A movie that lingers on in the mind for days

Rating: 9/10 (11 June 2019)

Rarely does seeing a movie affect me as much as Call Me By Your Name did. The perfect portrayal of longing resonated with me for two or three days after watching it. There is something about the way this movie depicts the longing of a first love, gently getting closer and closer to someone in timid, mutual exploration... the Summer days and evenings listening to a portable radio in a small Italian village with your thoughts constantly wrapped up in desire and doubt. Small details of this film just made me smile (the Invicta backpack, the old woman "cleaning" green vegetables outside in the Sun, the old men at the bar...). Oliver/Armie Hammer's admiration of ancient Greek statues parallels the ephebic, classical beauty of Elio/Timothee Chalamet. It just made me cry when Elio notices Oliver was wearing the same shirt as the first day he got there, and asks if he can keep it when Oliver leaves. There are some striking similarities with Eric Rohmer's "Conte d'été", in some scenes the influence of this movie seems especially obvious... like a tribute from a way to interpret love, to another way to interpret love.
It's such a deep, sensitive story on the delicate, but ultimately cruel nature of longing...