Vimini was probably my favourite character. for anyone who doesn’t know: she’s a child prodigy, only 10 but considered a genius. Her and Oliver developed a great friendship, speaking most mornings, with even Elio commenting “Oliver’s friendship with her was a lot more organic than Oliver’s friendship with me” The reason that she will probably never see Oliver again despite them developing a closeness throughout the book is because she is terminally ill with leukaemia. Her frustration with Oliver not saying goodbye because he was focusing on Elio really made me feel sad.
The leukaemia part is only mentioned in her introduction, she passes away like 2 years after the summer. it’s not the most important aspect of the book but I feel like she was important in the story as far as her death being the final excuse for Elio to write to Oliver. And it also creates a really sad moment towards the end, in Oliver and Elios last meeting one of them says, “she would’ve been 30 now”
I'm from the future ... Vimney, it seemed to me, this is the love between Elio and Oliver in an allegorical form. young, beautiful, but doomed to death. "We are both sick ..."
In my opinion the movie doesn’t really capture how Elio genuinely thought Oliver hated him for a large portion of the summer, also the shame that Elio felt which completely turned him off Oliver for the morning after they did it.
I prefer how the book ends. The heartbreak and longing that Elio goes through years later just tugs on my heartstrings and really hits you. I don't think I've ever cried while reading a book
I felt like Elio and Oliver’s conversation on the phone at the end of the film was the answer to Elio’s last lamentation at the end of the book. In the film Elio calls Oliver by his name and Oliver does the same and tells Elio he remembers everything. This felt like a direct reply to Elio desired wish of acknowledgment from Oliver in the book. In the film Elio is a little more forward with his desire for Oliver which makes sense because in the book Elio never really got over Oliver and nor did Oliver really let go of his feelings for Elio. I would definitely say this is a story about Star-crossed lovers as well as first love.
Channing, I agree with your interpretation re "Elio's last lamentation"/wish for Oliver to call him by his (Oliver) name. Per the movie's phone convo--Oliver DID call Elio , Oliver. I was also struck --dunno why--by Elio's sort of off handed 'guess' about Oliver's news. "you are getting married I suppose", and just as significantly struck by how Oliver presented the news. "I MIGHT" be getting married in the Spring he says. But I was absolutely intrigued when he actually asked Elio if he minded! "Do you mind?" Elios never answered the question, the parents picked up the phone. But I would have liked to hear his answer. Dunno did he want permission or a denial from Elio to move forward? I will bet my bottom dollar that Oliver never asked his wife to call him by her name nor did Elio ask any of his lovers to call him by their names. Nor was there more peaches and cream (sorry) 'act' played out in any other relationship these two had. Their love was raw and intense and passionate and real and I think circumstance ---timing/age/distance--forced them to take the path they did. And I like you Channing, don't believe they really got over each other.
Before call me by your name, I was a firm believer that films can never live up to their book counterparts - but with this film I was proved wrong. Both the book and film made me feel incredible amounts of sadness and happiness, and even jealousy. I think that they are both equally beautiful in both some of the same ways, and in completely different ways. André Aciman and Luca Guadagnino are both absolute geniuses and have created two incredible pieces of art.
There's that conversation near the end of the book where Oliver tells Elio about the postcard he had taken from Elio's room as a keepsake, and that he had written "Cor Cordium" ("heart of hearts") on the back of it. The conversation that came out of that, where Elio imagines the future time when Oliver is no longer alive, and that he doesn't want to be told about it... I think he tells Oliver to please not have his children notify him about his passing when that time comes... that hits pretty hard. Until that finality, there still exists the hope and possibility, however remote, of meeting and seeing each other again. But knowing the other one is gone forever, has crossed over and can never come back, that is the cruelest separation of all, it is the end of Hope, and the thought of Oliver gone forever is something Elio cannot bear.
The Father's speech at the end to Elio...THAT PART...I was utterly destroyed. He is right. Every time we lose somebody, a part of us is diminished...we are never the SAME person we were...and we become more guarded and less trusting after each hurt...after each disappointment....after each abandonment. But such is Life...and you learn to move on...no matter how painful and difficult it may be.
