Call Me By Your Name

[TruHart1]

A writing instructor of mine read from Lolita to the class. The thing about Lolita is that is great writing. So she asked whether the story itself is reason enough to ignore great writing.

 

Same thing in At Swim, Two Boys. Did the young Irish gentleman overstep by being sexual with Doyler or Jim, and is that enough to rule out the book. Of course not.

 

The movie LOEV was omitted by OutFest, likely for a scene that is quite bad behavior, but should we totally ignore a great movie for that instance?

 

Can people at least comment on the quality of art to balance their agenda against the content? Seems that few can, especially in our politically correct worldview today.

 

Back to Truhart1 point, when I was 17 I was horny AF. There was a new teacher at my high school, just out of college. Mr. Ligori. Handsome. Great body. If I had been stuck with him in an Italian villa..... I would have let him do things with me. My fantasies come true. CMBYN is just a story that explores these kind of desires. So, maybe we can get over it, whether the content of the story is acceptable. But I doubt we can.

I now agree. This little postings sidetrack about the perceived "pervy-ness" in CMBYN is complete. @Gar1eth will always be uncomfortable with this precocious 17 year-old (actually 21 year-old) who sexually desires a nearly "perfect," seemingly unreachable 24 year-old (actually 30 year-old) American student/teacher, who becomes comparable to the obviously sexually inviting Greco-Roman male statues which are part of Elio's father's studies and who becomes nearly god-like, seeming impossible goal for Elio's obsession.

 

I have seen a few Youtube reviews of CMBYN with reviewers who are negative about the age difference, the majority of those being from reviewers who make sure to say they are NOT gay but completely straight. A very small number of gay reviewers were ill at ease with the age difference. The majority of all reviewers (about 98%) reviewed the film as a well-acted, well-directed, well-scored, well shot "vacation" in Italy in 1983 where a teenager falls in love with an older, impressively intelligent person. Most, straight or gay, review this as a coming-of-age, "first love" script, perfectly executed by screenwriter and director and may refer to the love story as between two males but de-emphasize that aspect, opining that the story is applicable in a universal way to any first love, gay or straight!

 

On CMBYN "pervy-ness," this is my final post!

 

TruHart1

[TruHart1]

I don't know if this will stay up very long. It's the complete commentary track for CMBYN

(with the movie sound in the background) with Michael Stuhlbarg and Timothée Chalamet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtSZJSDE8KI

 

Sorry. I see YT deleted it.

 

TruHart1

Edited March 1, 2018 by TruHart1

[TruHart1]

Another fan tribute; some CMBYN themed cookies!!!

 

TruHart1

[Kenny]

Another fan tribute; some CMBYN themed cookies!!!

 

TruHart1

This is even pervier than the age difference.

[+ g56whiz]

Well curiosity got the best of me. Realizing that I will probably have missed seeing CMBYN in the theater by the time I get back to the US and since I cant find it scheduled to play here in Malaysia, I bought it from iTunes. I watched it on my iPhone6+. Even on that tiny screen it’s a beautiful film. And Chalamet is truly Oscar worthy even if the film as a whole is not.

 

I’m triply jealous. I wish my parents had been as enlightened. I loved my parents dearly. The paradigm of their marriage caused me to seek the same. My guy and I will celebrate 29 years next week. But my folks were Edwardian at best and sex and sexuality were not suitable topics for discussion - ever. Secondly I came out so late in life I never had that youthful first love learning experience. By the time I became sexually active I looked old enough to know what I was doing. I didn’t! And lastly I want two or three languid weeks in the shabby elegance of that wonderful villa. [swoon]

[+ g56whiz]

FWIW the CMBYN purchase from iTunes comes with access to the Chalamet/Stuhlbarg commentary.

[OCClient]

29 years. That's great

g56whiz.

The movie does evoke a lot of feelings. Both of the fatherly scenes with Prof Perlman and Elio got to me, the first one being where he told Elio if there is anything he want's to talk about. How he said it got me choked up. Who really had a dad like that? The things movies can do to us.

