Boys Will Be Boys!

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2018)

In the idyllic setting of Northern Italy in the summer of 1983, an ebullient, wordly visiting scholar arrives to work closely with an archaeologist in excavating sensual Hellenistic statues. That the statue they uncover is a copy of Praxiteles' "Venus" speaks volumes about the story that is to unfold. The cocky and arrogant visitor is warmly welcomed into the home with the feeling that "mi casa es su casa." But the welcome apparently extends to the scholar seducing the underage son of the host!
In this eyebrow-raising drama, there is an extended period of flirtation and innuendo with the scholar (Oliver) and the seventeen-year-old boy (Elio). Lengthy scenes depict the mature man and the teenager cavorting, wrestling, bicycling, swimming, dancing, and engaging in general horseplay. Their mantra could be "Catch me if you can!!!"
Finally, the moment of truth arrives where the boy is seduced. Then, the visitor leaves, returning to his fiancée in America where he will be married in a heterosexual union. Yet someone both the boy and the older man cannot let go of their febrile union in the lush terrain of Tuscany.
Astonishingly, the film draws extensively on ancient Greek culture with the statues and philosophers to portray the ancient Greek tradition of the mature male "initiating" a boy into sex with the sense that the male-male love connection is superior to that of a man and a woman.
The most jaw-dropping moment in the film is a lengthy monologue at the end where the professor, who has by now discovered that the coupling of the visitor and the son has taken place under his own roof, delivers a pious and sanctimonious lecture to his son. The father implies to Elio that he will never experience anything like the love ardor he felt for the older man and that he will likely be physically and emotionally "bankrupt at the age of thirty," due to the humdrum experiences he will have in the future with women! It would have been interesting if the professor's wife had been eavesdropping on her husband's paternal wisdom imparted to her son.
In one of the most dishonest subplots of the film, young Elio seduces a young woman friend at the time that he is falling in love with the older man. He then callously discards the young woman, undoubtedly breaking her heart. It was completely unconvincing when the young woman later shakes hands with Elio, asserting she harbors no ill will, and hopes that they will be friends for life! In matters of the heart, that is usually not the way it works.
The smarmy nature of this pretentious art film comes across in the bonus segment titled "The Making of Call Me By Your Name" that is included in the DVD version of the film. The young actor playing Elio has bought into the film's phony message that the story is "a lens into a young person's existence." That assertion sounds like another one of the platitudes spoken in the film, such as the choice words from the father that "nature has cunning ways to finding our weakest spot."
On the other hand, the actor is right on the mark about another inference of the word "lens." One aspect of the film that was successful was the cinematography. The filmmakers chose to use the 35mm single lens throughout the shoot. The lens permitted both long shots and close-ups in continuous film sequencing. The Italian locations, landscapes, and cityscapes were examples of creative work with the camera.
Unfortunately, the beautiful work with the lens did not make up for the shallow and unconvincing narrative that reflected the sordid nature of hedonistic and self-absorptive human conduct in the shenanigans that were occurring in the old Italian villa. To boil the film down to the baser instincts that it was portraying, a more apt title would have simply been "Boys Will Be Boys!"