I really really like your take on the book and the movie. It's been months and I have not been able to get over this movie. I still cry every time I read the last page of the novel.
Elio was sooo obsessed by Oliver in the book than in the movie :') But i can't wait for the sequel of the book and i loved the movie, i found timothée so good in it !
Love your analysis, Kyle, which was clearly well thought through. I've seen the film six times and have scanned the audio book. I enjoyed the movie much more, as the book seemed a bit pretentious and flowery in its prose. But, that's just me. I've never had a film affect me like this one has. I think about it a lot and am constantly trying to learn a new nugget about the story or those who were involved in the film. Perhaps, one day I'll turn the page and move on with my life. My favorite scenes from the film? 1. Elio confessing his attraction to Oliver at the memorial, 2. the first kiss at the berm, 3. the father's monologue, 4. the ending by the fire place. Of course, there are countless other scenes that I adore as well. In fact, the more I see the film, the more I like it. Thanks again for your insights! Oh, one last thing, I would have preferred that Chalamet had narrated the book, because as I was listening to Hammer, I had to keep reminding myself that this is ELIO talking -- not Oliver.
For me Hammer doing the audiobook worked beautifully, and he did a great job. Certainly didn't throw me off one bit. I loved it, and it made me appreciate the book more. Also, that's a good point, Gabriel ML. It made perfect sense to me that Hammer was reading it.
For me, what completely broke me is: “She always wept because she slept alone, Now she sleeps among the dead. I can, from the distance of years now, still think I’m hearing the voices of two young men singing these words in Neapolitan toward daybreak, neither realising, as they held each other and kissed again and again on the dark lanes of old Rome, that this was the last night they would ever make love again. “Tomorrow let’s go to San Clemente,” I said. “Tomorrow is today,” he replied.” This is the only book that’s ever properly made me cry. It - along with the film - feels so deeply profound to me.
after seeing the movie twice, i had such a big void in my soul, so i decided to read the book. read it in one day. honestly, it is hard to compare the book and the film because the film made me feel so many emotions and the songs were so beautifully placed, that the book, for me, turned out to be a great filler to the gaps i had and helped me to understand elio better. i also loved some of the quotes that weren't present in the film, especially that last paragraph. oh.my.god. that story just crashed me, wracked me, torn me apart even tho i haven't experienced love again. also i mostly liked the language of the book, the similes were so unique and interesting, i would never thought of the pale skin as the reminder of an underbelly of a lizard etc ALSO ican't get over the film because the performances were outstanding, especially of Timothee. he is such a great actor and i am really rooting for him and the movie at the Oscars
I found Oliver to be somewhat cold and distant in the film, not to the point that I didn't enjoy it, but I felt in the book that distance was explained and he was revealed to be a far more sensitive and tormented person. I think Oliver is the character that might be hard-wired gay and facing a life in the closet, while Oliver, at the very least, believes that the more fluid Elio has a whole other world open to him. Oliver revealing that he never was off sleeping with town girls - as Elio presumed he was and as Elio did in part to compete with Oliver - is probably my favorite scene missing from the film and really transformed Oliver for me. I do think the book undermines the father's speech and a potential empowering message, because as you point out, Elio never gets over Oliver. He doesn't find love with another man or a woman. He just pines away for Oliver. Oliver at least seems to find some contentment in his family and career. I also do wonder what the symbolic purpose of the little girl Vimini is, who is seven years younger than Elio and shares his birthday. Oliver is seven years older. She seems to be representing some part of Elio - his childhood, a feminine side - that dies. Maybe that's too obvious but she seems like she's very important symbolically in the book and the move chose not to explore that. I also think it's highly significant that Elio and Oliver's names are near-anagrams. Anyway, thanks for this video. I enjoyed it.
Hadn't thought of the anagram part. Great catch. I definitely have to think more about the broader purpose of Vimini. But I do agree that the way the book ends does undermine the father's speech. Elio should be able to honour the love and move on, but can't seem to.
