Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Call My By Your Name: The Collection

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What, you thought I would let Valentine's Day go by without a post explicitly (instead of covertly) about my favorite movie romance in a very very very long time? Haha fooled you. So yesterday marked the one month mark until Call Me By Your Name hits blu-ray on March 13th, aka the day I will never leave my house again. Of course that's forever compared to when it hits iTunes - in 12 days!!! 

Anyway I mentioned doing this recently, so here goes: I've written so so very much about this movie at this point that it's become nearly impossible to wade through it all to find the more important links. The last thing I wrote I couldn't even find a specific thing I'd written that I wanted to link to! that's no good. No good at all. So here, I give you a round-up of the things that matter. What things that matter? You know what things...

THE CMBYN PIECES THAT MATTER

And I'll Call You By Mine -- I got back to my desk after seeing Call Me By Your Name and this tremendously personal essay just poured out of me; needless to say I hadn't been affected by a movie like that in a long time.

Good Morning, Call Me By Your Name -- The morning after seeing the film a first time I listed off some specifics about the film that I didn't touch on in my first review, which wasn't all that specific about the movie itself

Give Me Your Clothes & I'll Give You Mine -- On the recurring theme of clothes swapping in gay romances!

Call Them With Kindness -- This is the very long piece that I wrote at The Film Experience that talks about why I think the "pan out the window" that annoys so many people was a lovely choice that Luca Guadagnino made, along with many many many other thoughts

"I found the film sexy as hell, erotic in languorous, voyeuristic ways that movies don’t really approach anymore. Its sense of tactility, for sweat and fabric and skin, and its often-prurient stares – up the legs of swimming trunks, for example - are a welcome shock to the system that makes the forbidden seem commonplace, easy..."

On Oliver & Elio & Bottoms & Tops (Oh My) -- Uhh like the title says this one dives into gay men's sexual roles, or lack thereof, and how they can define us

The Moment I Fell For Timothee Chalamet -- On a very specific shot in the film where I realized this actor, he's got it

The Last Time That You Touched Me -- On the dream sequence towards the end of the film, and who's dreaming

Take Me Back To Somewhere In Northern Italy -- A rumination on Elio's mother Annella and Amira Casar's sly and surprising performance 

Call Me By Your What Now? -- Wherein I tried to get to the heart of the idea behind the film's title, which seems to confound folks

Oliver & Marzia Coming & Going - On a recurring visual gag in the film where Esther Garrel & Armie Hammer cross paths, swapping out, and the roles of women in the film

Elio's Technicolor Dream Shirts -- Where I talk about Elio finding his flamboyance through shirt patterns and Oliver's avoidance of the only (other) gay couple we see in the film

They Know About Us -- A little bit about the shifting power dynamics between Elio & Oliver, and the specificity of that to male-male relationships

Those are the major pieces (so far obviously!) but there is lots and lots and lots more, all of which you can of course find in the CMBYN Archives - stuff I skipped like photo-shoots of the actors, interviews and quotes from them about the film, and on and on, are at that link. That said there are a few smaller pieces I would like to separate from the crowd, but I'll take them after the jump...



Call Me By Your Hammer - On May 23rd, 2016, I found out that Call Me By Your Name was a thing, and posted about it before anybody else did. I gathered up pictures from the set that crew members had shared on Instagram.

Call Me Finished -- The final picture from the set of filming

There's Your Oliver & Elio, Folks -- Seeing Armie & Timothee on the streets of NYC, seeing them together side by side for the very first time

Elio & Ollie -- The first picture of Timothee & Armie released!

Little Mister Sunshine -- Finding out that Sufjan was doing music for the movie

Everybody's Calling My Name -- The first reactions from Sundance!

The Call Me By Your Name Trailer Is Here -- Like the title says - this was my first look at the feel of the film, with the Sufjan song included, and I was immediately infatuated

Call Me By Your Name... Again! -- I saw the whole gang at NYFF do a Q&A and this is a round-up of my pictures and some video

Today's Fanboy Delusion -- Timothee & Armie having fun at the NYFF urinals

Today's Fanboy Delusion -- We were very excited when the clip of Armie dancing first got released

Pic of the Day -- I stalked Timothee on the set of Woody Allen's movie and got the world's blurriest picture of him walking away

It's Ya Boy, Lil Timmy Tim -- Oh my god look at Timmy's "Statistics" video

Quote of the Day -- Spinning off of something that the book's author Andre Aciman says I talked a little bit about why the credits running over the final shot of the movie matter

My Time With Timmy -- A surprise picture of me standing behind Timothee Chalamet like a weirdo, plus coverage of a Q&A I attended with him

Team Experience Awards - Over at The Film Experience our annual awards gave good love to CMBYN

On Oscar Joy - The Film Experience team sounded off on nominations that happened at the Oscars that made us happy (I talked about Timmy & Sufjan)

On Oscar Snubs - The Film Experience team sounded off on Oscar nominations that should have happened, especially Michael Stuhlbarg & Luca Guadagnino

Beauty vs Beast
 -- Wherein we used our weekly series at The Film Experience to put Timothee's performance up against his main oscar rival Gary Oldman for you to vote

41 Days -- Finding out the blu-ray's release date, and getting a lovely new image from the film from a scene that didn't make the final product (and there are more here)

My First Dorians -- CMBYN swept the Dorian Awards for GALECA, the The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics which I just became a member of this year


13 comments:

David said...