 

The book evoked similar thoughts, perhaps more so, especially about the idea of bisexuality and what was going on when we were young with certain friends that wanted to play but then eventually married women.

 

On another note, one of my CMBYN comrades just e-mailed me that the Academy Awards announced Sufjan will perform Mystery of Love from CMBYN at the Oscars.

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by OCClient

[OCClient]

I doubt if Sufjan will walk the red carpet but still wonder what he will wear at the Oscars. He has so many talented friends. Perhaps one of them has found an appropriate style for him. Hoping it is something understated as not to outshine his own beautiful heart and his outward beauty.

 

Speaking of fashion, this article about the first time Sufjan Stevens saw CMBYN has a zany twist concerning a Gucci coat, and yet....that's Sufjan.

 

http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/sufjan-stevens-on-his-call-me-by-your-name-songs.html

[+ WilliamM]

REVIEWS

 

ON THE SCENE

How Timothée Chalamet and theCall Me by Your Name Cast Kicked Off Oscar Week

The film, which goes into Sunday’s Oscars with four nominations, was fêted by Vanity Fair and Barneys on Wednesday evening.

by

• JULIE MILLER Vanity Fair
  

MARCH 1, 2018 5:02 PM

Sony Pictures Classics Co-President and Co-Founder Tom Bernard, Luca Guadagnino, Timothée Chalamet, and Armie Hammer attend the Vanity Fair and Barneys New York celebration of Call Me By Your Name.

By Charley Gallay/Getty Images.

 

Fourteen months after Call Me by Your Name made its Sundance Film Festival debut, director Luca Guadagnino and stars Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer enjoyed a final victory lap for the film on Wednesday evening.

 

“I am proud like a mother hen,” Guadagnino told Vanity Fair at a celebration co-hosted by Editor-in-Chief Radhika Jones and Barneys New York C.E.O. Daniella Vitale. His poignant coming-of-age romance—adapted by James Ivory fromAndré Aciman’s novel—enters Sunday’s Academy Awards with four nominations, for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song.

 

Though the awards circuit can seem daunting, the Italian filmmaker has been on the road with the Sony Pictures Classics drama for so long that he has befriended a large swathe of the peers he will see this weekend. “So something that might have been new and weird and compelling is now very familiar and a good feeling.”

 

Surveying his friends inside the Chateau Marmont penthouse, Guadagnino said, “I love to be familiar and glamorous.” Asked about his preparation for Sunday, the filmmaker said, “I have been plotting the perfect tuxedo with my friends at Prada. That is the only thing I have done for Sunday. Otherwise, I am going to celebrate all of the people who deserve to win.”

 

 

Armie Hammer shared the same sentiment, saying that the tone of the season shifted from competitive to camaraderie in January, at a private dinner attended by all of the men nominated for Golden Globes this year.

 

“We all sat down, had a meal, and told funny stories. Like we all went around the table and said what happened to us when we were 21 years old,” Hammer said. “It was a really humanizing thing. So now, whenever I see one of those guys, it’s not the competition, it’s your buddy.”

 

Chalamet, who is just 22 years old, said he particularly bonded with another awards-season first-timer—Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya—on the Oscar circuit.

 

“Get Out is one of my favorite movies of the year and Daniel has been the one person that I can consistently look at, lock eyes with, and ask, ‘What the fuck is happening right now?’ Because these are totally surreal environments to be in,” Chalamet said.

 

Though awards pundits have predicted that The Shape of Water or Get Out could take the best-picture title, Sony Pictures Classics heads Michael Barker and Tom Bernard have hope that Call Me by Your Name could come out victorious on Sunday night.

 

“I told them that they need to have a speech ready,” Barker told Vanity Fair.“Looking at the math, there are the voters going with Three Billboards, Dunkirk,Shape of Water, and Lady Bird. I think that voting has been split, and there are about 800 new Academy voters this year, who are young. And this film seems to resonate especially with the young demographic. The good thing about this year, though, is that all the movies nominated are movies of substance.”