Okay...wait for it...I think that on a symbolic level Vimini, Elio and Oliver are representations of the narrator's self. Oliver is his future, seven years on when he is fully a man. Vimini is his childhood, which is dying. It's Oliver who is platonically in love with Vimini and seems to feel her loss as much as the loss of Elio. I know some gay lit authors have criticized the book for it being so heavly autoerotic, playing with the idea that Oliver and Elio fall in love with mirror images of themselves like a modern day Narcissus. I think that's very much in the book for better or worse. It would not shock me if in some early version of the book Vimini, Elio and Oliver were versions of the same person at different points in time - but I don't think that is what it wound up as but it's hard to unsee all the mirroring and twinning in the book once you are looking it. I don't think there's much of that in film, especially with Chalamet and Hammer looking so different, but it's still there a little. I think it's effective storytelling if a bit uncomfortable for some.
Agreed. I found the movie missing the torment a teenager can feel, imagine. The shower scene in the book was really exiting although it was just Elio’s imagination . These were missing in the movie.
Elio is the classic unreliable narrator. He assumes things that are sometimes only obliquely revealed to be untrue. There's also some things Oliver says in the future that indicate that narrator Elio has left out some stuff and that makes the book very interesting and worth a second or third read.
It's interesting how differently people see things. To me Oliver didn't seem even remotely cold or distant in the movie, quite the opposite - the Oliver I saw was very warm, sweet, caring and vulnerable.
Though I watched the movie first, once I read the book I wondered about Vimini and why she wasn’t in the film, but when you think about the way elements of dialogue or interactions were slightly altered when transcended into film, usually in a different context, I realized the character of Vimini was transformed into Elio’s mother. When you think about it, Elio’s mother is barely relevant in the book, but very much so in the movie. In fact, an exact dialogue between Vimini and Elio in the book was between him and his mother in the film. I think Luca wanted the sense of Elio’s family to be portrayed very strongly, and recognized Vimini as an important element and decided to put her attitude and actions into the mother, to create that sense of a tight-knit family. I was wondering if anyone else was thinking this too. However, very interesting video! Loved hearing your interpretations.
Oh, I feel you! Took me more than two and a half years(!) to pick up the book again and listen to the audiobook after watching the movie two times in one week when it came out where I live in March 2018. I just recently rewatched the movie (a few times; btw the audio commentary by Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg is SO GOOD), became really obsessed (again), and this time I had to know how the story is told in the book. It broke my heart in a million pieces and took me another one and a half weeks to get through the book, to take it all in, re-read sentences, paragraphs, pages, scenes, process all this intensity and the feelings this story evoked in me ... It was as wonderful and beautiful as it was tearful and hurtful and opened me up in a way that I haven’t been in quite a long time which I’m really quite thankful for 🙏 Right now I’m waiting for my copy of „Find Me“ to arrive soon and already looking forward to when my heart will be healed enough to pick up CMBYN again 🥰
I saw the film and bought the book right after I exited the cinema. Both have left a powerful impression; the last time a book had me thinking (and weeping) as much was several years ago, when I read The Hours. Curiously, they now both share top spot for my favourite books ever. The book did indeed answer some questions I had in relation to the film and the prose was so refreshingly good. Out of all the characters, I have to say it’s Elio’s parents I like the most; if only all parents were like that. I found it funny how you mention shame after the infamous peach scene. To me, the element that was overpowering was not shame, but rather Elio’s fear of letting go, of having to part with his lover. Seeing as this was his first meaningful relationship, it made perfect sense that he would not want to lose him despite knowing that he doesn’t have a choice. It was made even better by Oliver holding him closer because he too realises this will soon be over. That’s the first scene of the film that made me cry. The vulnerability, rawness and emotional openness portrayed by Chalamet was too good for words - not to mention genuinely heartbreaking. Maybe it’s because I relate on some level, but that was one of the scenes that have stayed with me the most. I could go on discussing the minutest detail of the film and book, so I’ll stop here. Overall, both were remarkable. P.S. you can get a copy of the book with the original cover if you go on the publisher’s website.
Thanks for the tip about the book cover. I think the peach scene, again, is very different in the book and film. Absolutely I agree that in the book it's made clear that he's becoming closer to Oliver. But when I saw the movie I saw shame. But I've only seen it once, so it could be a misread on my part.
Kyle, while the peach scene is very different in the book and the movie, like Ro D I loved it in the movie and found it very moving. It's beautifully acted by both actors. It goes through many emotions for both the characters and the audience, and in the end there's such amazing vulnerability, tenderness and love. I think they become closer in the movie at that point as well.
I read and watched call me by your name and it was such a whirlwind of emotions for me. Your analysis helped me clear many of the meanings and misunderstandings of certain scenes in the book. I personally can’t choose a favorite between the two as there were so many defiant times that changed my perspective. They were both made perfectly for me to comprehend and I truly enjoy it. Thank you so much for your explanations, it really helped!
I watched the movie, chocked a little. I read the book, bawled my eyes out. GOSHHHH THOSE TWO!!! I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO MOVE ON, EVER. Poor my little heart :"""""
I was 17 when I meet Les, we was 33. I had to finish schooling, university and 2 yrs national service. We made it happen and lived together until he died of cancer 19yrs on. I was 36, I was told " now you have to learn to grow up" at 36 I learnt that I had been protected, was scared but had been loved, that's all that mattered.
Thanks for helping me organize my thoughts on both the book and the movie into words. It's so good because of how easy it is to relate to somethings. Not necessarily that we all grewup spending our summers there but the little things that we all go through, obsessing over someone, having feelings, the heartaches, and afterwards how we grow and deal with it all.
the scene that really stuck with me is in the book I think it's before oliver goes back to italy but it's a few years after the summer maybe 5-10 years later but elio goes to the town oliver lives and he sits in one of his classes and then they go to his office and elio sees something the picture frame and then they go to a bar or diner and talk
@@thekylemarshall_ I hope they do but I don't think they will since the sequel is going to be based off the book Find Me which is technically the next book after cmbyn but it focuses more on the father than just elio and oliver
Overall, your comparison/contrast analysis of the movie and the book was spot on. The book was definitely more sensual and character development was much more thorough. I loved both characters in the film: Elio for his awkward, geeky innocence and enthusiastic exploration of his relationship with Oliver; Oliver for the inner battle he fought to love Elio as Elio needed to be loved. In the book, however, my heart belonged to Elio, maybe because I identified with all the inner struggles Elio faced that goes with sexual experimentation in my late teen years I'm not a fan of a follow-up film without the original cast, and I'm not sure it's in the best professional interest of either lead actor to typecast himself as a gay character. In addition, the film's ending gave a remarkably upbeat closure to a sad story. It would take tremendous writing skills to craft a script as sensitive as the original film. It's not impossible, but rather highly improbable in today's Hollywood. Beautiful love story. The lover's genders aren't really important.
I agree that the genders aren't necessarily important. And the book and movie are definitely different in how they handle the characters. It truly is a beautiful story.
There wouldn't be a follow-up without the original cast (not the whole cast necessarily, but certainly Chalamet and Hammer (and whoever else would be in the follow-up story from that cast). Both actors have said they'd be in - they're clearly not worried about being typecast and I don't see why they even would be typecast somehow, since they obviously continue to do other characters in other movies as well even if a sequel or sequels to this ever happen(s). The setting would probably be very different, based on what Luca has said, he's working on it, so we'll see... It's obviously risky and challenging in some ways, but since they seem interested... hey, I trust them and wish them all the best with it.
I would not want a sequel without the continuity and word craft of James Ivory, and that seems unlikely as he’s 89. Unless he’s already been working on it...
