Time. There is never enough of it when it really counts. We often spend so long wasting time, that when realise how it could have been better spent it’s already too late. I try to live my life without regret for my actions, but in my short time upon this mortal coil I have had plenty of inactions to be regretful for; so many missed opportunities, so much life unlived because of my own neglect to seize the moment before it passed. This is why Call Me By Your Name struck such a chord with me, and why I also cannot truly decide whether I enjoy the film. I like it, I can appreciate it for what it represents, and it certainly makes me reflect on the choices I made during my late teens and early twenties. But do I enjoy it? That’s a big question that’s probably going to take a lot of time to properly answer.
It is the summer of 1983 and seventeen-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) lives with his parents in northern Italy. He plans on spending the summer reading, writing music, and flirting with the local girls. Elio’s family takes in twenty-four-year-old graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) to assist with some research Elio’s father is conducting, which will also contribute to Oliver’s thesis paper.
Oliver much like Elio, is a hit with the local girls, and the two young men initially find it difficult to find common ground; but as the summer progresses, Elio and Oliver begin to discover too late that they harbour feelings for each other which are alien to the both of them.
It is the summer of 1983 and seventeen-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) lives with his parents in northern Italy. He plans on spending the summer reading, writing music, and flirting with the local girls. Elio’s family takes in twenty-four-year-old graduate student Oliver (Armie Hammer) to assist with some research Elio’s father is conducting, which will also contribute to Oliver’s thesis paper.
Oliver much like Elio, is a hit with the local girls, and the two young men initially find it difficult to find common ground; but as the summer progresses, Elio and Oliver begin to discover too late that they harbour feelings for each other which are alien to the both of them.
Call Me By Your Name is an extremely slow film lacking clear direction and often finding itself getting lost in a purposeless moment for far too long, which is why it’s so beautiful to watch. It reminds me of days spent doing nothing but lay in the grass, sit with my feet in a flowing stream, or holding hands with someone I loved and just staring endlessly into each other’s eyes. The time passes so incredibly slowly, until suddenly it doesn’t and there’s no time left, just like Elio and Oliver’s romance.
Elio and Oliver are difficult characters to relate to on an individual basis because we know so little about them. The film only tells us the essentials, Elio’s the introverted sensitive type who spends all his time reading, and Oliver is the extroverted explorer who wants to find beautiful things in foreign places. We know nothing about their lives before the film, just the context that puts them in that place at that time. But their romance is something I’m sure anyone who’s ever had a short but intense passion for another human being can relate to.
I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise then when I say that Call Me By Your Name has even less time for secondary characters. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t utilised incredibly well. For a brief time, Elio has a girlfriend, Marzia (Esther Garrel), and though her appearance is extremely brief, and she has only a couple of lines, those lines are so powerful, and her presence in the story to purposeful that she is simply unforgettable. This rings true of all the supporting cast, and everyone’s performance is fantastic.
But they are ultimately overshadowed by Chalamet and Hammer who provide superb performances to the point where they no longer feel like actors or characters but exist as real people whose lives are being chronicled on film.
I love how Elio and Oliver’s sexuality is left open and they aren’t pinned down into categories as seems to be the norm for LGBTQ cinema. It’s enlightening to see a filmmaker so confident in portraying these men as just that, they aren’t straight, gay, or bisexual, they’re just men. There’s no need to explain the logistics of their attraction to each other because, at least from what I read from the performances, their love for each other was beyond explanation.
The film is extremely light on dialogue too and this does tend to cause the film to enter a spiral of philosophical thought that it either can’t or refuses to escape from when it does use it. For a lot of the film characters simply exist together, they don’t push a narrative forward with their conversations and instead either talk about nothing, or do not talk at all. These conversations of nothing, as I’ve said previously, do have a habit of getting lost within themselves; almost as though whoever wrote the script was so in love with what they were writing that they simply forgot the point of what they were saying all along. This can become frustrating at times because it feels like it is wasting your time, although maybe that’s the intention?
There’s only one scene that is particularly wordy and that comes late in the film and is a monologue given by Elio’s father Samuel (Michael Stuhlbarg). It’s a beautiful scene and gives a painful release to the immense sorrow that has been built during the final act. It’s a stark contrast to the rest of the film for how wordy it is and how long it lasts for, but it’s not out of place or unwarranted.
