screen Pride at the Pictures

Livvy Mason-Myhill, Deputy Editor, discusses beauty and love in Call Me by Your Name

LGBTQ+ History Month serves as a civil rights declaration about the contributions of the LGBTQ+ community while also providing role models. With this in mind, it’s the perfect time to watch LGBTQ+ films that celebrate and represent the pride community.

One film that I am drawn to is 2017’s Call Me By Your Name which explores themes of heartbreak and the discovery of sexuality. The film is famously set in Northern Italy and follows 17-year-old Elio (played by Timothée Chalamet) who spends the summer of 1983 with his family at their 17th-century villa. He quickly meets Oliver (played by Armie Hammer) a dashing PhD candidate who is serving as Elio’s father’s intern. Elio and Oliver learn the heady joy of rekindling desire over the course of a summer that will change their lives as they are immersed in the sun-drenched glory of their surroundings. The cinematography, screenplay, and soundtrack are all truly stunning in this film.

With a beautiful soundtrack to help capture the progressing relationship between Elio and Oliver, the film quintessentially captures how secret love blossoms in a time where there was still a stigma around coming out. One of my favourite elements about the film is how accepting Elio’s family and friends are of his sexual identity. Even though Elio does not come out to anyone in the film, those close to him have an understanding of how he innately identifies.

The Film Quintessentially Captures How Secret Love Blossoms

A particularly memorable scene and one of my personal favourite parts of the film is Elio’s father’s monologue to Elio. It is a potent monologue that explores a parent’s unwavering love and uncritical acceptance of their child’s development into their own person. Elio’s father tells Elio: “Look, you had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you”. The most impactful part of his speech is how he implores his son to embrace the feelings of heartbreak after Oliver leaves Italy and reminds him that despite the agony and loss, there is still the joy and love that brought him to that place. This is especially highlighted when Mr Pearlman advises Elio that: “We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of 30 and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything — what a waste!”. At the same time, he’s giving him some advice for the future by warning him that if you do suppress your true emotions, you’ll end up more of a shell than a real person with something to contribute. He also says that life is too short to protect yourself and prevent your entire being from experiencing love and being loved.

The beauty of not only the setting of the film, but also of Elio and Oliver’s progressing love story has influenced me to book a trip to Crema this summer (where the film was filmed). I cannot wait to be able to visit all the iconic places that the film depicts. It will always be one of the most beautiful films that I have watched; despite the heart wrenching ending, with Elio finding out that Oliver is getting married, then proceeding to cry in front of the light of the fire whilst Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Visions of Gideon’ plays, I cannot help but feel emotional and want to rewatch the film all over again. It teaches people an important lesson to not be afraid to allow yourself to feel. Call Me by Your Name fully serves Eros by fusing lust and love, want and selflessness, flesh and spirit, but it isn’t just about sex, though that’s undoubtedly a significant part of it. Additionally, it aims to portray the excitement of that encounter and to convey the blending of