old obsessively in love. And he looks the part. I think he’s perfectly cast.

However, I said somewhere that as I read the novel, the “voice” that I heard as Elio was that of a friend who was born and raised in Israel but comes from an Italian-Jewish family. I was asked if I thought that would still be the case after I saw the film, and my answer to the question is, Yes. I find nothing distinctive about Timothee Chalamet’s voice; moreover, I think when Elio speaks English, he sounds awfully, mundanely American.

I like Armie Hammer as Oliver. I think his “Later” comes off better in the film than it does in the novel. But I also agree with the friend who found him too mature in appearance to be believable as a 24-year-old post-doc or graduate student. I guess he was 30 or 31 when the movie was filmed, and in my opinion he looks it. I know it’s common for actors to play younger, it’s just that I don’t think he looks like someone who has not yet passed 25. Very handsome? Yes. Age 24? No. But also I’m not troubled by a relationship between someone who looks 30 and someone who really does look 17. I can’t explain way; it just doesn’t bother me. I don’t see any exploitation here.

About the sex. In the film Oliver’s behavior suggests to me that he has experience with male-male sex, maybe just not with someone so much younger, and certainly not with the son of his hosts. In my first viewing I don’t get a sense that Elio has experience, but in the novel Oliver is not Elio’s “first.” Here’s a reason for me to go back to the novel: I don’t remember getting a sense of Oliver’s experience.

I understand a sequel is already in the works. I should reserve judgment, but I wonder about that. I’m not convinced now that there is enough material in the novel after Oliver’s return to the U.S. to support a full-length motion picture, especially since we already know that Oliver is going to get married.

"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline SaraB

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^^^^

Well, I was all set to go to another viewing in the cinema this morning, at 10.30am of all times, as this was the one and only showing in my local cinema and possibly my last chance of seeing it again on the big screen. But alas, when I worked out how long it was I realised that I wouldn’t be able to get to lunch with my sister and family on time. And although I generally get on very well with my sister, homosexuality is the subject on which we don’t see eye to eye. So, I’ll have to stick with the Blu-ray on my fairly large tv...

And in response to yours, Jeff,  which I enjoyed reading, I agree with most of it, though I don’t know your friend's voice of course! I suppose Timmy's voice is a little ordinary compared with his unusual looks and acting abilities, though it doesn’t bother me at all. And as you say, he is otherwise just ideal as Elio

And Armie, apart from his maturity which I soon cease to think about, seems perfect in bringing to life the Oliver of the novel, even to the sun gradually bringing out his former blondness.

I think you're not quite right about Elio's previous experience with men: in the book he says, “I had wanted other men my age before and had slept with women."  And this perhaps explains his complex initial reaction to the first night with Oliver, veering between bliss and self-disgust.

I personally don’t want any sequels. I love the last two sections of the novel, and read more and more into them each time. And as I’ve said elsewhere, I have managed to create a hopeful coda just for myself, without violating anything that has gone before, and that helps me to cope with the tragic overtones of both the film and the novel. I do also love that it’s tragic, and that the tragedy reverberates over so many years, but I in no way regret my 3 or 4 extra pages - I’m not very robust about sad endings!

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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I think you're not quite right about Elio's previous experience with men: in the book he says, “I had wanted other men my age before and had slept with women."  And this perhaps explains his complex initial reaction to the first night with Oliver, veering between bliss and self-disgust.

Yes. I went back and reread the part about the boy on the bicycle. Elio did NOT go with him.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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OK, well, now I can't stop giggling. My coworkers will probably think I've lost it.

This morning I was thinking of CMBYN, and all of a sudden there popped into my head a line from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."

"Do I dare to eat a peach?"

 :laugh:
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline SaraB

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 Oh yes! 😀 And you can understand AJP's dilemma: they can be very messy things to eat. But I have managed to survive my first post-CMBYN peach. Only problem is, out of season peaches tend not to be very nice.

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Oh yes! 😀 And you can understand AJP's dilemma: they can be very messy things to eat. But I have managed to survive my first post-CMBYN peach. Only problem is, out of season peaches tend not to be very nice.

I agree.

I can remember from when I was a little boy that at the height of peach season here in Pennsylvania, my grandmother and my mother would buy peaches by the bushel to can for the coming winter. Those home-canned peaches tasted very good!

Now I shudder to think how much sugar my mother and grandmother put in the syrup!  ;D
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Eleane

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Hello, I discover your forum and thank you, it is very complete.
I read on the internet that Call me by your name the sequel, is canceled. True or not true? Sorry for my english, I'am french girl !!

Later !! Anne

Offline peachykeen

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Saw the film and read the story by Aciman.

I just loved CMBYN! I have similar feelings about this story that I had back in the winter of 2006 when I first watched BBM.

CMBYN is a wonderful story of the joys, confusion, sadness and regret that seem to accompany first love. this film touches me deeply at many different levels. I love the memories of that time period, I would be the age of Oliver in 1983, and the film brings back so many memories of the time watching : Lacoste shirts, walkmans, cigarette smoking!  ;D

especially memories of first love and the difficulties both Oliver and Elio passed thru.

 :)

Offline peachykeen

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I especially loved the use of Ravel's Miroirs, the 3rd section, in the soundtrack. that piece has become Elio's and Olivers music in my mind now!  :)

Offline southendmd

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[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2qOGMPeJYg&t=0s&list=FLVbIz1hMp8_ij1Rbw5rB_ow&index=2[/youtube]
« Last Edit: July 24, 2018, 08:23:52 am by southendmd »