movie: Call Me By Your Name

I finally went today to see another movie. It's been at general theaters for several weeks (a few months in limited release), and I wanted to watch it before it left the big screen.

"Call Me By Your Name" is mostly a foreign film, I suppose, even though it's distributed by Sony Pictures. It's set in Italy in 1983. In places when the dialog is Italian, the movie helpfully provides subtitles. Much of the dialog is also in English, though, so I think anyone can follow along easily. As a foreign film, the pace is much too slow for American audiences. There are long scenes where nobody says anything, and even a few scenes where not much of anything actually happens.

So of course I enjoyed it.

I didn't recognize the faces of any of the actors in it, but there are really just a few major characters interacting with the main character.  It's the story of a young American-Italian (and Jewish) man who tries hesitantly, haltingly to pursue his unfamiliar interest in a visiting American scholar (and also Jewish) man.  I mention Jewish in parentheses because it's never really introduced as a significant factor, the way that language and location affect the film. In a way, the film is more about the main character's coming out and introduction to the pains of adulthood than it is about their budding romance.  The scholar at one point even writes to the young man "Grow up", a directive which left me confused then and now.

The parents also played important roles.  I got the distinct impression that they both knew about their son's interest and tried as surreptitiously as possible to encourage him to follow his heart.  For a movie set in 1983, that's very unusual, almost but not quite anachronistic.  They were both so clever and subtle at it, though, that they could effectively deny their encouragement if they were interpreting the situation wrong.

But... being 1983, there are really only a few ways this young man's interest could resolve itself.  I can't fault the movie for tackling it head-on, although it is unsatisfying because of its believability.

"Nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spots."
- the father to the son

Apparently other people like the movie too.  It currently scores 87% with audiences (and 96% with critics) at Rotten Tomatoes.  When the credits started rolling at my theater, only a small percentage of the audience got up and left.  Everyone else was there in their seats, like me, watching text scroll by the main actor's face, still on screen... still silently reacting.  Kudos to actor Timothée Chalamet for his part in this good movie.  He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.  I don't often have favorites for these awards, but I hope he wins this one.

There was just one moment of the movie that I disliked.  The American scholar was trying to annoy/tease the younger man, so maybe I somehow misunderstood, but I really think he said something about beastiality in a moment that really did not need any such reference.  Way to ruin the mood.  Maybe I misunderstood the joke, but the movie would have been better without that line.  A joke too far, perhaps.

Anyway... the movie has been nominated for a few Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Song ("Mystery Of Love", which already has a really beautiful YouTube music video, linked below). I think it's worthy of winning any of those categories. 

"Oh, to see without my eyes
The first time that you kissed me...
Drowned in living waters
Cursed by the love that I received...
Oh, will wonders ever cease?
Blessed be the mystery of love."
- Mystery Of Love lyrics

It's a really good film.  I recommend seeing it before it leaves theaters.  For these "slow" films, sometimes part of the experience is simply visual, just watching the scenes on the big screen.

Sometimes you want society to fail, just so the world can hold on to a little more of its happiness.