Call me by your name

1983: 17-year-old Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet) is enjoying the summer in northern Italy at his parents' villa. Reading, listening to music or flirting with girls determine the relaxed everyday life here. But then the American doctoral student Oliver (Armie Hammer) comes to visit, who wants to do an internship with Elio's father (Michael Stuhlbarg). At first, the boy is a little annoyed by Oliver's somewhat brusque manner, but the longer the young American is a guest of the family, the more Elio feels drawn to him. A desire grows within him that is not unrequited by Oliver. A very special bond develops between the two that will make this summer unforgettable for Elio.

Based on the novel Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman, director Luca Guadagnino has staged a wonderfully unagitated, atmospheric and moving story about first love and about a summer full of seduction and desire. The gender of the two lovers only plays a marginal role. Call me by your name is not a film about homosexuality, but rather about love and the end of innocence. The fact that the action takes place in the early 1980s is perfectly chosen. Before the ubiquity of the internet and smartphones, the summer months were experienced very differently, especially by young people.

Guadagnino captures the mood of the time perfectly. Not only through the music, the actors' clothes or Armie Hammer's wonderfully nasty dancing style, but also through the soundscape on a balmy summer evening or the color scheme on a hot afternoon. What unfolds here in the beautiful landscape of northern Italy between Elio and Oliver really feels genuine. As a viewer, you can absolutely understand why the teenager is attracted to the older man. Because of the fact that the moments of passion between the two seem so unaffected, the ending can also work really well. This is a bit of an artifice precisely because the final act actually swings the moral club too obtrusively.

What that primarily refers to, I can't say at this point without giving too much away about the story's ending. But anyone who sees the film will know what I mean when I say that there's a very specific aspect of the story that goes over too smoothly here. You can take offense to that, but it's basically just to keep the emotional power of the ending from being diluted by yet another conflict. Call me by your name may be a little too long, but it doesn't stand out as a nuisance. The film is simply beautiful, great acting - most notably by Timothée Chalamet - and truly visually enchanting as well.

By the way, after the great success not only with critics Luca Guadagnino plans to continue the story of Elio in a sequel. Whether that's really necessary remains to be seen, because as it is, the ending of Call me by your name is actually perfect. If you want to experience the feeling of a passionate summer for a little more than two hours and want to feel once again what it means when a young person's emotions really go crazy for the first time, you shouldn't miss this special film. Absolutely worth seeing

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp