Like most people I know who go to the Berlinale, I avoid the gay movies. Of course I make conscious exceptions like I did for “Love is Strange” (largely because I am into Alfred Molina and John Lithgow and liked the premise a lot), but when it comes to the Berlinale the genre is famously oversaturated so the likelihood of stumbling upon something great (like “Weekend”, in my mind perhaps the greatest gay film ever) is so small that I usually wouldn’t run the risk.
In this case, I completely failed to realize that this is a gay movie. (Can you believe it?) I thought “oh there is a new movie by the director of ‘I am love’ and I have not seen an Italian film in awhile”, and that was enough for me to choose this film without looking at the synopsis too closely.
It was also the first time I saw a late screening at this year’s Berlinale, and the first thing I noticed about the film was that it managed to keep me awake even though I felt really, really tired. Even though I was at the premiere of the film, I couldn’t be bothered to stay for the Q&A afterwards.
Call me by your name
Italy/France 2017, Luca Guadagnino, 132′
Every year, Elio’s family takes in a young archaeological researcher at their summer villa to stay with them and to help Elio’s father with his research. This year, the visitor is a charming and exceeding good-looking American who first confuses Elio, but slowly they realize their feelings for each other.
It’s difficult not to compare the film with “I am love”, so I will unashamedly do so. What struck me the most was how incredibly unusual “I am love” is as a film, and how straight-forward the love story plot in “Call me by your name” is compared to it. How can a director who cooks up some of the most unusual stories make another movie about something so trivial? Not that it is necessarily a bad thing – boy meets girl (in this case boy meets boy) can be nice and interesting – but I just expected otherwise from this director. I was especially into the family relationships in “I am love”, which I felt was sorely missing here. All the other characters just served as supporting cast to the main characters’s relationship. Literally supporting in fact.
That was another thing that surprised me a little – the relationship has absolutely no challenges outside of itself. That can be nice too, but in this case the parents and girlfriends (!) seemed over the top helpful. The parents freely discuss their son’s relationship: “Oh our 17 year old son’s boyfriend is leaving and he will be heart-broken so why don’t we send them on a short city trip so they can intensify their feelings further before he leaves?” The girlfriend Elio toys with and essentially dumps by not talking to her for 3 days says stuff like “I don’t want to get involved with you. I have a sense that you will hurt me and I don’t want to be hurt” prior to entering a relationship with him anyways (of course), but after getting dumped and after Oliver leaves, she (almost literally) says this to Elio: “I heard about Oliver leaving, and I’m sorry that you are sad. It’s alright, I am not angry at you, I really am not. Can we still be friends? I love you, Elio.” What the heck?
If one accepts that “Call me by your name” is the ultimate gay high society utopia, the film can be thoroughly entertaining (as I hinted before, I did not fall asleep during it) precisely because everything was so utopic and idyllic. Just like “Love is strange” (and also like “I am love”) the characters live in this perfect world of thoughtful intellectuals in which they have a scrumptious breakfast in their Italian garden, with fresh orange (or other) juice, croissants and fruits from their orchard. When the father and Oliver talk about their archaelogical research (and claim that those ancient sculptures of males were erotic), the mother comes in with more freshly squeezed juice in a jug and pretty cups on a tablet. Their cook makes the most delicious looking foods, and they all casually switch between their three languages within any conversation (French, Italian, English). Oh and they are Jews too!
I was amused to see that Louis Garrel’s sister is somehow just completely normal-looking, much like Chiara Mastroianni. The girls in the film are all comparably average-looking, whereas the main characters look more like of a combination of Shii and Louis Garrel himself (Elio), and Don Draper in blonde (Oliver). Alfred Molina and John Lithgow make for a more realistic couple in “Love is strange”, but as I said, you just have to accept the utopia “Call me by your name” lives in, and then the film becomes a fun escapist fantasy. (OK, the sex scenes were boring. At some point 2/3 into the film, the physical aspect of their relationship became important and I yawned throughout it pretty heavily.)
Oh, I also like the gimmick with the title (which I completely failed to realize until it was shown at the end of the film). It’s cute, and it reminded me of “You’re ugly too”.