I'm not convinced Ivory was essential in the first place, the original author and the director far more so, and Aciman and Guadagnino have been talking about the possibly continuing with the story. They and the cast would surely provide the continuity needed. Aciman created the characters and the story and most of the word craft in the movie is actually his. Ivory worked with the materials provided by Aciman. Guadagnino changed a lot from the script (thank goodness), and gave the movie the look and feel it has (by casting, choosing location, choosing music, etc. - with the help of his crew), and the actors gave shape to the characters. Since Aciman, Guadagnino and the cast are on board, I wouldn't worry about Ivory.
You're probably not active here anymore but I'd like to post it anyway. I can't agree with you more on the ending of the book lingers more than what was necessary. Reading the ending, I didn't feel like Elio is in his 30s but rather the 17 year-old Elio who is still going through that heartbreak. I really enjoyed this video. Thank you!
The book had my stomach totally knotted with anguish by how much Elio suffered as he silently lusted after Oliver. The writer has a lot to answer to. We need another book written from Oliver's perspective to see if he suffered as much as Elio did. And it is not fair that Elio appears to love Oliver more - he described his life post Oliver as "being in a coma" while Oliver just described it as "parallel life". Wonderful piece of literature...good job.
Thank you so much for this insightful review of the book as well as the film. I love your interpretation of Heraclitus and what you said about how some people have such a profound impact on our lives (4:08). I find the novel incredibly moving and nostalgic. But it is not nostalgic in the way that Proust's novel is nostalgic. It's more melancholy and emotionally raw to express the narrator's longing. This emotional intensity of the narrator's voice stays with me after reading the novel for weeks (perhaps, this is a testament of a masterpiece?). I could only compare this experience to other books that have touched me such as Marguerite Duras' 'The Lover' (1984), L. P. Hartley's 'The Go-Between' (1953) and a novel by Balzac called 'The Lily of the Valley'.
Thank you for your kind words. I agree with the feeling of nostalgia even though I don’t really share the same experience as the author, but it feels like I do. While reading it felt like a summer I had many years ago. I have to admit that I haven’t read those other books. I guess a trip to the library is in order!
Absolutely loved your analysis. Your appreciation & passion for these characters really shine through in your video. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
5:49 I totally agree. This idea is so rightly manifested in the book coz it's from Elio's narrative. not quite in the movie tho. Dunno if it is just me, but i feel that this point also leads to another: as it all the more shows how fleeting human relationships are, the idea that no one is "meant to be" if we consider all possibilities in all parallel universes. It is not a must that we would end up with this person or the other, it is really kind of dependent on fate, or how I like to see it is all the past experiences and things that we have been through, one leading to another, so it is kind of "meant to be" but also not coz it is not "absolute". Besides, even if we do end up with this one true love that we feel that we're gonna live with for the rest of our lives, as you rightly referred to as "the first love" in the video, we might still part from each other due to all sorts of reasons -- unwillingly/forcefully separated like it was in the story, or naturally (because of time) as we all change over time also well said in the video at 7:46 our personality our beliefs because of all the experiences we had all along. .. I liked the train scene in the movie and I feel that it could have been in the book but it isn't, even tho the book without it is still damn fine. and so yes I like the book more than the movie overall/generally(such as the peach scene I like the message in the book more, the ending, all the thoughts running in Elio's head that can only be written/that cannot possibly be exactly/entirely portrayed even with Timothee's magnificent acting, etc. etc.) I wanted to add that: I feel that it is thanks to the fact that it is hard if not impossible for them to be tgt that makes it so good so heartrending but so beautiful so unforgettable. It is thanks to the tragedy that makes the whole thing right, if that makes sense. And I absolutely love this idea that yes it is tragic but it's beautiful and it is just right, which makes it "worth it" in a sense, worht the tragedy. It is not just about "oh it is so sad makes me cry for three hours straight", but I feel that it is just *right*. and pray to God that they don't make a sequel I definitely think that making a sequel will just ruin the whole thing, which was really just "right"; anything added or deducted from the story (in this case, the film) will completely ruin it. anyways thanks for the video and the analysis, thought-provoking, so on point, and organised !!(unlike me, my problem as clearly seen from above with all my thoughts entangled in my messy brain) ❤️
I loved reading through this comment. I agree with your added points. Sometimes I think I make videos because it forces me to organize my thoughts. Otherwise I would blather on without ever coming to the semblance of a point.
