Coming of Age Films—Call Me By Your Name

Last week’s Eighth Grade focused on the last year in junior high for its main character. Call Me By Your Name [2018] by James Ivory, focuses on a young boy in the summer after his last year in high school.

I think there’s something about transitions that make for good cinema. Whether it’s the moment someone felt truly adult or the moment they went from being a child to a young adult, transitions are the stuff of life. We all go through them and we all can reflect back on how those transitions played out in our own lives.

In Call Me By Your Name it’s about coming to terms with your sexuality. Take a look at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9AYPxH5NTM

Elio, 17, is in Italy for the summer with his scholar parents. He’s a very intellectual young man and is having a bit of a romance with Marzia. But the arrival of Oliver, 24, his father’s grad assistant, changes everything. Elio discovers that he’s drawn to Oliver—and it seems to be mutual. What pulls them to each other is actually their combined intellects. So this isn’t just a physical attraction, it’s much deeper than that.

So, essentially, this is the story of—for Elio—a first love. And it’s played out against the lush, heady beauty of summer in Italy. It’s so evocative you can almost feel the heat.

In many ways this is the quintessential coming of age romance—your first love and what it teaches you.

One of the only things about the film I didn’t like was the title—it’s clunky, people see the movie and still don’t quite get it… it just seems awkward.

Titles are important. They’re the first contact someone has with a film and they can provoke an immediate interest—or not. When a potential moviegoer has to wonder what the title means, it may not be the way to get them into the theatre.

The title does, of course, have a meaning. And watching the film you sort of get that—but it’s even clearer in the book, where Elio reflects on how he and Oliver had no secrets—they hid nothing from one another. They were interchangeable, they became the same person, hence ‘call me by your name’ is saying ‘I’m you and you’re me and it’s as if we truly are one.’

A lyrically beautiful film, Call Me By Your Name tells a story of sexual awakening set against a beautiful backdrop—a gem of a film.

Copyright © Diane Lake

21Nov21

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