Synopsis
The latest from Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino ( I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) explores the tender, tentative relationship that blooms over the course of one summer between a 17-year-old boy on the cusp of adulthood (Timothée Chalamet) and his father's research assistant (Armie Hammer).
The press conference for this film takes place on Friday, September 8 at 1pm.
Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) has fashioned André Aciman's 2007 novel of sexual awakening into a joyous romantic adventure. Set in the sun-kissed landscape of Lombardy, Northern Italy, and with a script by James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name is a note-perfect tale of forbidden love. It brings together Timothée Chalamet (also at the Festival in Hostiles) and Armie Hammer as the two protagonists whose summer in the countryside opens new doors for both of them.
Guadagnino's camera presides languidly over the rambling villa used as a vacation home by American professor Perlman (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his family. Each summer, the professor invites a doctoral student to visit and help with his research. When hunky 24-year-old Oliver (Hammer) shows up, Perlman's 17-year-old son, Elio (Chalamet) is initially cool and distant. After all, he has a beautiful girlfriend who takes up most of his emotional time. Cast inadvertently into playing the role of good host, squiring fellow American Oliver around town and country, Elio finds himself confounded by a growing physical attraction to the visitor. Their courtship is tentative and awkward, consisting of looks and glances, touches and caresses. Elio's parents look on, blissfully unaware of the heated passions that are boiling beneath the surface.
Call Me By Your Name is, above all, a kind of reverie amidst a golden summer of bike rides, swimming holes, and outdoor dinners. Its lush sensuality casts a very special spell that is impossible to resist.