I’m very young and I saw the movie I tried to describe it to people in the nature of it isn’t the people it’s the concept but they didn’t understand. This was such an eye opener. I feel like I can’t talk to anybody so I express myself through movies , books, and shows. This movie is an example of me struggling with my mature yet Sometimes childish ways I bring into my fetus life that surrounds me and I can’t spread my wing only keep it growing in the inside like Black Swan but I know what happening
i saw a ton of interviews with the director about the sequels..i don´t think he wants to adapt them from the book anymore..He wants bring his own ideas into the story...for the first one he wants to pick up the story 5 years later, and just tell us what the characters are doing at that time...i´m actually excited for that cause i love these characters and i want to know more about them..and for me the book SUCKS after that summer, so i don´t mind at all if he wants to put new canon into the story, i trust the guy he made an amazing moving already changing some stuff for the better...
Yeah, it sounds like it , he actually said in one interview that he just wants to tell us stuff that isn´t in the book, so another adaptation is a no no, even the author André said that he´s done with the characters Luca can do whatever he wants with them, man another movie with Chalamet as Elio and Luca directing? YES PLEASE!!!
JESUS that part in the book when they go together to another town was so boring, what luca did with that in the movie was way better, I´m I the only one who thinks the movie is better than the book? If the director wants to make a sequel I´m boarding the Hype train, and he can change whatever he wants, it´s not like we´re losing much from the book, almost nothing happens in last chapter to be honest
I saw the movie and loved it so much, I had to buy the book. I have to say I was a bit off with the Elio´s version of the book if that makes sense? In the book he seems way to obsessed and over the top, the movie version of Elio is more charming and interesting at least for me. Also have mixed feelings about the ending in the book so yeah I want more Elio (chalamet) movie version
it makes sense although to be fair the book being a different media it lets us know what´s going on in elio´s head , chalamet does a great job trying to tell us that with his (beautiful) face and body language, but i understand if you saw the movie first that might have been a bit to much for you in the book.
That makes me more willing to go along with the proposed sequels. There's a bunch of ways you could handle the storylines. The temptation is to do "fan service" and have them spend the rest of their lives together. Or, you could just have more pain thrown at the characters. I'm not sure what I'd be more interested in seeing. Or if there's a dramatically fulfilling way they could do either.
Hey Kyle! I loved your analysis (short but succinct and more than satisfying). I will agree with you on the most important thing you said which is that the closing scene of the movie is such a defining and extremely strongly concluding moment, not to mention probably the strongest and genre defining ending of a movie generally (period-full stop)! That I hope they do not do a movie sequel. CMBYN is my favourite movie of all time and took me about three months to get the strongest parts of it out of my system and keep it from distracting me from my own life! So I'd like to keep it that way (A Classic which should be re-visited). I think you're a re fantastic by the way! A ;-)
I was hooked weeks before I saw the movie or read the book... I went to the movies theather by myself because i wanted the cinema scenario and remember how important it felt. During the movie I was transported to Italy, almost could feel the heat of the sun. Bought the book the same night. Hard to choose because I love their performances in the film, brilliant! But I love the trip to Rome in the book, the party, artists and walking in the streets felling silly, happy and drunk, smiling to the world. I am still under the spell of this story, felling in love and enchanted.
I had the CMBYN book & unread for a long time BUT wanted to see the movie first .. then read the book again (which I did) * I once made a mistake by reading the book version of ‘Holding The Man, THEN watching the movie. Like Chalk n Cheese .. all versions of both stories.
I'm intrugued about the grad student/applicant from the year before Oliver. His name is Maynard. I keep thinking about what may have transpired before for him to write "think of me someday" on the postcard he gave Elio.
I loved both.. The movie and the book accomplish each other... Without canceling the importance of one another.... My favorite scene in the movie was the Oliver's smile in the bus when Elio ask him "What?".. That feeling, that happiness resumes everything.
