Rent Call Me by Your Name (2017)

3.6 of 5 from 879 ratings
2h 7min
Rent Call Me by Your Name Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
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Synopsis:
It's the summer of 1983 in Italy, and Elio (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17-year-old, spends his days in his family's villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio's father, an eminent professor. Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
Actors:
, , , , , , , Antonio Rimoldi, , Marco Sgrosso, André Aciman, ,
Directors:
Producers:
Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, James Ivory, Marco Morabito, Howard Rosenman, Peter Spears, Rodrigo Teixeira
Writers:
James Ivory, André Aciman
Others:
Marco Morabito, Timothée Chalame, Sufjan Stevens, Emilie Georges
Studio:
Sony
Genres:
Drama, Lesbian & Gay, Romance
Collections:
2018, A World of Difference: A History of Gay Cinema, Award Winners, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Drama Films & TV, Films to Watch If You Like..., Oscar Nominations Competition 2023, Oscar Nominations Competition 2024, Top 10 Best Last Films: World Cinema, Top Films, What to Watch Next If You Liked Nomadland
Awards:

2018 BAFTA Best Adapted Screen Play

2018 Oscar Best Adapted Screen Play

BBFC:
Release Date:
05/03/2018
Run Time:
127 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English, English Hard of Hearing
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
Colour
Bonus:
  • Snapshots of Italy: The Making of Call Me by Your Name
  • In Conversation with Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg and Luca Guadagnino Commentary with Timothee Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg
  • Commentary with Luca Guadagnino
  • "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens
BBFC:
Release Date:
05/03/2018
Run Time:
132 minutes
Languages:
English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles:
English, English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen 1.85:1
Colour:
Colour
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Snapshots of Italy: The Making of Call Me by Your Name
  • In Conversation with Armie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg and Luca Guadagnino Commentary with Timothee Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg
  • "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens

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Reviews (32) of Call Me by Your Name

The Setting is the Star - Call Me by Your Name review by Mehitabel

Spoiler Alert
03/08/2018

If you like watching desperately precocious polyglot teenage boys get it on with rather dull slightly older men, with a lot of posing and life-of-leisure along the way, you will love this.It's the 80s. Elio is cool as a cucumber, absurdly confident for a 17-year-old, although this makes his final collapse into tearful little boy more meaningful. Trouble is, until that moment of real vulnerability, we have to ride along while he hangs out with his super-cool polyglot friends, scribes music dreamily in a castle, stares into the middle distance and almost has sex with a girl. This, apparently, is something to be dropped into the conversation at breakfast, as if you were talking about almost using the wrong toothpaste. Yup, THAT is how sophisticated and blasé these people are.

They are so sophisticated, in fact, that it's very hard to care about them. Dad is an academic specialising in ancient history or archaeology. Oliver, the object of Elio's middle-distance yearning, is his visiting American research student. Mum is cooler than cool and Vaguely Helps Dad, while looking wafty. They seem to exist on some hyper-perfect cloud, in their castle "somewhere in northern Italy". None of them has any flaws or stuffs up. Until Elio condescends to fall in love with Oliver. And it really does feel like condescension, from this oh-so-cool-and-poised adolescent. Until the very end, that is. And by then, for me, it was too late. I just wanted him to disappear up his own middle-distance. Dad's rather-too-contrived Beautiful Speech, also at the end, also came too late. It was also a tad nauseating. And the pace is slow. As if the director's so in love with Elio he's treating us to lotttttssss of him..

However, and it's a big however, the setting is just gorgeous. The Italian landscapes are lush and alluring and the mansion in which the Perfect People live is impossibly old and beautiful, with a river-fed Roman swimming-pool (what else?). All in all, it was the setting, and the odd sense of connection with the ancient past in which Dad specialises, that kept me watching. That, and the hope that in filmic eternity, super-smart Elio is now a sewer-cleaner in downtown Milan.

9 out of 12 members found this review helpful.

Pointless tedium - Call Me by Your Name review by NL

Spoiler Alert
11/09/2018

I tried to watch Call Me By Your Name last night. It came highly recommended. It was nominated for four Oscars including 'best picture'.

I watched through the first 49 minutes, during which nothing happened, and no one said anything interesting or of any consequence. There was nothing at stake, and no reason to expect that anything good or bad might happen to any of the characters, so no suspense at all.

I then watched the rest of the film on fast-forward, checking to see if anything happened at any point. So far as I could tell, nothing did.

Why do critics like stuff like this? It was set in the 1980s (retro?), in Italy (Euro-chic?), with educated people (culture?), some of whom were Jews (ethnicity?), and it had some homosexuality in it (rainbow virtue signalling?), but no scene I saw had any consequence at all. Some examples:

An old man catches a fish. He shows it to a boy, who does a fish impression, then gives it to a cook. Later, the same old man says that he has fixed a bicycle.

Three people get in a car. They go to the sea to see a bronze statue that has been pulled up from the depths. They look at it admiringly.

The fish, the statue, the bike, are never mentioned again. They are of no consequence. They are not part of any pivotal change for any of the characters.

