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lohveandfilm · 5 years

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Somewhere in Northern Italy: The Fantastical World of Call Me By Your Name

I’m going to start this blog with a disclaimer: I am generally incapable of being objective about Call Me By Your Name. I’ve been infatuated with this film since a month before I even saw it. For the past two years, I have harbored a fairly intense celebrity crush on Timothée Chalamet (as I alluded to several blogs ago) that has somehow brought me new friends and some pretty crazy experiences. I won’t go into detail about these experiences for your own sake but suffice it to say that CMBYN has become quite tied to important personal experiences of mine that inherently color my viewing of the film (I hope I have managed to hide this well enough in class).

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

My understanding of Call Me By Your Name has always been through the lens of fantasy. The reason for this viewpoint is partly practical; though the age difference is not as emotionally triggering for me as it is for other people, I find that this seems to be partly because I have been viewing Elio and Oliver’s relationship as existing outside the real world, where I would immediately suspect Oliver of ill intentions. The sort of parallel universe created by the film helps me to let my guard down and see Oliver through Elio’s eyes, as Miles Rufelds notes is the goal of the film’s cinematography. Perhaps it is precisely because of my extensive experience with celebrity crushes that allows me to relate to Elio’s view of Oliver, as the object of desire in the film of his life. Elio’s family even refers to Oliver as a “movie star,” a description both of his Americanness and of his status as an unreal figure. It would not be unreasonable to say that Elio, constantly engrossed in books and other works of fiction, transferred a worldview distorted by those works of fiction onto his relationship with Oliver, as Rufelds also notes. Elio seems to willingly (but maybe unconsciously) ignore signs of strain in their relationship, such as Oliver’s repeated absences at dinner. The scene where Elio tries to ascertain Oliver’s feelings for Chiara springs to mind; Oliver’s overly harsh reaction appears in retrospect a desperate attempt to keep Elio from getting too attached, both to protect himself from engaging in anything improper and to protect Elio from the inevitable heartbreak at the end of the summer. Yet as soon as they arrive at the archaeological site, Elio trails wistfully behind Oliver and his father, soaking up the sun and the joy of being with Oliver.

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My perception of CMBYN as a fantasy is also a reflection on my experience as a queer individual, where everyday interactions must be judged in advance to determine how much of myself can be revealed. Although I have been very privileged in this respect compared to others, the pressure of living in a world that is still largely homophobic has surely affected my worldview. To see a story where a queer couple enjoys (for the most part) the freedom afforded to heterosexual couples is a view into an alternate history, a parallel universe where this pressure is lifted. It sometimes feels as if the film is suspended above the real world, its limits present but hazy, only peeking through in certain moments like when Oliver tells a nerve-wracked Elio, “I’d kiss you if I could.” The passage of time is unclear throughout; what seems like only a week or two is actually several, and Oliver is suddenly close to leaving right after he and Elio finally sleep together. Pamela Demory describes these kinds of non-normative time structures as “queer time,” creating a space for queerness outside of the confines of society. I think it is important to note here that the novel was originally written as a heterosexual love story, where the importance of this alternative timeline would not be so apparent. The relationship’s deadline acts so devastatingly precisely because it marks the end of this queer time, when the realities of being gay in the 1980s come back into focus and break down the walls of Elio’s fantasy.

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I’d also like to comment on the story of Marzia, who I feel is often undervalued in discussions of the film (and by Elio). Marzia isn’t just a contrast to Oliver meant to demonstrate Elio’s desire for someone of the opposite sex, she’s an important part of Elio’s self-exploration sexually and emotionally. I’ve often said that I disagree with those who label Elio as gay. His relationship with Marzia never feels forced, and you also never get the sense that he’s completely disinterested in her romantically. It’s clear that if Oliver hadn’t arrived, Elio and Marzia would have had a relationship that summer, and perhaps they would have established a more intimate partnership. The arrival of Oliver, though, allows Elio to experience the difference between a deep love and a more superficial, convenient interest. His ultimate rejection of Marzia isn’t a rejection of women altogether, it is simply a recognition that he isn’t capable of harboring such profound feelings for this particular woman. I also find Marzia to be a sort of role model, handling herself with immense empathy and compassion in the face of heartbreak. I think we’ve all been in the position of finding out that someone we’ve admired isn’t interested, and there is a strong compulsion to counteract that pain with vindictiveness. Yet Marzia understands that Elio’s behavior is not a result of malice, and she accepts his unspoken apology for hurting her. She recognizes her own pain in him and uses that empathy to rebuild their friendship, to move on. Joanna DiMattia describes the themes of compassion running throughout the film, but I admire Marzia’s compassion the most because it comes at a personal cost that she chooses to put aside for the sake of her friend. While we learn about romantic love from Elio and Oliver, Marzia teaches us about the love of friendship and its fundamental importance to the stability of our lifelong emotional journeys.

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