I totally agree with you about the sequel. The only way i feel that it may still hit as hard as the original is if the story is now told from Oliver's point of view. Perhaps an indication of how the marriage feels when he still longs for Elio
Hi Kyle, thanks for making a video about this! I saw the movie, loved it, read the book, loved it (and discovered Andre Aciman, yay). I agree that they approach the subject matter differently, as is necessary when adapting a book to a movie, and that the movie's ending was better than the book's. I also hope they don't make a sequel; I heard that if they do it may contain a plotline about AIDS. I think I responded to the movie/book the way I did bc it strongly reminded me of my own first romance, which sadly did not end as well as Elio & Oliver's did (which didn't really end well).
does anyone know what the scene in the movie with the sculpture that was found in the water was for? Unless my memory is really bad, there wasnt anything like that in the book and the significance was not really clear for me and seemed quite random. The handshaking with the arm of the sculpture was cute though
That scene in reverse colour - climbing the war monument, and Elio's cousin laughing: I took it to mean Oliver imagining the public hostility, and a feeling of doing something shameful, if they were to continue their relationship. Thoughts?
Very nice review to compare the book and movie. You read well and wouldn't mind hearing the entire book in your voice. I loved everyone in the movie was intelligent. Elio's musical talent and then teasing Oliver by changing the musical piece slightly. I loved when his parent's were in the den and he laid down. His mother reading the book to them and stroking Elio's hair. I loved after the sexual encounter Oliver was more at ease and human also caring to how Elio felt. Fun things one was when the door slammed shut in their room and the loud noise filled the house at night. Seeing Elio jumping silently up and down with his arms waving. I loved seeing the small flies in some of the views, made it real. I loved in the movie when Oliver picked up the peach, Elio started to cry and be scared of maybe in being in control and actually trusting someone. Then at the end of the film and his dad spoke to him.......................
I just finished reading the book and I can say that in the book we get to discover better the characters, especially Elio. The books is kind of his dairy when we understand the deepest thoughts and feelings of Elio, something that we do not see that well in the movie. In general I LOVEEEEE BOTH,THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE and I believe that they complete each other. The aesthetic, the soundtrack, the visuals take the movie to a next level.
Just wanted to say I love your interpretation of book versus movie, probably because it matches mine! I read the book after watching the movie, and while I can't say I regretted it, I was kind of disappointed. The movie strongly brings across the fact that one of the themes is first love, and the bitter-sweetness of it all, and you have hope for Elio. The book otoh says, IMO, that Oliver was IT for Elio, at 15, 2O years later, he's still resentful of Oliver's wife and kids. So I don't really need a sequel, unless it's like the Before Sunrise trilogy, and Elio and Oliver get together eventually. Hey, I love my happy endings in fiction, life is sad enough!
Let’s see if it follows the Before trilogy in quality. I hope so. I’m curious if they subvert expectations and have them reunite but ultimately decide that they don’t belong together. But maybe I just like my heart broken.
@@thekylemarshall_ that kind of ending would be ok for me, as long as it results that Elio has some kind of life after, not remaining hung up on his teenage summer love!
Well... A brilliant video ! I've just seen this movie and I want so much read the book. Thank you for this, it's really great :) (a little comment from a french girl so sorry if there are mistakes)
Hi Kyle:) Thanks for your video. It was just what I was searching for, after watching the movie AND reading the book. I must say that I enjoyed the book more (although I also LOVED the movie). The book was so much more flushed out. Silences were understood. Love scenes were more explicit. The passion was palpable! I disagree with you on the ending of the book. I was utterly heartbroken and moved by the last section, when Elio goes to Oliver's University to visit him. Their drinks at the bar. 20 years later, and the spark is still there. It all felt so real. The one thing I didn't love about the book was all the stuff in Rome. I wish Acerman would have focused more on just Elio and Oliver, and their 3-days away in private paradise. I didn't care for Alfredo, and the poetry readings, and the people they partied with in Rome. I would have liked more descriptive romance at the end of their affair. And agreed- the goodbye at the train in the movie was amazing. That was better than the (lack of) goodbye in the book.
