Get up at 6:30 in the morning to catch the early screening of the media screening of the London Film Festival. Squeezed on the subway with commuters, the car was filled with the hot air of getting up. The train was drowsy and headed all the way to the city center. At 8 o'clock, the Western District is as barren as a desert, and there is not a single shadow of tourists. Pedestrians on the road wrapped themselves tightly. London in early autumn was cold and bleak, the sky was overcast, and it was always raining.
Ten minutes before I left the venue, while yawning, I went to the cafe next to the movie theater to buy a big cup of Americano. I forgot to wear a scarf when I went out today, the wind came in through the crack of the door, and my neck shrank from the cold.
Hold coffee and walk into the screening room, find a seat and take a seat, the lights are dimmed.
Reality is gone, and we're back in 1983, a hot, sticky summer in northern Italy.
Elio was a well-respected teenager compared to his peers of that era. Both parents are highly educated, have good aesthetic tastes, and are more lenient in the discipline of their children. And so we get to see this bright, sly, and uninterested Jewish boy reading, swimming, and transcribing sheet music in boredom during the long Italian summer.
Oliver has a little American temperament that Europeans don't like to see, and he speaks and acts very casually. On the first day of staying at a guest's house, you can make excuses for not attending dinner in order to sleep. But who made this American have blond hair, broad shoulders, wit, wit, and even a little conceit, it didn't prevent him from quickly gaining the favor of Elio's parents and the hearts of the village girls.
From the start, the film lavishly portrays the beautiful summer days of the Riviera: sun, countryside, pools, shade, teenage boys and girls with bare skin, soft, wrinkled sheets in a country farmhouse. Through the grainy film images and the nostalgic soundtrack of the 1980s, an immersive feeling is created, allowing the audience to quickly inhabit the poetic story of this 17-year-old boy.
Later, I was a little jealous of the director and his director of photography. There are so many unconventional freehand mirror movements, and there is no need for any clear lines, the scene itself is ambiguous - especially when I remember the outdoor volleyball game, Oliver placed his palm on the shoulder of the teenager for a moment, and the camera shot so gently, It seems to be casually swept over, but the person watching misses a beat, and can't help but start to ponder, "Ah, so he also likes him a little bit?"
There are also two explicit images that appear in the film: the yellow peach (apricot) and the marble sculpture.
In the film, we often see a yellow peach tree in the farmhouse. The ripe yellow peach tree hangs heavily on the branches. After being picked by the housekeepers, it will appear on the breakfast table the next day; Oliver is a linguist, He ruthlessly refuted Elio's father in a discussion, dismantling the word "apricot", tracing its etymology in Latin, Greek and Arabic; and the logo in the film Sexual scene: Elio cuts a hole out of a yellow peach to use for masturbation. The juice that came out after the yellow peach was punctured seemed to imply the restless hormones of adolescence and the boy's lust for nowhere.
The marble sculpture undoubtedly represents the fascination and desire for the perfect body. Elio's father, seemingly ignorant of the forbidden love, is still talking to Oliver about the incredible muscle lines on the marble statue, "as if they are daring you to desire," the art history professor told the American ( At this time, the audience all laughed unkindly, what could he desire, not your son's body...).
The film doesn't talk too much about the gay situation of that era, nor the religious backgrounds of the protagonists. Oliver had tried to resist his love for Elio ("I want to behave properly," he said after the teenager kissed him for the first time). The two also had a brief conversation about why Oliver insisted on wearing the "Star of David (Jewish symbol)". However, the background of the big era, in front of this summer love like poetry, seems so insignificant. Nothing matters except your kiss, and your shirt, and when I call my name by your name ("Call me by your name, and I'll call you by mine").
"Call Me by your Name" very tenderly confines the story to this summer, this location, and the sweet and elusive love between two boys. The director deliberately added many life-like scenes: when he was tired from cycling, he begged for water from the Italian old man on the side of the road; the housekeeper caught a big fish and excitedly brought it to Elio; Young people dancing in the open space, all these seemingly "unnecessary" scenes are trying to tell the audience that this is just another ordinary day.
So the label "gay movie" doesn't apply to "Call Me by your Name," and it probably won't apply to many non-hetero-themed films in the future. After all, love (and its attendant sentimentality and heartbreak) is a universal emotion that is likely to resonate with people of any sexual orientation.
The most touching scene is when the father comforts Elio, who is brokenhearted, and whispers to his son, "Nature has its cunning ways of finding our weakest spot."
Who hasn't had a moment like this in each of our lives? Maybe it happened in a fleeting summer, and there was a boy or girl who broke your heart. You have been sad about this for a long time, but you still think of this person tenderly years later.
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