Love Seized , Lost and Remembered

Rating: 10/10 (22 January 2018)

Director Luca Guadagnino and James Ivory as scenarist have fashioned a luxurious, sultry and intoxicatingly romantic film from Andre Aciman's novel, Call Me By Your Name. And in the process of adapting this bittersweet story of gay love the filmmakers have improved on an often beautifully written novel that tends to ramble with its first person narrative, punctuated by vivid descriptions of the Italian land and seascapes it wallows in , often to the sensual delight of the reader. As he did with the equally colorful , Italy -based romantic drama of "I Am Love" (2009), Guadagnino paints with robust, sometimes subtle cinematic brushstrokes to bring forth an evocative atmosphere of heat, sun, flora and fruit as vivid background to the main story at hand.
What is it about the best Italian film directors whose penchant for telling stories is so entwined with production values that dazzle the eye, be it in black and white our color? Luchino Visconti, Frederico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni , Bernardo Bertolucci and Franco Zeffirelli all had this gift, and it is readily apparent that the torch has been passed on to Luca Guadagnino. Abetted by the brilliant acting of Timothee Chalamet, Michael Stuhlberg and the impossibly handsome and able Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name emerges as an unforgettable, erotic and deeply moving saga of love found, lost and remembered.