 

Added Bernard, who studies Oscar outcomes, “If it’s a Crash year, the Oscar will go toThree Billboards. If it’s a 12 Years a Slave year, it will go to Get Out. And if it’s aSpotlight year, it will go to Call Me by Your Name. The cultural climate has so much impact on what wins, and this is a weird year for a lot of reasons.”

 

Regardless, Bernard said that even a nomination goes a long way for artistic indies.

 

“It’s easy to be cynical about awards, but the Oscars mean a lot with these particular films because they give longevity and validation to high-quality films that deserve to be remembered. It’s especially great to be at the Oscars with a movie like Call Me by Your Name because that’s not a movie that most people would assume would be nominated for best picture.”

 

In that sense, Call Me by Your Name doesn’t need an Oscar to complete its Hollywood ending.

 

Recalling previous years Sony Pictures Classics had a film in the best-picture category, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Capote, Barker said he had to manage tense intra-production relationships. “I remember being up until 4 in the morning just trying to choreograph 40 seats—so that the distributor wouldn’t be sitting next to another distributor he did not get along with and so on. But with these guys, it has been great because it is a movie where everyone actually liked each other. Timmy’s like the younger brother. Armie’s like the older brother. And Luca is like the ringleader.”

 

After Sunday night, Guadagnino will return to Milan to finish work on Suspiria—the ballet-drama reuniting him with his A Bigger Splash stars Dakota Johnson andTilda Swinton—and embark on an entirely different endeavor: interior design.

 

“I am finishing two houses and I am starting a shop in Rome,” said Guadagnino. “I started interior design two years ago. It’s my new job. I love it. It gives me a lot of energy. When I do it, I am relaxed.”

[+ WilliamM]

Daily Shouts The New Yorker

Observed Aftereffects of Seeing the 2018 Best Picture Oscar Nominees

By Shannon Reed

 

7:00 A.M.

 

 

Photograph by Sony Pictures Classics / Everett

“Call Me by Your Name”

 

Earworm: mash-up of Blondie’s “Call Me” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.”

 

Checking ticket prices for flights to Italy; sadly realizing that there is no flight to 1983.

 

Falling down an Armie Hammer Internet rabbit hole; emerging with cocktail-party small talk about baking soda.

[+ Cash4Trash]

For all you Timothee Chalamet fans.

[OCClient]

Does Timothee have big feet? Or is it just the camera angle?

 

[OCClient]

Andre Aciman is in Southern Cal lately. For the Oscars? But also doing a lot of Q&A for a book tour.

 

Here is his interview on KCRW bookworm radio show, discussing CMBYN and Enigma Variations.

By now it's clear he doesn't like labels. The conversation about sexuality and desire was interesting. https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/bookworm/andre-aciman-call-me-by-your-name-enigma-variations

 

Aciman points out how liberals can be the most prudish people. From my view, Enigma Variations will not sit well with folks that need labels and folks that are prudish. It is another great book by Aciman, just as CMBYN.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2018 by OCClient

[TruHart1]

Does Timothee have big feet? Or is it just the camera angle?

 

I believe Mr. Chalamet's feet are actually quite impressive size-wise, perhaps comparable to a cute (extremely talented!) puppy's feet indicate his full-grown size!

 

TruHart1

[TruHart1]

''Cheers to Lucy from Medford, MA! Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are going to call Lucy by her name at their exclusive pre-Oscars dinner party.

 

We also owe a big congratulations to Laura from Berkeley, CA, who won a signed copy of André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name and Bryant from Doylestown, PA, who won a limited edition vinyl of the soundtrack signed by Sufjan Stevens.

 

Thank you so much for supporting The Trevor Project and the Foundation for The AIDS Monument. We’re celebrating you, too!

 

Stay awesome,

Team Omaze''

 

 

 

TruHart1

[OCClient]

T.C. won best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards this afternoon in Santa Monica. I loved his acceptance speech.

 

http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2018/03/timothee-chalamet-spirit-awards-2018.jpg

Edited March 4, 2018 by OCClient

[+ WilliamM]

''Cheers to Lucy from Medford, MA! Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are going to call Lucy by her name at their exclusive pre-Oscars dinner party.

