Call Me By Your Name – 2017
This was a small but intimate movie that dealt with a subject that only one other Best Picture nominee, 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, has ever dealt with. A homosexual relationship. Sure, other films have featured gay characters, but never has it been the whole focal point of the plot. And this movie handled it in a sweet and tactful way. The narrative was more about the emotional relationship and not the physical, which was all for the better. And the emotions in question were those of a seventeen year old boy named Elio Perlman, played by Timothee Chalamet.
He is a young Jewish, Italian-American, living with his parents, played by Michael Stuhlbarg and Amira Casar, in northern Italy. Every year, Professor Perlman, an archeologist, would invite a student to live with him for six weeks as a research assistant. The story begins as Oliver, an American student played by Armie Hammer, arrives to begin his residency. Elio has a girlfriend, Marzia, played by Esther Garrel, but he slowly develops an attraction to Oliver.
Over the course of the film, Elio’s feelings for Oliver grow. Once he tells Oliver of his attraction, Oliver begins to respond in kind. There were several things about their relationship that I appreciated. First, though there was one sex scene, it was kept very brief with a minimum of nudity. Second, the movie was really a coming of age film. The gay relationship was just the vehicle used to achieve Elio’s journey from boy to man. But that being said, I don’t really think of Elio’s character as gay. I think he was just a sexually active teenager who was exploring his own sexuality. If the movie had progressed further, I imagine Elio would have gone back to Marzia and been happy, though he would always carry a wistful memory of the affair with Oliver.
So not only was the film sensitive in a way that you rarely see in films, especially when it comes to the touchy subject matter, but it had an air of loving calmness that didn’t seem to have any specific agenda. I liked that the movie wasn’t trying to enlighten or educate. It wasn’t fighting for approval or acceptance. It just told its story without demanding anything of its audience. In that way, the real star of the movie was the script.
And I would be remis if I didn’t mention the incredible beauty of the filming locations and sets used in the movie. The lush landscapes of Northern Italy were breathtakingly displayed. And it was no wonder. The film’s director, Luca Guadagnino, used the very countryside in which he himself currently lived. His love for the land was obvious, and during filming, he often treated the cast and crew to dinner at his own home. The house used as the Pearlman’s residence was the Villa Albergoni, a beautiful but uninhabited 17th-century mansion in Moscazzano.
But as far as the actors went, they all did a great job. I have to give special props to Chalamet, the film’s lead, and Stuhlbarg, playing his father. The role of Elio was a very complex one to play for such a young and inexperienced actor, but he really stepped up to the plate and turned in a subtle and nuanced performance with which I was really impressed. And the more I see of Stuhlbarg, the more I am convinced that he is an incredible actor.
The relationship between Elio and Oliver progresses and flourishes until the two take a trip to Bergamo together. It is like their last hurrah before the inevitable time when they must be parted. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the one near the end after Oliver has gone home to America, where the Professor has a private little talk with his son, letting him know that he is fully aware of the nature of Elio and Oliver’s special relationship. He goes on to say that he not only approves, but is jealous, as he’d, in his own youth, had an opportunity for a similar relationship, but had allowed it to go unexplored. It was a very loving and touching moment between a father and son that was superbly written and perfectly executed.
End even more than that, Professor Perlman reveals one of the film’s major themes in very plain language that I feel is worth repeating here. He said, “How you live your life is your business, just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. And before you know it, your heart is worn out, and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now, there’s sorrow, pain. Don’t kill it and with it the joy you’ve felt.”
The advice is a true pearl of wisdom. It is a universal truth that is applicable to anyone in an ending relationship, gay or straight, young or old, man or woman, friend or lover. Over the years, I have tended to avoid most gay films because I found most of them too preachy or clumsily handled. But in the final analysis, I find that this wasn’t really a gay film. It was a coming of age film that happened to be about a gay relationship. A subtle difference, to be sure, but one that I believe needs to be recognized.