Elio and Oliver are difficult characters to relate to on an individual basis because we know so little about them. The film only tells us the essentials, Elio’s the introverted sensitive type who spends all his time reading, and Oliver is the extroverted explorer who wants to find beautiful things in foreign places. We know nothing about their lives before the film, just the context that puts them in that place at that time. But their romance is something I’m sure anyone who’s ever had a short but intense passion for another human being can relate to.
I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise then when I say that Call Me By Your Name has even less time for secondary characters. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t utilised incredibly well. For a brief time, Elio has a girlfriend, Marzia (Esther Garrel), and though her appearance is extremely brief, and she has only a couple of lines, those lines are so powerful, and her presence in the story to purposeful that she is simply unforgettable. This rings true of all the supporting cast, and everyone’s performance is fantastic.
But they are ultimately overshadowed by Chalamet and Hammer who provide superb performances to the point where they no longer feel like actors or characters but exist as real people whose lives are being chronicled on film.
I love how Elio and Oliver’s sexuality is left open and they aren’t pinned down into categories as seems to be the norm for LGBTQ cinema. It’s enlightening to see a filmmaker so confident in portraying these men as just that, they aren’t straight, gay, or bisexual, they’re just men. There’s no need to explain the logistics of their attraction to each other because, at least from what I read from the performances, their love for each other was beyond explanation.
The film is extremely light on dialogue too and this does tend to cause the film to enter a spiral of philosophical thought that it either can’t or refuses to escape from when it does use it. For a lot of the film characters simply exist together, they don’t push a narrative forward with their conversations and instead either talk about nothing, or do not talk at all. These conversations of nothing, as I’ve said previously, do have a habit of getting lost within themselves; almost as though whoever wrote the script was so in love with what they were writing that they simply forgot the point of what they were saying all along. This can become frustrating at times because it feels like it is wasting your time, although maybe that’s the intention?
There’s only one scene that is particularly wordy and that comes late in the film and is a monologue given by Elio’s father Samuel (Michael Stuhlbarg). It’s a beautiful scene and gives a painful release to the immense sorrow that has been built during the final act. It’s a stark contrast to the rest of the film for how wordy it is and how long it lasts for, but it’s not out of place or unwarranted.
Call Me By Your Name employs the use of a heavy film grain effect in an age where crisp and clear picture is becoming an ever more prominent focus. Where filmmakers are trying to get the widest range of colours or make something look as close to lifelike as humanly possible. But Call Me By Your Name instead opts for everything to be bathed in a soft sunlight with very obvious visual imperfections that gives everything a hazy glow. You begin to feel drunk in this summer haze that is so perfectly replicated on film. The locations are gorgeous, and the camera is not afraid to be personal, getting in the actors’ space and giving you a sense of being there in the moment with them.
This mixed with the sparse, but perfect soundtrack of eighties Italian pop songs and classical music blends seamlessly with the visuals to get you inside Elio’s head and experience the summer as he does.
Call Me By Your Name is by no doubt a truly great film, but it won’t be for everyone. For many it will be too slow, and too artsy to truly enjoy. I think that’s why I also struggle to truly enjoy the film. I’m glad I’ve seen it, though much like a fleeting summer romance I can’t see myself ever returning. It’s not out of dislike, or even that I have any great issue with the film. But it’s so emotionally intense and succeeds so well at drawing you in that I don’t feel like I can go through it again without somewhat resenting myself for doing it. Call Me By Your Name is beautiful and captivating, but it can also be draining, just like the romance Elio and Oliver share.
This mixed with the sparse, but perfect soundtrack of eighties Italian pop songs and classical music blends seamlessly with the visuals to get you inside Elio’s head and experience the summer as he does.
Call Me By Your Name is by no doubt a truly great film, but it won’t be for everyone. For many it will be too slow, and too artsy to truly enjoy. I think that’s why I also struggle to truly enjoy the film. I’m glad I’ve seen it, though much like a fleeting summer romance I can’t see myself ever returning. It’s not out of dislike, or even that I have any great issue with the film. But it’s so emotionally intense and succeeds so well at drawing you in that I don’t feel like I can go through it again without somewhat resenting myself for doing it. Call Me By Your Name is beautiful and captivating, but it can also be draining, just like the romance Elio and Oliver share.