Wednesday
Aug022017
YNMS Quickie: Call Me By Your Name
Wednesday, August 2, 2017 at 11:21PM The first trailer has arrived for Call Me By Your Name. I'm starting the book right now so pardon the brevity of this Yes No Maybe So. I'm sure you'll have more to add in the comments.
yes -Luca Guadagnino makes inarguably sensual movies. James Ivory (who did the screenplay) is an all time favorite. And gay romantic dramas getting the prestige treatment is very welcome.
no - How could it possibly live up to the hype?
maybe so - Will it be too lowkey? This lives or dies by the chemistry between the leads.
Reader Comments (34)
It's soooo fucking good! Best movie of the year!
I am breatheless! So heartachingly beautiful!
I am having mixed feelings. In one hand, I do appreciate the pedigree of the movie. On the other hand, the boy looks 13, so there's a predatorial vibe that's not really appealing to me. Especially that last whispered line "call me by your name and I'll call you by mine", that sounds like "it will be our little secret" from one of those child molestation movies on the Lifetime channel. Hopefully with context and in a fully fleshed out 2h long film it won't look as bad or feel as gross.
I still wanna see it, so Im a yes, but I am a bit more reticent now.
YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS
Hammer looks way too old (he's 24/25 in the book) and the boy looks like he's 15.
Super creepy.
yes!
YESYESYESYESYESYESYES
Yes. The book is amazing. They've been selling the movie as this torrid affair, but the story is much more effective when it's whitholding
I'm not entirely fond of Armie Hammer but I do hope this is a great film.
Yaaaaas
Believe there is nothing creepy about the age difference. You just won't notice it once you are captivated by the magic of the chemistry and the movie itself. Best Screenplay and Supporting actor win locks. It's an amazing movie.
PS: Love the trailer but it doesn't do any justice to the movie because there is no way you can demostrate the power of CMBYN in a trailer.
Saw it at Sundance and it was sexy as hell.
And just beautiful. I've been a Guadagnino fan for a while and it felt like he arrived at a new level with CMBYN.
Advice: one of the best scenes of the movie is over the closing credits. PLEASE don't just take out your phone, start chatting and leave during those credits. You will do one of the stars a big disservice. (unless the Nov release has been changed from what we saw in Jan).
so good.
This looks really good, BUT, if it gets a Best Picture nomination when Carol didn't, I will be PISSED.
I got mixed feelings because of the age difference, too, but let's see the movie.
Love everyone involved in it.
I sincerely hope it wins Best Adapted Screenplay because it's James fucking Ivory and he deserves an Oscar.
The boy's age has been bumped up to 17 if I remember correctly.
The film is VERY serene and low key. I truly worry that everybody is getting their hopes up that the film will perform like MOONLIGHT, when I doubt it'll even get to CAROL levels of Oscar love. It's a beautiful film and I hope it does well, but, like, people saying Timothee Chalamet could and should get an Oscar nomination are just building themselves up for disappointment.
I haven't read the book and at first i really wanted to see it but the more i read about the film the less interested i become and i don't know why. Luca makes beautiful films but i just rewatched Io sone l'amore and it was much slower than i remembered and i think this is going to be like that too. I mean it feels trite somehow although prestige gay(or in this case bi i guess) romantic films are not that common. Have somebody watched it? Can you please tell me if it's not as melodramatic and cliched as it seems to me?
I loved the book and I am super excited for this!!!! I think the two actors are perfectly cast, especially Armie Hammer. November cannot come soon enough. Although if it comes out at NYFF, I'm gonna try to see it there.
The thing about the movie that many people don't get it's that it may have a gay couple at the center but it's not a queer movie. It plays out as a movie about love, family, feelings, body language and lust. Simple as that.
I've seen it twice by the way!
Goerge
Do give us a petit critique of the film.
