Xixax Film Forum

Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: wilder on August 04, 2017, 04:22:08 AM

Title: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: wilder on August 04, 2017, 04:22:08 AM


Summer of 1983, Northern Italy. An American-Italian is enamored by an American student who comes to study and live with his family. Together they share an unforgettable summer full of music, food, and romance that will forever change them.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino (A Bigger Splash, I Am Love)
Written by James Ivory, based on the novel by André Aciman
Release Date - November 24, 2017
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Sleepless on October 25, 2017, 08:57:41 AM
Heard very good things about this and looking forward to eventually seeing it. In the meantime, I came here to post this: Luca Guadagnino Defends Lack Of Frontal Nudity In 'Call Me By Your Name' (https://theplaylist.net/luca-guadagnino-nudity-call-name-20171024/)
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Shughes on October 28, 2017, 06:41:04 PM
Watched this tonight.

One of the best of the year. At least 3 scenes/moments floored me. Great performances across the board.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: samsong on December 24, 2017, 01:54:36 AM
didnt love this but expectations were fairly high.  still, i'd like to think i can meet a film on its terms and i felt this was a chore to sit through for most of its running time.  the last twenty minutes or so is pretty lovely but in a way that wasnt necessarily earned by what preceded it.  much is being made of timothee chalamet but michael stuhlbarg, a perenial favorite of mine, gave the best performance in the movie. 

pretty overrated.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: wilder on December 24, 2017, 01:56:14 AM
with you 100%
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: modage on December 24, 2017, 05:42:21 AM
Completely agree. Felt almost no emotional connection to this so the last scene comes out of nowhere for me. The things I loved about the film and have stuck with me are purely aesthetic: the opening credits, the Psychedelic Furs song, the Italian countryside, and the (much ballyhooed) last shot. Without these flourishes, I'm not sure if people would've gone quite so crazy for it.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Drenk on December 24, 2017, 06:06:46 AM
You're craaaaaazy. This is a masterpiece.


But I can understand what you mean. I appreciated the craft of Carol but felt nothing about it. I didn't understand the praise. This movie isn't filmed like Carol. It's a mix between Pialat and PTA post Punch Drunk Love and a thing of its own. It left me speechless.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on December 24, 2017, 11:37:31 AM
David Lowery on 'Call Me By Your Name' (http://variety.com/gallery/directors-on-directors-get-out-lady-bird/#!16/call-me-by-your-name-11)

QuoteLuca Guadagnino's films revel in sensuality. I know I am not the first to say this, or to use that term to describe his work, but what word could be better? I might scroll through the thesaurus, looking for synonyms, but what's the point when they all apply? Stirring, carnal, tactile – each of these function in turn, although none suggest the marvelous manner in which Luca evokes them, or what he finds between them.

I remember watching "I Am Love" for the first time and being overwhelmed by the opening overture. The cuts from one shot to the next were so, so confident, so proclamatory, so lusty and resplendent – and that's to say nothing of the images they cut between! I was enraptured with Luca's sense of form (and inspired to later learn he'd shot that entire sequence himself). It carried me through that film's Hitchcockian splendor, into the violent swoon of "A Bigger Splash," and left me altogether unprepared for the elegant simplicity of this year's "Call Me by Your Name," which is surely his best film yet. His formalism here is quieter, the syntax sparser, the vocabulary more refined and tender. But still, at the heart of it all (and there is so much heart here that yours might break) is that one word.

Of course there are other words, too. Run through them all and they begin to lose their meaning, just as a name said over and over again loses its sense of purpose. This is exactly what Elio (Timothee Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) do in "Call Me by Your Name." We hear it happen right in front of us: Elio, uttered enough times, ceases to be a name, loses its nameness, melts into a sound: delicate and musical and – yes – you know the word I'm thinking of.

Those sounds, together with the spokes of a bicycle, the crack of an egg, the lap of a lake, the song on the radio during a summer tryst and the banging of a screen door in the morning delineate the romance of "Call Me by Your Name." It is a love story that sneaks up on you, just like the seasons do, just as growing-up does. It does not declare itself; it waits until it no longer needs to, until not a single word is necessary...