I have a CMBYN topic for you. Please discuss the blurriness of the kiss above, why, for example, Armie’s shoulder and the wall are clear and the kiss itself fuzzy. Assume, for the sake of my sanity, that it’s not part of the usual critique that Luca is trying to tone down his own gayness. I tend to think it’s because both of them are drunk, especially Elio, and they’re in ecstasy, and the camerawork is trying to capture that heightened feeling in a slightly bleary modernist way.

Jason Adams said...

Yes it's basically just that they're drunk, on liquor and in love - the look on TC's face says it all in this scene - he is totally over the moon infatuated at this moment and the fuzziness just adds to the ROMANCE (which Luca smartly undercuts by making us think about the fact that Elio just barfed and yuck, kissing post-barfing is gross)

But no he does not fuzz it up to obscure gayness, we see plenty of kissing in the movie! Luca & his cinematographer have both talked about their use of a single lens in the movie and why they chose to do it - I don't have the link on-hand but it was all purposeful, the focus shifting

Anonymous said...

Love everything you've written about this movie. Love, love.

Iggy

Anonymous said...

OK, so there's something i've been meaning to ask around here: That scene where Elio puts his head inside Oliver's shorts and sensually sniffs his scent mimicking sexual positions on the bed... I'm curious to know if that's something (kind of) common that people do? I've certainly done it a couple of times, especially when I was young and had lots of unfulfilled sexual desires... Anyways, it's a very personal thing and maybe a bit embarrassing to admit and I was just amazed when I saw it for the first time on the film, the way one is when you see a very specific part of yourself represented for the first time on screen.
I'm really just curious to know if a lot of gay and bi men have done this before. I guess I should take courage and ask my gay friends, but for know i'll ask here safely and anonymously... =P
cheers!

Jason Adams said...

I did it! And I have heard from other people over the course of CMBYN-time that had done it too. We are not alone! I think it's not uncommon. The common thread in hearing people talk about that moment though is just HOW INTIMATE that scene feels, to every person, just as you eloquently described.

Anonymous said...

Yay!! Good to know we're all freaks like Elio. :)
Thanks!
~gabe

brian w said...

I love everything about this!! Glad to know I’m not the only one a bit obsessed with everything about this film.

Unknown said...

Ok I seriously doubt anyone is as obsessed as me, I have no shame about having my face in some man's pants shorts underwear whatever in that position I have done it out of lust love and longing I am so happy the movie had that scene because nobody has the corner on that feeling no matter what your love lust exploration experience story is...as for TC's puking after Oliver grabbing that girls hand to dance I have my own theory and lastly if anyone needs to know when Elio's eyes take over telling the story I can direct you to the scene....no I'm not obsessed!
Just a girl who loves to see love

DouglasG said...

Jason, on iTunes it indicates Feb. 27 is the release date. ???

Jason Adams said...

You're right, Douglas! The 19th is the date in the UK apparently? Sorry about that, it's fixed :)

George said...

He puts his head in the shorts for like six seconds and there isn't even any sniffing audible in the soundtrack. It's interesting that the script by Ivory kept Elio sniffing his hand after having sex with Marzia after they have sex for the second time (before the "midnight" with Oliver). Never made it to the film; this is well and truly Guadagnino's Disney movie, and hey, that's his prerogative. No shame in it.

It's not even about the novel's version of the happenings being better, but it is interesting how it's pointed out to be such a great moment in the film when it's barely a blip. Maybe I've just seen it better in other movies that are considered poorly made or niche. Eh, no matter. Sometimes (not always, just sometimes), it feels like people reacting to the film are reacting to it from a place of having never seen other movies exploring this type of love and lust between two men and from these particular perspectives/angles. Nothing wrong with that, I have to keep repeating, but I think maybe that's why I find the overblown quality of some of the reactions (positive and negative alike) so mystifying.

I DO, however, enjoy Chalamet's choice of curling his legs on the bed as if he's about to hump it or at least sensually explore it with the shorts over his head. What a saucy little minx, and one of the few moments where he was the Elio I took from the book (again, NOT a knock on Chalamet who made his own choices and 200% of the world is fine with that, just my opinion).

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic collection of posts! I spent a rainy evening reading through your articles and am still overwhelmed - by your insights, and also by the fact there is a person on earth even more infatuated with the movie than me. You saw it more often than me. I'm relieved!!
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts in such a wonderfully articulate way. I was also delighted to find Amira Casar getting her due acknowledgment - she is such a warm, supporting presence in the film and in the villa. And thanks for pointing out that she invites Marzia and Chiara because she senses that all three of them share the same fate. She knows already, the others are yet to understand that you are completely helpless in the face of someone just preferring the other sex. I was blind at that moment even if I suffered from the same experience - thanks so much for making me see. And making me realize once more the great underlying humanity and kindness of the movie.

Richard said...

If you haven't heard Army read the audiobook, you have REALLY missed out, as it is written incredibly...stunningly, rather puts the film to shame. And the book goes on into the future which helps a lot with closure.