I miss Pauline Kael. I wonder what she would say about the film Call Me By Your Name.
There is a bandwagon that’s pushing the film. Many people learned about its plot long before they even saw the film. Most unusual is the phenomenon of fans following the two leads—Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer—even before they got to see the two play the characters in the film. Social media and traditional news platforms have made Elio/Timothée Chalamet and Oliver/Armie Hammer a presence in the mind of would-be audiences. The effect is good for the film but it initiates an anticipation that could ruin one’s enjoyment and engagement with the film.
As with others closely following the film, I, too, got into this singular process of stalking the two leads as they appeared in interviews to promote the film. Actors don’t necessary become good interviews. Chalamet and Hammer proved to be the quintessential promoters of the film. I, as with others, felt I was looking at Elio and Oliver promoting their relationship or friendship and not the film. Proof of this phenomenon is the CNN interview conducted by Christiana Amanpour. Witness how the unshakable and formidable journalist gets bowled over by the charming pair (for that is how they look in interviews).
The film is a lovely phantasm. That much I can admit. With a screenplay from James Ivory, the scenes, which are dated to 1983, are filtered by the sunniest of sunshines, the slenderest of rains and soft shadows instead of darkness. And the two most charming, helplessly cute actors this side of the moon.
So, what am I complaining about? Nothing much really—except the fact that, remove the gay love, the story is predictable and trite.
Call Me By Your Name is about Elio a quiet, intelligent 17-year-old boy of Jewish-American and Italian descent. He spends his summer in northern Italy with his father, an archaeologist, and a mother who seems to understand him. One summer, as with other summers, a research fellow from America comes to study and assist Elio’s father. At first the boy appears to be irritated that he’s giving up his room for this stranger. The first few days see the two not interested in each other, with the age gap a natural reason for the distance. But Elio reads a lot and he becomes the guide for Oliver. The two spend a lot of time together. And yet, Oliver is interested in a local girl and Elio has a girlfriend. In one of their walks, Elio implies what he’s beginning to feel toward Oliver. The latter dismisses the emotion even as we’re not sure if he resents that. One day, they kiss. Elio is more aggressive and puts his hand on the crotch of Oliver, who removes it. He cautions the boy about it. At this point, we’re not sure where the attraction comes from and when it developed. If there’s attraction, why delay it? Oliver, the older guy that he is, is portrayed as one who has more control of his sexual urges, if there are such in his body
The two spend more time away from each other. Then one day, Elio writes a note to Oliver, who responds with a note. Oliver wants to see Elio at midnight. That tryst leads to the two having sex. They would have more encounters all the time keeping the relationship a secret. The household, for all the intellectual air about it, is not ready for any confession. Elio, in fact, worries that maybe they’re causing quite the “commotion” to make the other people in the house aware of their nightly bouts. It’s clear, therefore, the two are not in a kind of social paradise that allows men and boys to fall in love with each other. The world remains a garden from which men who breach nature can be evicted.
In tales like this, in coming-of-age lore, the summer comes to an end, and the joys momentarily end, the sadness overwhelms and the boy grows up. Oliver has to leave. The parents, for many reasons obvious to us, decides to allow Elio to be with Oliver for two days before the latter finally departs for the US.
What follows is not the happiest moment for the two but the saddest. Let me correct that: the saddest and, ultimately, most senseless time for Elio.
Here, the debate about the true color of the film ensues.
Does the film, in its heart, frown on this kind of relationship, or does it celebrate the beauty of two men in love, physically, sexually and emotionally? Those who have fallen in love with the film must think there’s something to be joyous about the tale of two men lusting and loving each other. Even as the bond remains furtive? If this is true love, then why does it not last?
Call Me By Your Name remains to the genre of a star-crossed lovers. At the train station, as Oliver takes the train that will bring him to the big city and out of the country, we feel he’s sad but ready for departure. He’s not merely leaving; he is returning to his home, to the location of his person. Elio, on the other hand, is left the sadder of the two. He is home but he loses his man. At the closing of the film (this is not a spoiler because the ending is all over town), Oliver calls the family of Elio. The boy gets to answer the call and finds out Oliver is getting married. The entire heterosexual world is relieved and happy. Homosexual love, or gay love, if you allow me to be prosaic, has no future after all. We now have a label for Oliver: bisexual. In tears, our angel of a boy Elio is the loser—the gay (if you would allow me the use of this label) is the loser, the sorrowful person. Perhaps, he will go back to his girlfriend and we will all be relieved again. There’s another bisexual.
There are other problems in the film. Let me nitpick. There is the realization of Elio that they have wasted time because Oliver never made any sign of his attraction or desire. To this, Oliver reminds the boy of that moment at the tennis lawn when he approached Elio to touch him and rub his shoulder. For god’s sake, that gesture is ours to passionately give meaning to. We don’t need a footnote. There’s also the girlfriend clearing any doubt about her value to Elio. Then there’s the young girl forgiving and understanding Elio. Again, too much citation in this love report.
The weakest because it is so didactic is the long speech of Elio’s father. He explains excruciatingly to the boy how the friendship between him and Oliver is special and how he should be thankful for those moments.
The father even tells the boy that he, too, had the chance to be in such a relationship, but he let it go. The father looks like he is assuring the boy, but it can be read again as an assurance for the world to bear with the romance and bask it in its beauty. Too much endnotes, if I may so.
So, why the excitement for the film? The two actors are the reason for the feast. Armie Hammer has the face of a man who can make love to all the beauties of Hollywood. He comes to this film and does all the kissing without so much announcing the controversy in the scenes. He disproves the myths that men who kiss men in the lips and with tongue should lisp a bit, sway the hips a bit, and should imply a bit of feminine in his ways. I believe Armie Hammer is the kind of male friend you can catch kissing another man, who would turn to you and, with a wink, tell you he’s not gay, he’s just into men sometimes, and you’d believe him.
Timothée Chalamet is a find. He has the body of a young man with raging hormones and the face of an archangel. He looks brittle that when Oliver kisses his Elio, he seems to melt and disappear. And yet, he continues to kiss and summons for us all the taboo we don’t want to consider at that point.
In interviews and media releases, director Luca Guadagnino is the reason for the fresh and enthralling performances of the two leads. He allowed them to get to know each other by themselves. They biked together for a long time, the same actions they are seen doing in the film. For the so-called controversial scenes, the director did not warn them so as to prepare them for the shoot. The impact is seen onscreen: the kisses happen as they should and could happen, urged by passion that comes without bidding, guided by a fate that amuses or shatters us.
As for Pauline Kael, she wrote in her review of Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, where the protagonist wins over the thugs, that if we want to find out what happens to those who fight the management, we should go to a real waterfront.
In the case of Call Me By Your Name, if you want to discover the allure and magic of men into men, or boys into men, don’t stay with the film. Watch the interviews of Timothee Chalement and Armie Hammer as they look at each other before responding to the queries. I would want them to fall in love each other. But the news releases assure us always that both are straight (a sigh of relief from the world again). And yet they whisper to each other every now and then. We shall call that whisper a nameless, blameless whisper. That is what the film is all about, without the footnotes and endnotes and unwarranted assurances.
Call Me By Your Name is based on the book by Andre Aciman. The film has received several nominations in the 90th Academy Awards, including the Best Actor for Chalamet and Best Picture. The film is released through Sony Pictures Classics.