Friday, January 19, 2018

Eight Hours Do Make a Weekend

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Even though you'd be hard-pressed to believe it if you only listened to me (oh my god I wouldn't wish such a fate on anybody - that's what it's like inside my brain! What a nightmare for you) there are other movies out this weekend in wide release besides Call Me By Your Name - hell there's another maybe masterpiece out this weekend. It is called Mister Phantom Thread, just Phantom to its friends, and I reviewed it right here. So you should make a double-feature of it! I even sort of connected the movies earlier today when I talked about CMBYN some, so they might work that way. 

I'd say to you that that's a lot of movie to take in but my plans this weekend include sitting inside of MoMA for eight plus hours of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's recently remastered 1972 television series called Eight Hours Don't Make a Day, so I win. Wish me luck with all that winning (I will probably need it)... but mostly just hit the comments and tell me what you thought of Call Me By Your Name now that it's finally in proper wide release. Bye!


5 comments:

olins said...

I like the movie a lot, however. It is not perfect. Two things really bothered me. While it is explicit enough to scare off any and all homophobia the camera turned coy when the boys got together,not so much for the boy girl stuff. The only frontal nudity was of course tits. I do not think explicit action or nudity are needed but an even playing field would be nice. Just my reaction but Mr. Hammer is too old for the part. It adds a touch of pedophila.

JB said...

I saw Call Me By Your Name for a second time this weekend.
I'm so mixed on this film. Firstly, I loved the book (read it based on your recommendation all those many moons ago)
On first viewing, I liked it a lot. I saw it after God's Own Country (which I adored) so as loath as I am to admit this; it suffered a bit in comparison. I also felt a slight frustration that 'gay' loves stories have to have an unhappy ending. But nonetheless, I liked it a lot, I was swept up in it. I placed it in my top 5 movies of the year.

So I went to see it again with the expectation that it would tip me over from liking it a lot, to passionately loving it.
Sadly, I came away liking it less. The age difference all of a sudden felt really glaring and uncomfortable. And I took real offence at the portrayal of the older gay couple, who seemingly were only there to be mocked?

There's still so much to like; the scene at the war memorial, the dancing scene, the cinematography, the tension before the first kiss, Chalamet's performance (he deserves the oscar). Hammer, to my eyes was too old for the part, and it affected my enjoyment of the movie, BUT, he played it very well, and I wouldn't argue with him and Stuhlbarg both deserving oscar noms.

But yeah, overall, I cooled on it a bit on second viewing.
But still ecstatic it was such a strong year for LGBT+ cinema last year. Long may that continue.

Sherri P. said...

It has stayed with me when all others, even Ladybird, which I adored, have faded, and Armie’s performance grew on me over three theater viewings. In my top five ever. I wouldn’t have minded more sex, though. Or him eating the peach like in the book,

Jason Adams said...

"I also felt a slight frustration that 'gay' loves stories have to have an unhappy ending. "

JB -- This doesn't bother me in relation to CMBYN because it's fitting with the genre - coming of age love stories are always about your first broken heart. It's not like Brokeback where somebody's getting beaten to death for being gay, and it's not AIDS, so it doesn't really fit in with the "punished for being gay" thing that goes alongside with the "unhappy ending" complaint usually. I don't think Oliver & Elio could last at that moment anyway - Elio needs to get out, have more experiences. Those perfect little bubbles need to pop - CMBYN is about capturing that feeling specifically.

Tony said...

I saw Call Me By Your Name yesterday. My husband and I don’t go to the movies very often, but for our 36th anniversary this weekend (not of our marriage, obviously), we decided that we wanted to see the film in support of its opening weekend, and we went.

There were parts in the film which I found confusing, because they were not fully explained (Oliver pushing Elio away after their visit to the war memorial, Elio pursuing Marzia, after his first kiss with Oliver, etc.). Visually though, it is extremely beautiful from start to finish, and the intimacy that eventually emerges equally beautiful, joyful really, and welcome to see. I thought the performances were extremely well done, particularly Timothee Chalamet, who was superb. But I admit that I left the theater hurt, sad, and disappointed, or possibly even angered by the story. The loss of great love is very painful, and so I guess those are the feelings the author intended to evoke. Today, in reflecting on the film’s denouement however, I broke into tears.

If you have had an experience such as Elio’s, you know the ecstasy that he had in those days or weeks with Oliver, the joy and hope and comfort and excitement, and the connection that can elicit an expression no less than that of the film’s own title. You also know the awareness in your periphery that it will come to an end, and the unspeakable ache that matches in its depth the height of the happiness that you felt when it finally does. I do agree that this arc is the point of a ‘coming of age’ story, but for myself I would have loved to see a happy ending, where “Call Me By Your Name” lives on for these two men, since without that (or at least the effort to have it), I have less certainty that they were, for each other, what they thought. And I want them to be for each other what they thought!

So there’s sadness for this movie-goer in arriving at that conclusion which, I might add, even without a ‘happily ever after’ ending could have been avoided merely by omitting Oliver’s announcement of engagement. That one piece of information, by its removal of hope and the questions it raises concerning Oliver’s sincerity in his time with Elio, for me, made the story tragic. I’d have liked to see something more on the horizon for these two, or at least the chance.