Quotes of the Day

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Although you might think otherwise given some of the (frankly ridiculous) arguments being bandied about on Twitter lately, Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino is not a shy man. And so, un-shy man that he be, he always gives a good interview - he says what he says when he says it. See what he said last week for another example - he's not playing your games. And take for instance this brand new interview with the Irish Times in which he hits back at some of those same (frankly ridiculous) arguments that have been going around lately. They asked him about Rich Juzwiak's piece at Jezebel... which I gave up on pretty early when Rich proved he hadn't been paying attention:

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COME ON -- CMBYN is STUFFED with tracking shots, the camera is spinning around these two CONSTANTLY pic.twitter.com/cP5p6If2BD

— Jason X Adams (@JAMNPP) October 6, 2017

.Anyway here's what Luca has to say to that:

“Whatever you do you have complaints,” says Guadagnino with a shrug. “The truth of the matter is I had absolute control and I made the movie the way I wanted. There’s a great song by Prefab Sprout that says: ‘All the world loves lovers/All the world loves people in love.’ It does not say: all the world loves lovers’ cocks and all the world loves people’s cocks in love. Why do people want to see other people’s penises?"

Now obviously, I know the answer to that. I was very happy to see Matthias Schoenaerts' penis in A Bigger Splash, for example. But he's on the defensive here, which is understandable because I've been there for the past week and a half myself, just because this argument, given the sexy film we've been given, is so deeply dumb. CMBYN is not a shy movie; it is not a chaste movie.
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If a movie abt Gay Jewish 17y.o's sexual awakening w/ 2 scenes of H'wood's Lone Ranger handling cum is "made for straight ppl" WHAT A WORLD

— Jason X Adams (@JAMNPP) October 16, 2017

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From there Luca talks a little bit more about that (click over to read) and then he's asked about why he cast straight actors in the roles, and he gives good quote on that too:

"This is a jarring question. Are you going to have a serial killer playing a serial killer? Are you going to cast only astronauts in Apollo 13? The idea that you have to cast only someone who has a certain set of skills, and worse, a certain gender identity in any role: that’s oppressive to me.

And by the way, I don’t ask my cast: are you gay or not? Yes, Armie is married and he’s wonderful husband and father. But who knows where his desires lie? I’m not going to be the one to question him. Imagine if Rock Hudson was not cast as a love interest? I love those movies and I love and believe in the romance between him and his leading ladies.” 

I go back and forth on this subject, but when it comes to Call Me By Your Name it keeps coming down to one thing and one thing alone: would I be willing to give up Timothee Chalamet's performance in this film? NO NO I WOULD NOT NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. And so the argument's won this round. Cast whoever!

But wait, there is more! They also ask him about his upcoming remake of Suspiria! He makes a great point about the sexist idea of "the muse" which you can click over to read (really read the whole interview, it's got a few good things I'm not sharing in this infernally long post) and then he talks about how important Horror is, which is one of the most succinct answers I've seen a filmmaker give:

"I think of horror movie in the context of Freud’s unheimlich: the uncanny cannot be separated from the familiar. They go hand in hand. And for me, horror is the best vehicle to display the psychology of who we are as people. It is the truest idea of us.”