I don't demand chases and explosions, but SOMETHING has to be at stake, SOMETHING has to make me wonder what will happen next. I loved 'Brooklyn' - and that didn't have so much as a raised voice in it, but the events that happened to the characters in that were shown to us because they had effects on the characters, and the main character has a big decision to make, and we don't know which way she is going to go.

I want that bit of my life back. I want all the bits of my life back that I have wasted on pretentious meaningless films that critics and no one else likes.

7 out of 15 members found this review helpful.

A work of art! - Call Me by Your Name review by TB

Spoiler Alert
30/04/2018

This film is the best film I’ve ever seen and I already know that nothing will top it for me. The reason being is that it’s not just an incredible film but it was also deeply affecting, emotional and relatable for me personally. However, even putting that aside this is a film that I defy anyone not to admire. It is without doubt the most beautiful on-screen love story you will ever see; starting with inquisitiveness, lust, infactuation and ultimately ending with pure love and heartbreak.

The scenery and cinematography are a wonder on the eye and the soundtrack throughout is not only beautifully poetic but poignant in relation to the scenes and moments that the songs and piano pieces tie into during the film.

The acting is nothing short of sensational by both leading actors, with the young Timothee Chalamat particular dazzling in a performance that entices every emotion out of you that his character is portraying and feeling. While the words spoken by Elio’s father in one of the closing scenes, must be one of the best and most moving set of words you’ll ever hear.

It would however be serving the Director (Luca Guadagnino), the actors and the soundtrack (especially the three songs written for the film by Sufjan Stevens) a huge discredit if not to appreciate their vision and talent in making this a true masterpiece.

I have watched it a number of times and when breaking down each scene, you find and realise something else that leaves you full of admiration in how the director has meticulously brought everything together. In breaking down the scenes, listening to the words being spoken, watching the movements and expressions of the actors, listening to the songs and immersing yourself in them really does give this film so many levels and such depth.

It is also great to read the thoughts of the director, the actors and of Sufjan Steven in the songs he wrote; as this really adds to the emotion and depth of this film.

I really cannot speak highly enough of this film and the following two-part review captures the films depth perfectly in how it makes you feel when disecting and digesting each scene and what was meant:-

Part 1 - https://seventh-row.com/2017/12/12/best-scenes-1-call-me-by-your-name-2/

Part 2 - https://seventh-row.com/2017/12/15/best-scenes-2-call-me-by-your-name/

4 out of 5 members found this review helpful.

Critic review

Call Me by Your Name review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

I’m sure that the blunt awkwardness of Call Me By Your Name’s tale of coming to terms with sexuality presents a moving experience for those not comfortable in their own skin. It goes about its story of discovery in a manner that is thoughtful, passionate, and overflowing with as much emotion as it does sex of many kinds. There’s a fearlessness to its presentation that is sure to warm the different and shock the uncomfortable. And yet it still feels as though there’s a bit of a missing heart to its tale of love most complicated, despite some strong performances and great storytelling.

Based on the novel by André Aciman, the teenager Elio (Timothée Chalamet) finds himself having the most unorthodox summer of 1983. He lives with his Jewish family in Italy and their house has a new guest, the mysterious and charming Oliver (Armie Hammer). Though Elio is going through the familiar motions of a teenage boy, he finds himself particularly attracted to Oliver. Very attracted. So much so that he’s conflicted about these feelings which he isn’t sure are true or just a fascination. It’s frightening coming to terms with one's own sexuality, especially at such a fragile age of discovering yourself.

Elio’s summer is seen in small, sunny bits of relaxation while thoughts linger of more. Parties at the house are kept light and spread out, large enough for Elio to be alone with his thoughts or Oliver if he so chooses. Days in town are airy and warm, Elio and Oliver chatting in shorts and riding bikes about the streets before heading into the countryside. It’s a summer with the perfect atmosphere for getting lost in one’s thoughts when teenagers have one thing on their mind but no clear road to take towards that goal.

The pressure of choosing that path can be felt as the days go by. Elio is caught between his attraction to a girl his own age and the handsome and older Oliver. He takes his relationship with the girl to the next level, sneaking a session of lovemaking in an old building while the radio plays, because that just seems to be the norm for boys. Not so normal, he thinks, is being sexually attracted to Oliver, to the point where he is so confused and frustrated that he makes love to a peach. I can already hear the scoffing, conservative movie viewers squirming upon reading that last session. I’ll bet they wretch if I went further in explaining what Oliver will do with that peach once he discovers it. For as much this scenes seems like it could be saying something, it feels more like an assurance to let the audience know this isn’t going to be the most subtle of gay romances.

One of the strongest moments in the film features a conversation of connection between Elio and his father once dad makes the discovery of his son’s fluctuating sexuality. He not only accepts his desires but tries to go a step further and put things in perspective how life plays out to a degree that a certain form of love can only last for so long. There’s an encouragement to be yourself but it may be too late to find yourself when the man you’re in love with views romance as a game that places quick distances between players. This leads to perhaps one of the most haunting and sad endings, punctuated beautifully by the credits as life merely goes on when you don’t know yourself and fear you may have lost whatever it was you were meant to be. Though not as powerful as it could have been, it’s hard deny those performances and steady focus on how love comes in many forms and is never that easy to understand, even for a scholar such as Elio.

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