It was impossible for the weak and superficial so-called critics to not make a parallel between Call Me by Your Name and Ang Lee‘s Broken Mountain, and with this information, I revealed the first spoiler: it is a movie with a homosexual relationship. The second spoiler is that it is far away from achieving the beauty and the capability of Broken Mountain. I don’t understand why this intellectual Jewish psychodrama was on the Best Picture nominees list. Was it because of the relationship’s nature, or because of the characters’ ethnoreligious allegiance?
Amira Casar, Michael Stuhlbarg, Armie Hammer, and Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
[source: imdb.com]
Plot
This is a movie without a plot. It was inspired by the homonymous debut novel written by André Aciman, whose rights were bought by the American producers Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman even before it was published in 2007. At the beginning of the 80’s, somewhere in Northern Italy, the 17-years-old Jewish prodigy Elio Perlman, develops a strange urge to become involved with the accomplished 24-years-old Oliver. Oliver is staying in Perlman’s residence this summer, helping Elio’s scholar father in some research. He is blond, tall and flamboyant. One can consider him good looking, especially the girls who are rambling around the house, Perlman’s family friends, relatives, and guests. Elio is attracted by Oliver. He neglects his heterosexual relationship with one of the girls, Marzia. In a matter of a few days, Elio becomes obsessed with Oliver. He considers that being both Jewish makes a strong bond between them. Elio’s family is very liberal regarding their religion and their son’s sexual urges. Eventually, Oliver and Elio enter in a very effervescent sexual relation. At times I had the feeling Oliver deliberately tempted all the people around him, the girls, the villagers, the frequent guests, but only Oliver was his prey.
Cast
Armie Hammer is Oliver, the perfect student, a sort of an archeology intern for Mr. Perlman. Timothée Chalamet is Elio, the 17-years-old prodigy who read books and plays the piano. Michael Stuhlbarg is Mr. Perlman, the host, an archeology scholar, Elio’s indulgent father. Amira Casar is Annella Perlman, Elio’s liberal mother. Esther Garrel is Marzia, an inexperienced girl who allows the inexperienced Elio through a whole sexual relationship. Victoire Du Bois is Chiara, a girl infatuated with the elusive Oliver. Vanda Capriolo is Mafalda, the cook.
Esther Garrel and Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
The movie is directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by James Ivory.
Call Me by Your Name – Trailer
Trivia
Call Me By Your Name won the award for Gay Fiction at the 20th Lambda Awards. The Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction is an annual literary award, presented by the Lambda Literary Foundation to a work of fiction on gay male themes.
Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name
I think also that the movie is more appropriate for LGBT oriented events, but Hollywood and the Academy just want to prove they are more liberals than the Democratic Party. They adore the Clintons, they embraced Obama and they don’t spare any effort to poke Trump administration whenever possible. “Oscars so white” was just dust in the eyes, the previous year (2017), the awards were both in the “Oscars so black” and “Oscars so gay” category.
Initially, James Ivory has been contracted to direct the adaptation. He started to write the screenplay but it took him too long. He became the producer. Ferzan Özpetek and Sam Taylor-Johnson were also called to direct it, but they preferred other projects instead. Eventually, Luca Guadagnino became involved and he declared that Call Me by Your Name will end his thematic trilogy, “Desire”. The first installment was I Am Love (2009) and the second was A Bigger Splash (2015). I watched them both, and both are good. Quirky, but good. Call Me by Your Name is the weaker in this trilogy which is worthily named Desire.
Call Me by Your Name – poster
Timothée Chalamet played in Greta Gerwig‘s Lady Bird an equally unfunny character. He also appeared in Scott Cooper‘s Hostiles in the same year, 2017. Incredible as it seems, he made his debut in feature films in the worst movie ever directed by Christopher Nolan, Interstellar (2014). The circus goes on and on, his acting in Call Me by Your Name earned him nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Actor. He reminds me of Damien Chazelle, another “prodigy” Hollywood tries to stuffing my throat with.
Chalamet’s most prominent stunt
Chalamet also acted in Woody Allen‘s most recent movie (at this time, still in post-production), A Rainy Day in New York. On January 16th, Timothée Chalamet announced via his Instagram, still under contractual obligations, that he didn’t want to profit from the film, donating his salary to Time’s Up (a movement against sexual harassment founded on January 1st, 2018, by Hollywood celebrities in response to the Weinstein effect and #MeToo), RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) and the LGBT Center of New York (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community).
On January 23rd, 2018, Chalamet appeared on the Academy Awards nominations’ list. I’m sure it was a coincidence since his Golden Globes’ and BAFTA’s nominations have already been made public on January 7, respectively January 8. He seems very properly oriented to stardom in Hollywood, like the genuine little goat he is.
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