...except maybe one.

i'm not all the way opposed to seeing this movie someday. in fact i've thought about going but it just hasn't happened. although two friends and i walked out of I Am Love directly after the overture so it's like wellll.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: lorenscope on December 27, 2017, 12:28:12 AM
Looks like a lovely movie for me. It also remind's me of Carol (2015). Too bad I missed the chance to see this.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: pete on December 27, 2017, 06:10:18 PM
SPOILERS

one of the most devastating endings that came outta nowhere for me. I had no idea where the film was going after the story got thru all the beats you see in the trailer, then the film coasts for a minute then BAM. it does all that and takes its time and it gave me something that reached a depth that I didn't realize was possible with a summer-time coming-of-age story. I saw ladybird the next day, which was another coming of age story about a 17-year old, with scene stealing parents - it might've given me more laughs and more emotional beats - but Call Me By Your Name knocked me the fuck out, out of nowhere.

it also does all the small things well - like how it sets up the great performances so we're not just watching beautiful close up of great acting, but great images in which the knock out performances were but one of the elements.

This reminds me a little bit of In America - a vastly different film but they're both similar in that I didn't get the hype throughout the film until the film decided to let me know what the hype was about. Phoenix was another example - if it weren't for this board telling me to stick to the end I might've missed the knockout. I know I've used knocked out like a few times today but I feel like I rarely get knocked out - it happens maybe once a year and sometimes none at all.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on December 27, 2017, 08:56:38 PM
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom is the dp. so his credits are Mysterious Object at Noon, Blissfully Yours, Syndromes and a Century, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. he's Apichatpong Weerasethakul's lensman. i think that's the kind of thing someone should have mentioned. is it in "articles" oh. eventually i'll see this movie. and it's good when people like movies.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Kal on January 01, 2018, 04:18:44 AM
Did you guys know they're making a sequel for this????  :ponder:
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: lorenscope on January 01, 2018, 09:30:51 PM
Quote from: Kal on January 01, 2018, 04:18:44 AM
Did you guys know they're making a sequel for this????  :ponder:

Where did you get this info?
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Drenk on January 01, 2018, 10:49:12 PM
I think he said in an interview that he could direct a sequel, and it then became a running gag on social media and we are now thinking they are planning to make it—but it probably won't happen.

I have seen it again. I love every second of it. It made me think...The story of this movie is nothing new. In some ways it is a basic story. You kind of know what the "plot" will be. (Even if I still have a hard time giving an exact definition of what a plot is...). But it's like no other movie I have seen. It's its own thing—visually, emotionally...

But I can't explain why it's more than a variation of a well known story. I've also seen Lady Bird recently and, even if I liked the movie, it wasn't more than a variation of a movie I had already seen—it gave a specific flavor to it, it had personality, but I didn't find it really interesting. I'm getting sick of watching almost the same movies. But I guess that the "plot" isn't what gives this impression of sameness. It's more about the form.

And personal taste? Emotional involvement, etc. But those who didn't like the movie or didn't care: did you only see it as a story you had already seen? Even if a cold detachment isn't the best thing there is...

Call Me By Your Name is tactile, moody, mysterious, a mix of spleen and sweetness. I also think the script is very good. The way it moves, the way they interact, the way the "plot" or the "action" is happening/not happening. And Chalamet and Hammer are absolutely prodigious in this one. They bring something to the screen that is rare. This is one of a kind combination, one of a kind chemistry.

I can't wait to watch it again. Failing to grasp it totally again.

Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Kal on January 03, 2018, 01:11:06 AM
Quote from: lorenscope on January 01, 2018, 09:30:51 PM
Quote from: Kal on January 01, 2018, 04:18:44 AM
Did you guys know they're making a sequel for this????  :ponder:

Where did you get this info?

There are several interviews where he mentions the sequel, and there even an IMDb page for it. Maybe it's BS but it does not seem like a joke...
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Something Spanish on January 03, 2018, 03:16:39 PM
Quote from: pete on December 27, 2017, 06:10:18 PM
SPOILERS

Call Me By Your Name knocked me the fuck out, out of nowhere.


wanted to feel this, yet ended up more like this:

Quote from: samsong on December 24, 2017, 01:54:36 AM
didnt love this but expectations were fairly high.  still, i'd like to think i can meet a film on its terms and i felt this was a chore to sit through for most of its running time.  the last twenty minutes or so is pretty lovely but in a way that wasnt necessarily earned by what preceded it.

pretty overrated.

but oddly still kinda feel this:

Quote from: Drenk on January 01, 2018, 10:49:12 PM


I can't wait to watch it again. Failing to grasp it totally again.


Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on January 04, 2018, 12:40:01 PM
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Something Spanish on January 04, 2018, 05:03:08 PM
SPOILERS



I think the problem for me is that the film has a lot of lulls in the middle, these begin shortly after Elio and Oliver first fool around by the lake - it feels like a long time until their next interaction with Oliver ignoring him and Elio losing his virginity to Marizia, then the guys schedule a midnight rendezvous with Elio slowly counting down the hours and all that stuff was pretty boring.