 

 

I am confused. Is Lucy attending at pre-Oscar dinner party?

[TruHart1]

''Cheers to Lucy from Medford, MA! Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are going to call Lucy by her name at their exclusive pre-Oscars dinner party.

 

We also owe a big congratulations to Laura from Berkeley, CA, who won a signed copy of André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name and Bryant from Doylestown, PA, who won a limited edition vinyl of the soundtrack signed by Sufjan Stevens.

 

Thank you so much for supporting The Trevor Project and the Foundation for The AIDS Monument. We’re celebrating you, too!

 

Stay awesome,

Team Omaze''

 

 

 

TruHart1

I am confused. Is Lucy attending at pre-Oscar dinner party?

Check out this link, @WilliamM , it explains the contest and how to enter it, though it is over now. Lucy, from Medford, MA won a pre-Oscar dinner with the cast & director of CMBYN: https://www.omaze.com/experiences/call-me-by-your-name-oscars-party?ref=callme

 

That prize was for earlier this evening, March 10, 2018.

 

TruHart1

Edited March 8, 2018 by TruHart1

[TruHart1]

T.C. won best male lead at the Independent Spirit Awards this afternoon in Santa Monica. I loved his acceptance speech.

 

http://cdn02.cdn.justjared.com/wp-content/uploads/headlines/2018/03/timothee-chalamet-spirit-awards-2018.jpg

Here's Timothée Chalamet's acceptance speech at the Independent Spirit Awards accepting the award for best male actor:

 

Armie was suffering from the flu and unable to attend, even though he WAS nominated as best supporting male actor (Sam Rockwell won):

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/entertainthis/2018/03/03/how-timothee-gas-station-spirit-awards/392614002/

 

TruHart1

Edited March 4, 2018 by TruHart1

[Kenny]

Excellent piece in today’s LA Times (by the theater critic) on script-derived problems with CMBYN (and Three Billboards):

 

“But the love story between Elio and Oliver, the visiting student, is hampered by the casting of Armie Hammer, who resembles not so much a budding archaeologist with a deep knowledge of philology but a junior associate at Goldman Sachs with a wad of traveler's checks in his preppy shorts. Hammer's Oliver seems too old, too confident and too blunt for the delicate affair whipped up for him.

 

The erotic adventure of the young men is art-directed to be poetic (secret foot massages!) rather than convincingly candid. "Call Me by Your Name" wants to depict sexuality given a furlough from societal prohibitions, but the film would rather not delve into the psychology of the closet. Identity politics needn't be rigidly brought into the story, but sexuality and selfhood seem to have only a passing acquaintance here. It's a fantasy for those afraid of their fantasies.

 

.... More problematic is the handling of Elio's father (played by Michael Stuhlbarg with his dependable dexterity), who lives vicariously through his son's sexual awakening. He has been supervising Elio's sentimental education like a paternal, voyeuristic Flaubert.

 

Near the end of the film after Oliver has returned home, Professor Perlman passes along some sage words to his son about treasuring the quickly fading springtime of passion. "Call Me by Your Name" would rather generalize this romantic wisdom than explore its neurotic origins in the professor's walled off homoerotic desire. Perlman lives in a morgue of good living that the movie confuses with timeless philosophy.

 

All the sexy cinematography is ultimately a subterfuge, a mythological screen to divert attention from a more shadowy story of cowardice and compromise. The endless scrutiny of Chalamet's face as it shades from innocence to experience through the pain of loss makes for a striking finale. But the profundity of "Call Me by Your Name" is shallow. The house is full of books and literary references are strewn about like confetti, but the overriding sensibility is more decorative than dramatic — Merchant-Ivory for the age of Instagram.”

 

 

I think the review is exactly right (and bound to be a minority opinion!).

[TruHart1]

Excellent piece in today’s LA Times (by the theater critic) on script-derived problems with CMBYN...:

 

...I think the review is exactly right (and bound to be a minority opinion!).

