Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival January 22,2017
a Luca Guadagnino film
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Mr. Perlman studies ancient artifacts in Northern Italy. Perlman's new assistant, Oliver, stays with his family during the summer and spends a lot of time with Perlman’s son, Elio, who develops romantic feelings for him.
Blaine: Shortly after “Call Me By Your Name”, the novel, was published, a screenplay was quickly developed by someone who was also attached to direct. Both the book and the script were set in Italy and filmmaker Luca Guadagnino was asked to be the guide to the producers and the director because he is from Italy. Luca showed several beautiful spots they could shoot the film, then he got involved with “Call Me By Your Name” as an executive producer and then got promoted to producer. “Call Me By Your Name” wasn’t easy to put together and there were different ways of how it would look as a film. The director had dropped out for mysterious reasons while “Call Me By Your Name” was in development. The producers tried to look for a new director, then they thought Luca should direct. Luca wasn’t interested in directing “Call Me By Your Name” at first, but then he started to think about how things would go through his direction. When he was just the producer of the film, Luca already felt he was in charge of things. Luca knew the perfect spots in Italy for the film to be shot at and he was the one who met with actors Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet and had them cast in “Call Me By Your Name”. It sounded exciting to Luca to be directing these actors in his own environment, so he agreed to direct and a new screenplay was written by James Ivory.
Luca had met Armie Hammer around the time he was starting to get attention. Armie had just done “The Social Network” and Luca had him in mind for “Call Me By Your Name” because he thought Armie was a fascinating actor. Armie read the script, but he wasn’t sure if he could do a project like this because it sounded challenging for him to play an honest character like Oliver. Armie had turned down the project, but Luca changed his mind. Luca told Armie that as an actor you’re going to be faced with a lot of challenges and Armie knew that was true. If Armie wants to live life as an actor he’s going to have to face challenges and he took Luca’s advice and decided to be in “Call Me By Your Name”. Armie hadn’t heard anything about the project for years after that because the producers were still trying to put “Call Me By Your Name" together. The producers had trouble finding money to make “Call Me By Your Name”, even though it was going to be a low budget movie. The money to finance “Call Me By Your Name” came from places like France, Brazil and Italy.
Timothee Chalamet was introduced to Luca through his agent. Timothee had been working his way up to becoming an actor for some time. Timothee wasn’t sure if “Call Me By Your Name” was something he should do, but this was going to be the first movie where he was going to play a lead character and he loved Luca’s films, so he decided to take a chance. Timothee had a month and a half to learn how to play the piano because his character, Elio, plays it and also creates his own music. Timothee felt he got this by the time they started shooting “Call Me By Your Name”, but he was nervous when it came to shooting the scene where Elio plays something for Oliver because it was going to be a long shot. It wasn’t going to be cutting to different shot of him playing the piano. Timothee had to make sure he didn’t screw up one piano note as they were shooting.
The day before principal photography began, everyone showed up to the Villa, which is the house they shot at, and there was nothing to do during the day, so Luca asked Armie, Timothee and the other actors if they wanted to do some rehearsing and everyone was pumped up. Luca wanted to rehearse the scene where Oliver and Elio make out for the first time. They rehearsed it in the back of the house because there was a lot of grass. They rehearsed the scene a couple of times and Luca just said “good", while walking away and Armie and Timothee didn’t know if they were done rehearsing or not. They just sat on that grass asking themselves if they are done with rehearsals for the day. The actors rehearsed scenes for just one day and that was it. Luca told everyone to think of the story they are telling as one with love, light and laughter. Every character in this movie is relaxed and happy. There’s no arguments, there’s nothing to be concerned about, there’s no fighting, there’s no trouble at all. All the spots they shot “Call Me By Your Name” at in Italy are so beautiful to look at as you watch the movie and it makes me feel relaxed.
Armie Hammer didn’t like shooting the scene where Oliver is dancing to the song “Love My Way” because there was no music playing. Armie didn’t even get an earpiece to listen to music, he just danced to nothing. Armie also had to think how Oliver would dance. Armie decided that Olvier would feel free as he is dancing.
Before Oliver comes into Elio’s life, he is beginning a relationship with his French friend, Marzia. Luca’s casting director, Stella Savino, told him about this French actress she knew named Esther Garrel and she sounded interesting to Luca. He thought she sounded perfect to play Marzia. Luca just showed up in France offering Esther the part and she couldn’t believe it was that easy to be offered a part without auditioning. Esther didn’t bother asking Luca why he chose her for Marzia. When she learned that it was Stella’s idea to cast her, Esther owed huge thanks to Stella. Esther also thought of Stella as her guardian angel. Marzia is in love with Elio and he really likes her, but he is in love with Oliver. But that doesn’t mean Marzia and Elio aren't close. Elio gets involved with Marzia whenever Oliver isn’t around. They know each other very well. In the end, Marzia and Elio decide to just be good friends.
Elio’s parents are free spirited people and they don’t care that their son has romantic feelings for Oliver because they are open minded people. They also understand what love is. Michael Stulhlbarg, who plays the father, Mr. Perlman, says a line at the end very beautifully that people have had a relating reaction to. Mr. Perlman was in love with a man too when he was Elio’s age and he tells that to his son and what it felt like. Michael said his lines with a lot of feeling and he practiced how he was going to say it for four weeks before they shot the scene. The ending shows Elio and his family celebrating Hanukkah, Oliver calls Elio telling him he is engaged to a woman. After that phone conversation, Elio just looks at the fireplace with tears in his eyes because the person he loves in life is getting married to someone else and it just shows his face through the whole end credits. Timothee wore an earpiece to listen to the music that was going to be playing in the background while they were shooting the ending just to feel the mood of the song.
My rating on “Call Me By Your Name” is four and a half out of five stars
