Saw this in Sofia at a festival and it was a packed house!

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2017)

'Call Me By Your Name', a film about first love and heartbreak. The cinema where it was showing was packed for a festival that this was a part of. This film is tipped for the Oscars and I can well see why. It is a mature film set in 1983 in Italy and perfectly captures a boy's first love and heartbreak in losing that love. It does it without mushy sentimentality, just truth. The final scene were the credits role and the camera concentrates on the boy's face for 6 minutes as you see the heartbreak set into his features will surely go down as one of the great cinematic moments ever captured on film. In many ways this film is challenging, in that it portrays a love affair between an older man (mid to late 20s) and a teenage boy of 17. But the emotion expressed in such an honest way could apply to anyone gay or straight and audiences are flocking to see it. Both of their lives are messy and it's not straight forward, the older man is quite unlikable and arrogant and it's only as their affair starts that you see the real person blossom. The boy has his first sexual encounter with a girl from his town. But the empathy of his father and acceptance of his son's great love, a love that the father says he never had nor never will, pushes this film beyond mere stereotypes and cliché. The final sequence will leave you emotional, if you have ever had your heart broken at a young age you will see the truth in the boy's face and be grateful that the boy takes his father's message of 'feel the pain, don't bury it, treasure it'. If it wins an Oscar it is well deserved.