While at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I saw one film that absolutely floored me in every possible way and is still my number one film of the year: directorLuca Guadagnino’sCall Me by Your Name. Featuring a fantastic screenplay by Guadagnino andJames Ivory, powerful performances from the entire cast, amazing cinematography bySayombhu Mukdeeprom, and brilliance from every other department,Call Me by Your Nameis one of those rare films where everything is just perfect and you walk out of the theater remembering why you love movies.
If you haven’t yet heard of the film, based on the novel byAndré Aciman,the coming-of-age drama starsTimothée Chalamet(Interstellar)as a precocious 17-year-old American-Italian boy who’s on summer vacation with his family at their Italian villa. When a charming American scholar (Armie Hammer) comes to work with the boy’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg), a summer romance sparks that awakens feelings of first love, brilliantly and sensually captured by Guadagnino. Trust me when I say you need to see this film when it’s released in North America on November 24th. For more on readAdam Chitwood’s glowing revieworwatch the first trailer.
While at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival I got to sit down with Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino for an exclusive video interview. They talked about if they had any idea the reviews would be so positive and enthusiastic, how they managed to make the movie feel authentic and real, and that even though Guadagnino normally takes a long time to edit his movies this was done in record time. However, the big surprise of the interview was Guadagnino revealing he had a version of the film that was four hours long! After you see the movie you’ll understand why I was so excited to hear about the existence of an extended cut.
Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about and the official synopsis.
Armie Hammer, Timothée Chalamet and Luca Guadagnino:
Here’s the official synopsis forCall Me By Your Name:
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.
