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Luca Guadagnino doesn\u2019t fall in love easily. \u201cIt was not about falling in love,\u201d he says of the ultimate decision he made to direct his new film, Call Me by Your Name. \u201cI fell in love once in my life, and I have been with the same person since. So I give a great level of importance to the concept of falling in love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, perhaps, it was resignation that made him take the helm. Guadagnino had been attached to the adaptation of Andr\u00e9 Aciman\u2019s delirious summer romance for nearly a decade\u2014first as a consultant, then an executive producer, then a writer\u2014when he finally took the plunge into directing it. Producers Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman had optioned the book before it was published in 2007, and were working with another director to mount the project. They had reached out to Guadagnino because the book is set in Italy and he knew the filmmaking landscape of his home country.<\/p>\n
Over the years, he took his producers on scouts all over Italy. \u201cThe book is about this specific place called Bordighera,\u201d Guadagnino explains. \u201cWe went all through Liguria. We showed them the Bordighera village and a possible house that could meet the storyline.\u201d Later on, he says, \u201cwe imagined a different setting; Sicily.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the original director dropped out, they went to another and another, and the dance of seduction lasted varying lengths of time with each, until all of those suitors fell away. It was Spears who suggested perhaps his friend James Ivory should direct, with a script that Ivory and Guadagnino could work on together.<\/p>\n
Guadagnino couldn\u2019t deny the pleasure of elevating his level of involvement with each new turn in the road, and working with Ivory on the script was a joy. \u201cHe showed up at my place in Crema, and we started working together. It took us a year of back-and-forth between Crema and New York, and we started from scratch. It was a very interesting script, because it was filled with the typical imagery of Ivory.\u201d<\/p>\n
But still, there was no luck for the production. Guadagnino put together a budget, but financiers wouldn\u2019t bite with a director nearing his 90th birthday. Ivory finally suggested Guadagnino join him as a co-director. \u201cBut nobody believed in this concept,\u201d Guadagnino sighs. \u201cIt was important to me to make this happen for James. I would have loved to see his version of the film. We worked a lot. But nobody believed two filmmakers could make a movie together\u2014unless they were brothers, or a pair to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guadagnino could be fast and nimble in a way Ivory wasn\u2019t practiced in. He was used to tight shoots and compressed schedules, and that would be attractive to financiers. It soon became undeniable: if this movie was going to go ahead, Luca Guadagnino would have to step up. \u201cI believed in this project and I didn\u2019t want to see it go,\u201d he says. \u201cThat was the reason I did it. Everybody got paid nothing. We did it because we wanted to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what was it about this story that inspired such fevered devotion, and yet such hesitation to take the reins? Call Me by Your Name is a love story, in its most unadulterated form. Elio is the 17-year-old boy whose narration guides us in Aciman\u2019s novel, as he meets Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate student come to stay for the summer at Elio\u2019s father\u2019s Italian villa.<\/p>\n
Certainly, there is a cross-generational controversy ready to ruffle some feathers, but that feels almost incidental. As Elio and Oliver\u2019s attraction deepens, moralistic arguments seem weightless. And, by his own admission, Guadagnino felt \u201ccomfortable\u201d with this story. \u201cBecause maybe I knew the people that I was talking about,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew the emotional journey they were going through. Butterflies in the stomach is the most beautiful feeling you can feel, no?\u201d<\/p>\n
But he is not alone in finding this kind of connection with the story. The book\u2019s fans are diehard, and you don\u2019t have to be gay, or Jewish, or to have summered in Italy, to remember the stomach-churning joys of first desire. For those who fall for it, Call Me by Your Name makes them fall hard. So much so that when their friends share those feelings, their reactions make it feel like the novel is somehow being adulterous. Guadagnino\u2019s film had to hit that same balance of the personal and the universal.<\/p>\n
He made it his own when he became its director. \u201cFor me to believe in something means to be completely invested in it,\u201d he says. \u201cTo be absolutely honest in my approach, for better and for worse.\u201d It\u2019s a necessary step for any project, but especially so when the subject is this achingly emotional.<\/p>\n
He started where he usually does; he leaned into his cinephilia. The films that sprang to mind: Jean Renoir\u2019s A Day in the Country, Bertolucci\u2019s La Luna, Rohmer\u2019s 80s films like The Green Ray and Pauline \u00e0 la Plage (Call Me is set in 1982). Also Pialat\u2019s \u00c0 Nos Amours, and T\u00e9chin\u00e9\u2019s Wild Reeds. \u201cThere was something about the countryside in all these films,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cI try to make sure that I have the pores of my imagination very open to soak in reality, but on the other hand, I rely very much on the imagery of my cinephile upbringing, so it\u2019s a battle between those two\u2014or it\u2019s making love between those two elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guadagnino is heavily versed in movies\u2014he rivals Tarantino for the ease with which he can relate subjects to cinema. And he\u2019s no snob, either. When he says he sought Armie Hammer for the part of Oliver, he waxes lyrical about how good he is in Gore Verbinski\u2019s The Lone Ranger, in spite of its challenging critical reception. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful movie,\u201d he insists, and he means it. Hammer had the movie star quality that he knew the Oliver of Elio\u2019s wistful glance needed to encapsulate. \u201cBut also, there is a sensitivity to him that is so deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hammer, \u201cthere was no way I couldn\u2019t do this movie,\u201d the actor says. \u201cI read the script, and then immediately went and read the book, and came to the conclusion that these were two of the most beautiful and amazing pieces of source material I\u2019d ever seen for something that could hopefully become a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were fewer references for Guadagnino to tap when it came to casting Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet as Elio. At 21, Chalamet had already made a mark with a run on Homeland and in Christopher Nolan\u2019s Interstellar. But Guadagnino found him through Peter Spears\u2019 husband, agent Brian Swardstrom, who had just signed the young actor. \u201cWe met and it was instant recognition,\u201d Guadagnino recalls. \u201cThe guy I was talking with had this brooding, unbiased determination and ambition to be a great actor, and yet he had this kind of soft, ing\u00e9nue naivet\u00e9 of a young boy. Those two things together were incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film rests on Chalamet\u2019s shoulders. We rarely break his perspective, and yet Guadagnino\u2019s version of the story omits the internal monologue of the book. Everything relies on Chalamet selling the this-way-and-that confusion of first love in glances and private moments. It was the biggest change the director made. \u201cI personally don\u2019t like the first person account of a story in a movie,\u201d Guadagnino says, keen to stress that it suits the novelistic form better. \u201cSometimes I like the omniscient narrator, as in Barry Lyndon or The Age of Innocence. I tried to think about what would happen if we had an omniscient narrator, and I discarded that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, he turned to indie musician Sufjan Stevens to ask for a song that could channel Elio\u2019s thoughts for the audience. Stevens surprised him by contributing two, \u201cMystery of Love\u201d and \u201cVisions of Gideon\u201d, which chart the extremes of Elio\u2019s experiences with Oliver. And he remixed a third of his own, \u201cFutile Devices\u201d, for the film, with lyrics that couldn\u2019t have been more apt if they\u2019d also been written for Call Me by Your Name. \u201cAnd I would say I love you\/but saying it out loud is hard\/so I won\u2019t say it at all,\u201d he sings. \u201cBut you are the life I needed all along.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe envelop the movie in the voice of Sufjan Stevens,\u201d Guadagnino says. \u201cI asked him to create songs that were, in a way, some sort of narrative for the film.\u201d Guadagino doesn\u2019t fall in love easy, but \u201cit\u2019s not hard to imagine being in love with Sufjan, because he\u2019s such a pure artist with such an incredible imagination, and an emotional world that is so deep.\u201d<\/p>\n
A film script is not a play, the director insists. There is no need to burden it with unnecessary dialogue. Film, after all, has the close-up, and the camera\u2019s eye can draw the perspective of its audience. If theater shouts to the gods, film whispers to the front row. So there\u2019s a quiet to Call Me by Your Name; it says just what it needs to and no more. \u201cI want to empower the moment of uncertainty,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a Tim Burton movie, Batman Returns, which, for being a movie about comic book hero, has that same kind of attitude; it makes that movie a masterpiece. And you have the greatest of all, Mr. Spielberg, who from his height of communicating with every person in the world still devotes himself to a very, very precise behavioral presentation of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Chalamet navigated bringing the audience into Elio\u2019s inner world\u2014aided by the sumptuous cinematography of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who paints the frame like a gilded memory of times past\u2014the book became his bible. \u201cIt was a tremendous gift,\u201d Chalamet explains. \u201cThere\u2019s this certain freedom you want to give yourself when you act, and the ability to jump off a cliff, but the greatest responsibility in making this movie felt primarily to the people that had been fans of the book. And Andr\u00e9 Aciman even more so, because this was his child. But I found myself going to the book in scenes that were harder to play, and moments that didn\u2019t make as much sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammer had less help from Aciman\u2019s text than his co-star. \u201cThe perspective of the book is almost entirely Elio\u2019s interlocution,\u201d he says. \u201cHis feelings towards Oliver are very subjective and capricious. It\u2019s the confusion of his infatuation. So for me, going off the book, I had to filter everything through that understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was almost like he was reading the enemy\u2019s manifesto,\u201d Chalamet jokes. Elio, after all, is us. He\u2019s why we connect Call Me by Your Name to our own comings-of-age. And we empathize all too easily with the crazy degrees to which his emotional perspective shunts him. We\u2019ve all known the pleasure and the pain of an Oliver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a universally human quality to Elio,\u201d Chalamet says. \u201cThere\u2019s a tension on the surface of his existence, and he\u2019s in a transitionary period in his life, becoming a man and dealing with feelings of sexual impulse for the first time. It felt rare to read a story about a young person who\u2019s this complex. It\u2019s no surface representation of what young people are. And as an actor, you seize that kind of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a life to Elio\u2019s relationship with Oliver in the film that relies on these two leads bringing every tool in their arsenal. It depended on their ability to find one another as friends, not just colleagues, before cameras rolled. Guadagnino got them out to the location weeks before shooting. He had finally settled on making the film in Crema, his adopted hometown, in a house he had once fallen for and wanted to buy. