Shale
Bluelighter
Call Me by Your Name
Movie Blurb by Shale
January 16, 2018
This evening I went to an "Art Film" at a one-screen little Art Cinema just 4 blocks from my home on Miami Beach. It was the first time venturing into this cinema, which has been here for years, but thot I'd take in this art movie here, rather than at the larger theaters where it was also playing.
Altho the word was out that this was a gay-themed movie, from my experience and bias, I would say it is a bisexual, coming-of-age, teen experimentation story.
Elio & Marzia
The setting is a summer in 1983 and the setup is a 30-something archeology grad student, Oliver (Armie Hammer) working with archeologist Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) while staying at his villa in Northern Italy. He becomes integral to the family and eventually intimate with their 17-year-old son, Elio (Timothee Chalamet).
Family at Lunch
How can you tell it is an "Art Film" Well, long scenes where the characters leave the scene or the camera pans to scenery with no dialogue is a clue. Sort of like you are looking at a pastoral painting or a foto of interesting architecture in a museum.
Director Luca Guadagnino has said this is "the most calm" movie he has made. Despite being a literary adaptation, many scenes in the film play out wordlessly. "Words are part of what's going on, but it's not necessarily what's going on underneath. I think this film celebrates the underneath," he said.
OK, that said, it was an enjoyable movie for those of us who can get into looking at paintings and fotos in an art museum. Also, for those of us who can tap into a history of experiencing teen infatuations, the excitement of new romances and daring to indulge in the forbidden love that in puritan societies dare not speak its name. What was enjoyable was watching this secret, forbidden love play out in this Italian setting with a more accepting family than normally found in the U.S.
Elio & Oliver First Kiss
So, I liked the movie just as most reviewers. The aggregate reviews on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 96% Fresh and their consensus was, "Call Me by Your Name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer."
BTW, for those Americans who don't know the difference between "pedophilia" and "ephebophilia" and are aghast that a 30-something guy would hit on a 17-year-old boy (actually, the boy hit on the man, which is often the case) note that the legal age of sexual consent in Italy is 14. Nor is a 15-year age spread between guys unusual at all. (I have made it with guys 40 years younger than me. Again, at their request.)
Dad, Elio & Oliver on Excavation in Italy
THIS MOVIE'S PERSONAL IMPACT ON ME
In my movie blurbs, for which no one pays me, I get to mention how a movie impacts me personally. I already gave the blurb so you need not read further.
There is something about romance in the Mediterranean countries that comes so easily. Blame it on the scenery of mountains and rolling hills, or in my case an island in the Sea of Marmara, where I had a romance one summer with a 17-year-old Turkish girl when I was but 20. I, like the grad student was there for a set period of time and had to leave my love, which was heartbreaking. But, ultimately it was a strawfire romance that burned quickly and brightly and left few ashes. We got over it and went to explore other romances. However, it remains in my memory as one of the cherished lessons in my long history of loving others.
This movie also brot up my hidden desires as a teen, when I was infatuated with the culturally proscribed girls but also unaware at the time of my deeper feelings for my best buddy in high school. Yes, I was in love with my exotic Sicilian friend Tomas-Angelo at a time when that was not even a consideration in middle America.
Which, is why it is so refreshing to see a movie of a teen in a culture where, not only can he be physically intimate with a girl, but also explore his love of a man.
Movie Blurb by Shale
January 16, 2018
This evening I went to an "Art Film" at a one-screen little Art Cinema just 4 blocks from my home on Miami Beach. It was the first time venturing into this cinema, which has been here for years, but thot I'd take in this art movie here, rather than at the larger theaters where it was also playing.
Altho the word was out that this was a gay-themed movie, from my experience and bias, I would say it is a bisexual, coming-of-age, teen experimentation story.
Elio & Marzia
The setting is a summer in 1983 and the setup is a 30-something archeology grad student, Oliver (Armie Hammer) working with archeologist Mr. Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) while staying at his villa in Northern Italy. He becomes integral to the family and eventually intimate with their 17-year-old son, Elio (Timothee Chalamet).
Family at Lunch
How can you tell it is an "Art Film" Well, long scenes where the characters leave the scene or the camera pans to scenery with no dialogue is a clue. Sort of like you are looking at a pastoral painting or a foto of interesting architecture in a museum.
Director Luca Guadagnino has said this is "the most calm" movie he has made. Despite being a literary adaptation, many scenes in the film play out wordlessly. "Words are part of what's going on, but it's not necessarily what's going on underneath. I think this film celebrates the underneath," he said.
OK, that said, it was an enjoyable movie for those of us who can get into looking at paintings and fotos in an art museum. Also, for those of us who can tap into a history of experiencing teen infatuations, the excitement of new romances and daring to indulge in the forbidden love that in puritan societies dare not speak its name. What was enjoyable was watching this secret, forbidden love play out in this Italian setting with a more accepting family than normally found in the U.S.
Elio & Oliver First Kiss
So, I liked the movie just as most reviewers. The aggregate reviews on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 96% Fresh and their consensus was, "Call Me by Your Name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer."
BTW, for those Americans who don't know the difference between "pedophilia" and "ephebophilia" and are aghast that a 30-something guy would hit on a 17-year-old boy (actually, the boy hit on the man, which is often the case) note that the legal age of sexual consent in Italy is 14. Nor is a 15-year age spread between guys unusual at all. (I have made it with guys 40 years younger than me. Again, at their request.)
Dad, Elio & Oliver on Excavation in Italy
THIS MOVIE'S PERSONAL IMPACT ON ME
In my movie blurbs, for which no one pays me, I get to mention how a movie impacts me personally. I already gave the blurb so you need not read further.
There is something about romance in the Mediterranean countries that comes so easily. Blame it on the scenery of mountains and rolling hills, or in my case an island in the Sea of Marmara, where I had a romance one summer with a 17-year-old Turkish girl when I was but 20. I, like the grad student was there for a set period of time and had to leave my love, which was heartbreaking. But, ultimately it was a strawfire romance that burned quickly and brightly and left few ashes. We got over it and went to explore other romances. However, it remains in my memory as one of the cherished lessons in my long history of loving others.
This movie also brot up my hidden desires as a teen, when I was infatuated with the culturally proscribed girls but also unaware at the time of my deeper feelings for my best buddy in high school. Yes, I was in love with my exotic Sicilian friend Tomas-Angelo at a time when that was not even a consideration in middle America.
Which, is why it is so refreshing to see a movie of a teen in a culture where, not only can he be physically intimate with a girl, but also explore his love of a man.
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