You are entitled to your opinion just as the LA Times theater critic is. However, what is described, including the skewed viewpoint on Armie Hammer's interpretation of Oliver, is NOT what the book, and therefore the movie, is about. Does anyone really believe that in 1983 a 17 year-old teen age male with a crush on an older 24 year-old male would actually be in any way cognizant of how this sexual affair might ruin his life?

 

AIDS had certainly not reached Northern Italy yet in any form in 1983. As for Hammer's interpretation, read the book. Oliver protects his inner self by trying to appear older and much more confident than he actually is. Director Guadagnino hand-picked both Chalamet and Hammer for his leading men and has expressed the belief that the vision he had for this film was fully achieved. Like the film or dislike the film. It is the film that the filmmakers wanted to make.

 

TruHart1

[Kenny]

Does anyone really believe that in 1983 a 17 year-old teen age male with a crush on an older 24 year-old male would actually be in any way cognizant of how this sexual affair might ruin his life? AIDS had certainly not reached Northern Italy yet in any form in 1983.

 

What on earth are you talking about? AIDS? Huh? Which is nowhere mentioned, never mind discussed, in the excerpted column (or in fact in the un-excerpted column). Just because you are in love with every frame of the film (and with Armie) isn't a good reason to make up stuff to defend your viewpoint. Sheesh.

 

You write that "Oliver protects his inner self by trying to appear older and much more confident than he actually is" -- which is in fact part of the problem with the film. Armie actually is older, so the conflicted personality of a young man trying to appear older is lost. Guadagnino hand-picked wrong. Oops.

 

And Earth to TruHart: As I've written, I liked the movie. Which isn't the same as claiming perfection.

 

And as for the "you are entitled to your own opinion" line, how condescending. As if you are conferring some fabulous privilege. At the very least, blurting such a sentiment explains why you are willing to so readily embrace the most conventional sentiment imaginable. Grow up.

Edited March 4, 2018 by Kenny

[+ WilliamM]

You are entitled to your opinion just as the LA Times theater critic is. However, what is described, including the skewed viewpoint on Armie Hammer's interpretation of Oliver, is NOT what the book, and therefore the movie, is about. Does anyone really believe that in 1983 a 17 year-old teen age male with a crush on an older 24 year-old male would actually be in any way cognizant of how this sexual affair might ruin his life?

 

AIDS had certainly not reached Northern Italy yet in any form in 1983. As for Hammer's interpretation, read the book. Oliver protects his inner self by trying to appear older and much more confident than he actually is. Director Guadagnino hand-picked both Chalamet and Hamme

 

I enjoyed the film as well. And I may see it for the second tome tonight rather than watch the Academy Awards.

 

Just my opinion, but the overwhelming approval of the film may fade or grow even stronger over time.

 

It took decades for people to greatly admire Hitchcock's "Vertigo." I doubt the current very high regard now has anything to do with the large age difference between James Stewart and Kim Novak.

 

People loved Roman Holiday. And very young Audrey Hepburn won a best Actress Academy Award but now the film is rarely mentioned.

[+ WilliamM]

You write that "Oliver protects his inner self by trying to appear older and much more confident than he actually is" -- which is in fact part of the problem with the film. Armie actually is older, so the conflicted personality of a young man trying to appear older is lost. Guadagnino hand-picked wrong [actor]. Oops.

 

 

Sadly, I agree. It would be the same as writing Jimmy Stewart tried to appear older and wiser in "Vertigo."

[TruHart1]

Sadly, I agree. It would be the same as writing Jimmy Stewart tried to appear older and wiser in "Vertigo."

Having never read the original French novel, D'Entre les Morts, on which "Vertigo" is based, I have no idea if the character of the detective in the movie, portrayed by Stewart, was supposed to be an older man or not. Oliver in Aciman's novel is 7 years older than Elio in the book. I was not trying to say Oliver is older and wiser in CMBYN, only that Oliver covers his insecurities with a bravado which is perceived as a high level of confidence and wisdom, trying to convey that Armie Hammer did that perfectly, contrary to all the brickbats thrown at Mr. Hammer as being "uninvolved, too old, etc., etc." in his role interpretation.

 

TruHart1