Upon further contemplation, I did like most of the movie. It felt different from the same ole Hollywood romances, but the pacing had me spacing out after being so jazzed about the first hour. The whole lead up to the guys' first physical encounter was great, after that only intermittently so. Still, those performances, the setting, the music, all fantastic (Luca, too). Overall I'd say 3-Stars.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Drenk on January 04, 2018, 05:44:35 PM
SPOILERS

That pacing is one of the reasons why I love the movie. To me, like I tried to say previously, I don't really care about the plot of this movie since everything is pretty clear since the beginning. All the spaces between/during/after the events are what gave it a lot of life for me—and when you have those performances, too...

All the scenes with the watch: I find them pretty spectacular. Waiting is such an important part of infatuation.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: lorenscope on January 04, 2018, 09:16:17 PM
I've finally watched it. Feels like a breath of fresh air.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on January 26, 2018, 09:51:28 PM
what happened between me and Luca Guadagnino in Call Me by Your Name is what i was open to let happen between me and Denis Villeneuve in Blade Runner 2049. but even when you're open there's still the chemical reaction, and i didn't chemically react to BR2049 but i did to Call Me by Your Name. so i should go back and rewatch I Am Love while i'm at it.

um rich people and culture is this thing for me that i'm working on overcoming. because if you let it happen, the guiding principle isn't money but art. that can happen--in Europe more often (rumor). the narrative here is thin and the movie is pure sensuality, revolving around the concept of art aesthetics which are even mentioned in a literary sense. it's about meaning more than aesthetics while being aesthetic, it's about what aesthetics can mean.

it's pure emotion and pete didn't spoil about the ending. the ending overall closes a predictable narrative. again, it's about more than the narrative. it's about how the narrative feels. and the certain principle i have to apply toward liking this movie affects me as a person from a richer and more vulnerable principle than that which i applied to mother! and BR2049.

therefore by verifiable principle this has to be one of my favorite movies of the year or else, what i'm saying is, if i didn't say it's one of my favorite movies of the year i'd be lying to myself.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: pete on February 22, 2018, 10:09:40 AM
yeah I don't know why saying "the ending knocked me the fuck out" constitutes as spoiler.
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on March 03, 2018, 08:33:03 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAGXFhD0hVg

<3. when he says the thing about being cheesy and his faith and Xavier Dolan. "We got a whole new wave. We're gonna be good. We're gonna be fine. We're gonna be good."
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: Kal on March 07, 2018, 11:31:42 PM
Quote from: Kal on January 01, 2018, 04:18:44 AM
Did you guys know they're making a sequel for this????  :ponder:

I guess this is now confirmed. I don't understand why, but I'm curious to see what they come up with...
Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: ©brad on March 18, 2018, 11:24:02 PM
Pete and Ghostboy nailed it. Sensual is one of those words overused to the point of meaninglessness, and yet it's so apt here. I could taste the food they were eating, and feel the white sun-baked sheets in Elio's bed when he was alone pining for Oliver. And as Pete said, what struck me most wasn't just Timothee Chalamet owning every frame he's in (and boy does he), but everything that surrounded him. Guadagnino lets every scene breathe, and in doing so allows humanity in. I saw so much PTA in this, didn't you? So many great small moments that are easy to miss, like when Ollie goes for ice in the freezer and finds frozen meat instead. He leaves in a huff but doesn't close the door fully, leaving his grandma to do it for him. I love that shit. Or when Ollie calls his mom for a ride home from the train station, and they share a quiet car ride home. That wrecked me.

I think what some feel as a lull in the middle was necessary. Like where the fuck did Oliver go, I thought, but I was so tapped into Elio's world, and being in love is being alone, so when we see him again, it's magic.

I loved this, and not just because I want to go to Italy and eat fancy breakfasts outside and fuck a teacher and fall in love during a summer and be 17 again. Mainstream gay movies often beat the same 'coming out' drum, but there's no big agenda here. This is an honest and raw love story you revel in, much like Phantom Thread.

Title: Re: Call Me By Your Name
Post by: jenkins on March 24, 2018, 11:03:32 PM
i think the dad's perspective could've played a larger role in a different type of movie, but for this type of movie i think his perspective was well placed. what i think you mean is you would've preferred a movie of larger ideas. Aciman himself has expanded with Enigma Variations (https://www.amazon.com/Enigma-Variations-Novel-Andr%C3%A9-Aciman/dp/0374148430), although it'll be CMBYN2 that's the movie follow up. we'll have to wait to see what expanded concepts will play out like in the sequel, and if it'll make us miss the first or not.