Call Me By Your Name Review

Call Me By Your Name Review

I'm finally writing my Call Me By Your Name film review (Luca Guadagnino, 2017). Directed by Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name is an independent film, set in Crema during the summer of 1983. James Ivory adapted the film from its original novel, written by Andre Aciman. 

The film stars Armie Hammer (The Social Network, The Lone Ranger) as 24 years old graduate student Oliver, and Timothee Chamalet (Lady Bird, Hot Summers Night), the 17 year old son of academic Mr Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg (The Shape of Water, Doctor Strange), in what is, at its base level a coming of age love story. 

There was some controversy around the film, surrounding the age difference between Oliver and Elio. As Oliver's age is never explicitly mentioned in the film, I can see why. When I initially watched the film during the Oscars Week at QUAD theatre in Derby, I spent a lot of the film wondering how old Oliver was. Due to Timothee looking younger than his age (22) and Armie being older than Oliver's age, the age difference looks larger than it actually is. In real life, Armie is 31, so you very quickly see why the age difference is more prominent than it actually is. Personally, I don't think a seven year age difference between the characters is anything to drastic, and after reading the book, when Oliver's age is mentioned on page 24, I felt like a lot of things from the film made a lot more sense. 

Another bit of controversy with this film was Elio smoking. I think this came from a more Hollywood audience, but taking the social context of when the time is set, Elio smoking is accurate. The laws in Italy in 1983 are different from, a) what they are now and b) laws around the world. Whilst I'm not saying that Elio should be smoking, it's completely legal for the time and place. I think people made a much bigger deal out of it than it needed to be, and I am fine with smoking being part of Elio's character. 

As I'm writing this, I really there have been a lot of issues with this film. The biggest one for me, which I briefly glossed over in my Love Simon review, was that to praise this film, Love Simon would be bought down, and vice versa. I'll do a separate blog post comparing the two and why this is absolute rubbish. I will say, they are both love stories, and are both queer, but that is where the majority of the similarities end. I really enjoyed both films. Both have their strengths, and both have their weaknesses. 

Moving on from issues and controversy, lets cover some of the things I love about this film. 

The cinematography is brilliant. I love how the shots are set a certain way, to show how stunning Crema is, from the town itself, to Monets Bern. The shots make an already beautiful, culturally rich town look even more stunning. Furthermore, the different angles of the peach tree every so often give the shots an extra layer, and focus on the minute details that maybe you wouldn't notice if it wasn't given to you in its own individual shot. 

Another thing I love is how natural everything feels in this film. The film was shot in sequence, and Armie and Timothee had time to bond prior to shooting. Everything feels very authentic and it makes me feel like I am there, with them in Crema during the summer of 1983. I honestly can't wait to see how the sequel takes the final third of the book. That's the thing with adapting a novel into a film, the way this was done makes the ending feel more natural, despite cutting out a third of the book. 

I am really looking forwards to the sequel and can't wait to see how that is done. I highly recommend reading the book prior to watching the film, however it isn't necessary to do so. It's more for understanding minor plot points rather than understanding the narrative as a whole. 

For all its issues, my love for it, I give this film a 9 out of 10. 

Rating: 9 out of 10.



Thank you so much for reading this review. 

See you next week!

-Emmaberry-


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