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t afford it. I sublimated by putting it into the movie. Now I have that house forever in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the actors arrived they found \u201cparadise\u201d, Hammer says. \u201cI was sucked into this idyllic, perfect world there. It seems as close to perfect as anywhere I\u2019ve been. It\u2019s just that much more relaxed and laid back. Waking up in the morning and squeezing apricot juice to drink. It was about slowing down and enjoying all of those little things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uniting the two actors in advance was essential to making them feel comfortable. \u201cIt was a genuine proximity our souls felt to one another in those early weeks,\u201d Chalamet recalls. \u201cThe friendship sprouted very easily, very naturally, very organically. It was really the random luck of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course actors say this kind of thing to journalists all the time. And they\u2019re actors\u2014it\u2019s their job to make it sound convincing. But as they reunite for the film\u2019s promotional trail, there isn\u2019t much effort or artifice between them. \u201cActually I was video Skyping with Timmy last night,\u201d Hammer says. \u201cIt feels like I got a new best friend and brother out of the process. There was a huge amount of trust we put in one another to do this. It required a level of vulnerability in both of us that would only have been possible if we felt safe around each other, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAny actor who plays a role should give him or herself the benefit of a window of time before shooting in which they can soak into the character,\u201d Guadagnino says. \u201cFor these specific characters, and this story, one part was the environment, and they had to become part of that environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guadagnino is no dictator. He describes filmmaking as a \u201csymbiotic work\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s all about the point of view. How do you coordinate the efforts of all the people to create this point of view? You can listen to a great symphony of Mahler and have a bad experience, because the conductor and the orchestra are not aligned to make that symphony resonate in the ears of the listener. Or, you can be lifted to the heavens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filmmakers, he insists, are \u201ccharlatans. We\u2019re imposters. So we all have to put on the best dress and make people pretend we\u2019re not imposters. It\u2019s alchemy. We make smoke and mirrors out of elements of identification for an audience to a story and characters.\u201d He treats every movie as his first. \u201cAnd what I learn about the experience as I grow up is not to panic if something is half good if not fully good. Cinema has the power to use only the very best possible of takes. Sometimes you find a glance and you know that\u2019ll be the take and you won\u2019t need the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
His laidback approach worked on his cast, who talk of their time in Crema like they, too, had a whirlwind summer romance. \u201cThe process of shooting this film felt as languorous and relaxed and laissez-faire as the movie itself,\u201d Hammer says. \u201cEffort does not necessarily equal talent, right? I\u2019ve been on movies where it feels like everyone is working really hard, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily make anything better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn American sets you work 12-, 14-, 16-hour days sometimes,\u201d says Chalamet. \u201cAll that volume over a short course of time can actually be less conducive to telling a story accurately. Luca\u2019s films are as sensual as they are intellectually stimulating. And he has a confidence as a director that meant I never felt any anxiety or pressure that we were running out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just a movie that deals with pure, almost archetypal human emotions,\u201d continues Hammer. \u201cThere are no special effects and no big set pieces. To get to experience that, and live in that, and breathe that for two months, was one of the greatest gifts I\u2019ve been given in my entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Guadagnino, meanwhile, has been finishing Suspiria, his reimagining of Dario Argento\u2019s legendary horror. He liked the idea of shooting two movies in close proximity, because he\u2019d lingered for six years between his previous two works, I Am Love and A Bigger Splash. Still, he admits, \u201cThe downside of these kinds of ambitions for film is that you don\u2019t have time for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Call Me by Your Name belongs to audiences now. \u201cIt\u2019s like having a child, and then the child grows up,\u201d Guadangino says. \u201cThis movie is a child out in the world now.\u201d<\/p>\n
View this article at Deadline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Luca Guadagnino doesn\u2019t fall in love easily. \u201cIt was not about falling in love,\u201d he says of the ultimate decision he made to direct his new film, Call Me by Your Name. \u201cI fell in love once in my life, and I have been with the same person since. So I give a great level
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