Call Me By Your Name: Beautiful Setting & LGBT Representation ⋆ Wonderfully Bookish

It’s not often that I go and see a film that I know absolutely nothing about, but when I saw that Call Me By Your Name had been nominated for various big awards (including Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars), I wanted to see what the fuss was about. It came out a while ago but it was showing in my local theatre where they often show films that didn’t have a wide release, so I had to take the opportunity to see it!

I wasn’t sure at first what I’d think of it at first because I didn’t know anything about it, but I ended up really enjoying it! Here are my thoughts…

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Haven’t seen Call Me By Your Name? Watch the trailer:

Call Me By Your Name Synopsis

It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and 17- year-old Elio Perlman spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa. Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father, a professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella, a translator.

One day, Oliver, a charming scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendour of the Italian setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

UK Release: 27th October 2017
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Cesar, Esther Garrel

Expectation

The only thing I knew about Call Me By Your Name was that it must have great actors and a good story, considering it was nominated for Oscars and BAFTAs, among others (including an Oscar nomination for Best Film). I also knew that it had a massive score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it must have won over the critics.

Usually, if I don’t know very much about a film, I’ll research it and watch the trailer if I know I’m going to see it in the cinema. With this one, though, I didn’t do any of that (mostly because I forgot I was going to see it and had to be reminded in the morning). That meant that I was going in completely blind, so I didn’t really have any big expectations. All I knew was that it had a big focus on romance so I was a bit tentative (I’m not big on romance).

Review

I didn’t expect to like the film as much as I did! It’s one of those films where nothing crazy happens; it’s not a film that’s packed full of suspense, action, or edge-of-the-seat moments.

However, one of my favourite things in both books and films is when we get a snapshot into the life of a person, however normal, mundane, or extravagant their lives are. It always highlights to me how great the writer is: it’s a lot easier to write a crazy scene where something mad and crazy happens, but to write something realistic and human without being boring takes so much skill. This is what I loved about this film.

Call Me By Your Name reminded me a lot of the French-language film, Blue is the Warmest Colour. Like BITWC, Call Me By Your Name gave us the highest and lowest parts of the characters’ relationship, as well as the most intimate. (However, unlike BITWC, it wasn’t so graphic that it caused a massive controversy. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can probably Google it.) It had just the right amount of realism, love and romance without being too much. Most importantly, it’s so great to see a film with wonderful LGBT representation!

Not only was the story great, but the setting was to die for! I sat in the cinema with my friend and her mum and we all agreed that we were swooning over the beautiful Italian setting. I want to go there right now! Well done to the production designers for choosing such a gorgeous place. I’m not jealous at all that they all got the film there. Nope.

The final thing to note was how bloody amazing the acting was, especially from newcomer Timothee Chalamet. It’s no surprise that he was nominated for the Best Actor at the Oscars! The rest of the cast were great too. Again, as I said about the skill needed to write realistic films, I think actors need a crazy amount of skill to act it, too.

Call Me By Your Name might not be one of my favourite films of the year, but it’s definitely one that I thought about a lot and I appreciate it for its LGBT rep. I’m also glad I saw it because it was one of the Best Film nominations at the Oscars, and my goal this year was to see as many as I could. I’m glad, out of all of them, I saw this one!