Well, to compare
the age different between the actresses from Blue Is the Warmest Color is 8 years. The age different between the actors in Call Me Be Your Name is 9 years. Also, Adèle hadn't yet celebrated her 20th-birthday when the film premiered, while Timothée will be 21 this december.
The buzz out of the first festival was that this was super erotic, so the trailer is surprising in a good way.
I read the book when it first came out so I'm not surprised it's now been made into a movie having been mesmerized by Aciman's prose and storyline back then (btw, his Out of Egypt book was equally spellbinding). But after I watched the trailer, I was perplexed as I don't recall the boy being this YOUNG! Why can't they cast someone slightly older? Hopefully, this will not mar the film in any way. I can't wait to watch it!
Luca Guadagnino has directed two of the best movies of recent years, so he's an automatic "yes" for me (even though I wish he could fit Tilda into all of his movies).
As had been said a few times in this thread, Elio (the younger character) is actually OLDER here in the film than he was written as in the book. And the actor playing him was 20 when they shot this. He's also, from everything I have seen so far, a wonderful actor and PERFECT for the role, so that's probably why they cast him.
My response was a YYYYEEEEESSSSS earlier in this thread, but I *do* see people's qualms about the age difference. It's less about the actual age difference and more the physicality of both men. Certainly that was my first reaction when the casting was made. My worries have largely disappeared since the Sundance reactions and the trailers, but I see it.
I am here for the peach.
I am here for the peach.
Having read the book several times and finding it deeply affecting, seeing this trailer was very exciting, bringing these beautiful characters to life and, having absorbed every review I can get my eyes on, am all the more anxious to see it. One thing I know for sure - the trailer is a beautiful lure for a story that is much more thought-provoking (and heartbreaking) than what we've had a chance to see. The age discourse bores the living hell out of me and it wouldn't have bothered me one bit if Chalamet had been 17 when they filmed it because that's what the story is about - a teen on the cusp of adulthood, sorting out his life's course and getting a good dose of emotional maturity by opening himself up to love and true intimacy.
I'm hoping it's horny as well as achingly sensual.
When I began adapting CMBYN into a screenplay as part of my senior thesis in college, back in 2007 when the book was freshly out, I emailed Mr. Aciman and asked if he had sold the rights and if he hadn't, would he consider selling to a college student. How naive, yes. Interestingly enough, he had indeed sold the rights, or so he responded, which means this must have been in development limbo for just under a decade.
Or he lied, of course, but who can blame him?
Perhaps the most bittersweet part is not that I'll never get my chance to tell this story "my way", but rather, that the script by Ivory is so utterly similar to my own.
Not spoiling a thing, but I feel an enchanting sense of justice that Ivory and I chose to end the story on almost precisely the same grace note, credits roll and all.
The new Sufjan songs are exquisite. I only wish they hadn't shied so much from the sexual content, though of course, I fully understand why.
Also, pretty sure Elio was 17 in the book also, so those who are disturbed by the age difference, I just have to ask:
Did you not feel desire at 17, and did you not desire it so fervently and, yes, at times, even innapropriately?
Jesper: interesting comparison and of course this applies to Carol as well. But yeah very striking that young women are viewed as much more naturally sexual/sexualized as the non-equal partner by filmgoers/makers than young men. I am guilty of this too since I never even thought about that with Blue yet the actor in Call Me... did seem young.
Looking forward to this one a lot.
HELL YEAH
Dg
A portion of my Greek review of CMBYN:
Call Me by Your Name is many things together. It's a mature film. A complete portrait of youthful love patterns with all their ups and downs. A film about oppressed sexuality and lust. But above all, it is an ode for love in all its forms. With the very idea of love as an essential part of humanity that you have to grab, enjoy and live every time it finds you. Love is one of the joys and great efforts of human existence, and this is a feeling that is enthusiastically and affectionately explored in Call Me by Your Name. A work that manages to be sensual, but not tactless. Enticing but not suffocating. Direct, but never bold. A rare kind of poetry where everything balances in perfect.