Astonishment , bewilderment , nostalgia of something I’ve never experienced …these are only few of the feelings which this novel triggered in me .
Even though it’s a typical “summer reading” Call me be your name provides a deep insight of a universal affection without being too much cheesy or cliché . Once you read it you’ll never be the same.
As you go through the pages you get a 360° experience delivered by a mesmerizing writing : description of B. are filled with vivid olfactory sensations and cultural references while characters are genuinely developed by their conversations and actions without revealing too much and leaving the reader explore their psychology .
Right after finishing the novel I watched the award-winning adaptation (yes more than two years later after its release) and now I understand why it received such a massive critical acclaim .
The movie didn’t simply bring justice to its counterpart but it enhances its strenghts : from the first cryptic conversations between Elio and Oliver to the key episodes of their unparallel bond . The novel is narrated through Elio’s stream of consciousness who brings back to life his memories of a special summer . As a grown man he relives his most hidden feelings for Oliver , from its earliest interest to the final discolosure of its own sexual identity .
Well even if In the adaptation we don’t get to know what’s going on on Elio’s mind as much as we would by reading the novel I found Timothée Chalamet’s performance fascinating : he delivered such a powerful performance with the right amount of naivety and wisdom .
He portrayed majestically Elio’s contrasting emotions in such a mature way for a youg actor !
Overall I felt like the movie captured the whole essence of the novel : aesthetically and visually speaking and finally by an accurate choice of the soundtrack .
Well the adaptation was a pleasure to watch : the color palette is prevailed by summer colors such as yellow , blue and green .
In addition to the characters I had the impression that the location played a major role in their relationship’s development : it’s like if when Elio leads Oliver through the tiny city of Crema , through the lake or through the fields he kind of sees those familiar places to him with a different eye .
Maybe I may be biased because I’m Italian but I guess that the movie owes part of his attractiveness to the locations chosen ( I read somewhere that many fan literally visited these places , I would do the same after all) .
If I had to choose between the novel and the adaptation I guess it would be a hard challenge : the novel provides a deep insight of the character’s inner feelings while the adaptation is just …perfect : it makes you experience the most divergent sensations from the excitement of something forbidden, of doing something secretly to the final stab .
PS: as a linguistics graduate student I couldn’t help noticing the massive use of codeswitching among all the characters . I understand that they wanted to be as much loyal as possible to the novel as Elio is supposed to have mixed roots (Italian,Hebreu and French) but I found it a little disturbing : let me explain I watched the movie in English of course and Timothée’sItalian pronunciation was awful ( I appreciate the effort : he plays the guitar , the piano … I mean almost perfect human being) ,but I don’t know maybe in the dubbed version It’s not a big deal … but to me was just unneccessary.
Finally a little review about the soundtrack : I loved it before even watching the movie ! Sufjans Stevens ‘s sounds suits perfectly the summer vibe and the fleeting idyll , sweet and sad at the same time.
Definitely a worth-watching view , it would be really difficult to find a weakness in it. 9.5/10
September Tea 