Call Me By Your Name

The Book

I borrowed a copy of this book from the library but after reading it I immediately bought my own copy as I know it is one of those books that I will want to revisit. It is a beautiful work which so captures that state of being infatuated with another person. A love you want to be with all the time so you don't miss anything in their life; who you find yourself thinking about all the time, wondering what they are doing if they are not with you; wanting to be them.

Elio is a 17 year old Italian who has to vacate his bedroom for a visiting American, Oliver, who has come to stay in their idyllic family house as a retreat to write his academic thesis. A turmoil of teenage hormones, Elio is attracted to the older Oliver and following tentative moves, counter moves and rebuffs, they gradually, but inevitably, become physically and emotionally entwined. 

Before they know it, however, Oliver's six month sabbatical is over and they have a final, memorable weekend in Rome before his departure back to America. The heartache and loss is palpable and what makes it worse in the book is that it's not a clean break - neither of them can stop getting back in touch over the years as Oliver marries, has children and Elio throws himself into one relationship after another to recapture that first-love sensation. 

The Film

The acting in the film is first rate by all the cast but especially Timothee Chalamet, who is able to express a lot of emotion with one look. I did feel the cinematography let it down, however. There were out-of-focus shots, lingering cuts to badly framed concrete stairs or trees that even I wouldn't take with a camera, and annoying flies that drew the viewer's attention when something important or emotional was taking place on screen. 

That said the emotional hit of the film at the end still worked and left me in tears. Probably more stirring than the red eyes of Elio was his father's confession to his son that he could have had in his youth what his son enjoyed that Summer but turned it away. Although it can hurt, he says, its worth taking those risks now, as nobody will want you when you're old and your body is out of shape.. oh the regrets of lost youth. 

The film rating states strong sex and from the book you would probably be expecting something, but you see less flesh and sex than on an episode of a BBC TV drama. It even had the camera moving away to a shot outside the window and then a move back to post-coital embrace. It's not afraid to show a peach being fingered, though! 

If you enjoyed the book, then try Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story or Hide by Matthew Griffin.

If you enjoyed the film, then give Blue is the Warmest Colour, North Sea Texas or the marvellous God's Own Country a watch.