Call Me By Your Name (2017)

Luca Guadagnino’s 2017 film ‘Call Me By Your Name’ was widely acclaimed and was nominated for 3 Academy Awards (including a win for James Ivory’s exceptional original screenplay). Set in 1983 in Northern Italy the film follows Elio (played by Timothée Chalamet), a 17 year old who takes an interest in transcribing and playing classical music, he meets Oliver (played by Armie Hammer), a 24 year old college student who comes to his family villa for the summer to help Elio’s father, while working on his doctorate. As the story goes on, the two of them go on a journey of self-discovery which will alter both of their lives and their perceptions of love. While this plot will be off-putting for some,’ Call Me By Your Name’ presents it as one of the most realistic on screen depictions of love (in a similar fashion to Spike Jonze’s 2014 masterpiece ‘Her’). It is aided by beautiful cinematography, excellent performances from the actors and the aforementioned screenplay.

However the main highlight of this film is Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s incredible cinematography. The way the film is shot includes extremely long takes and close ups from angles. This creates an atmosphere of intimacy (reflecting the relationship between Elio and Oliver). It also creates the feeling (as an audience member) of seeing something you are not supposed to witness; which helps add to the emotion because you feel immersed in the long warm Italian summer, along with the rest of the characters. This also adds a great emotional depth to the film, because the close ups allow you to truly appreciate the emotions displayed by the facial expressions of the characters. In the heavier moments of the film (some heart-breaking scenes are to be expected in a film like this), you feel that as an audience member you are near them, experiencing that moment with them. Everything feels naturalistic, which is a result of Mukdeeprom’s excellent use of camera angles, and use of natural lighting to create an immersive experience that the audience can become a part of it almost creates a door for the audience to enter through, and forget that they are watching a film and it feels like they are part of the world that the film creates.

Another strength of the film is the spectacular performances from its lead actors. All the characters feel like they could be real people and that is a testament to the amazing performances displayed here. Timothée Chalamet proves why he is considered one of the main rising stars in Hollywood providing a naturalistic portrayal of Elio, making the character believable and sympathetic. As he shows his emotional range you can truly sympathise with his feelings and there are some scenes where he shows how he is a subtle yet incredible actor through showing all the necessary emotions for the character. Combined with his performance in Greta Gerwig’s ‘Lady Bird’, it can be concluded that 2017 was the year where Chalamet had his breakthrough with a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Elio. Armie Hammer was also excellent as Oliver, cementing his comeback from the critically panned 2013 film ‘The Lone Ranger’- and proving that he can rise to the A-List of Hollywood if he keeps giving sublime performances like he does in this film. In a similar way to Chalamet, he keeps Oliver as a grounded naturalistic character and provides an antithesis to the highly emotional Elio, by presenting Oliver as a more controlled character. Another standout performance comes from Michael Stuhlbarg as Elio’s father who serves as a moral compass for Elio. Near the end of the film, he has a monologue that is delivered in such a powerful but also subtle way, that audience members won’t soon fail to remember the moral of his message.

However a slight flaw that I personally had with the film, is that I felt it dragged near the end and there were some parts that I felt could have been removed. However, this doesn’t mean that it lacks emotional weight; it just felt like the film itself was running out of steam near the ending point. However, the ending still had the intended effect so this is only a minor problem.

Overall, I would say that ‘Call Me By Your Name’ is one of the best films I have seen recently. It’s definitely one of the most emotional stories that I have seen on screen in recent years. I would highly recommend this to anyone, and it definitely deserves all the praise and buzz that it received around its release date last year. It was a very good contender for Best Picture.