I think I would have loved the ending more if it seemed like there was real closure on their relationship. Instead it felt like Elio was pining for a person who was never again going to reciprocate it. However Aciman's prose is really great so I can't be too upset by it.
off course its sad that so many great parts of the story like vimini and the poet didnt make the movie, but I still think that the alterations for the movie were all amazing and necessary, and really made the movie just as good as the book, which is rare with bookadaptions. It conveys the emotions of longing, passion and grief extaordinary well and I also thought the songs by sufjan stevens were so beautiful and fitting for the characters.
Kyle Marshall - Love your enthusiasm, humor and mostly on-point observations about this movie. However, since you typically like to open and close your reviews of this film with sly reference to the peach scene (at 1:40), make sure you know that a peach is a stone fruit (like a cherry or nectarine), not a citrus (like a lemon or grapefruit). The latter would probably be too acidic and caustic for its unorthodox use.
Can't get them out of my head, still remains deeply sorrow and regret. I have already finished both the movie and the novel, but I prefer the book more than the movie and wish the moviesequl won't come true. What my favorite in the novel is "we had found the stars, you and I. And this is given once only." I cry every time whenever I read this. Could somebody tell me when can I get over it? I have been stuck in cmbyn for a month!
Oh, boy...This is one my favorite moment in the book too..I feel like I got stuck in an emotional loop and can't get out. The movie didn't deliver this depth of their relationship and no wonder that a lot of viewers saw it like just a summer romance. I loved the movie and the book.
I really enjoyed how you did this review. I saw the film first, then listened to the Armie Hammer reading of the book. I started to read the book, but I'm glad I found the audio version, as I don't think it would have held my attention well enough to actually get through it. The book is SUPER wordy. All of Elio's conflicting thoughts running chaos through his immature brain....too much. Especially in the first section. So in many ways I like the movie much better, although knowing the book helps explain what is going on behind the scenes in the movie...which (great directing aside) one can only guess at in the movie, especially up until the "monument scene." I actually enjoy the later parts of the book better than the first part. But then, the movie doesn't really even include these, as you note. All the stuff in Rome....and years later....touching. For me the major faux pas was having Armie do the reading for the Audio Book instead of Timothee or better yet, a dramatized version with both of them and a narrator. I found myself being confused by Armies voice being Elio. It was too call-me-by-your-name-ish for me.
I do still want to listen to the audio book, but I think Armie reading it will throw me off. At least for the first few minutes. Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I thought that the ending of the film was done beautifully and would have never been as impactful as it was if it was done like the book but still I had to prepare myself for the last chaptor for about 3 weeks and when I read the last few lines I just couldn‘t do anything else but give myself to my emotions and cry both the film and the movie are in there own why perfect and perfectly relatable not in a melanial way but just in all the thoughts that these caracters have to go threw. One thing that I really appreciate about the book is the long pages of Elios thoughts ❤️
In the book, Oliver's words to Elio around eating the peach were more important than in the movie. Oliver was describing how special Elio was to Oliver. He did that one more time outside the post office, admitting he was afraid of his feeling for a young man that might not even know yet what love is, that this was just fun and games for a 17 year old. "Don't claim you didn't know" The movie disappointed me, probably for how much I already loved the book.
My take on the book? They're still in love even years later even if Oliver doesn't quite realise it! Can't they at least get back together & spend the remainder of their lives together? Maybe Oliver's relationship with his wife is over - it was on & off when he & Elio were together so it wasn't very stable from the start, & Oliver's kids are all grown adults. Couldn't that be the ending for them? Together finally in old age & just living out their final years together
very good job, I really liked it, especially how you underline the role of Eraclito "message" on this book! I think the film was beautiful (it's cool to see and hear the piano scene!) but the introspective style of the book is unbeatable; the author has done an amazing job with all the descriptions and we can really feel Elio's torments and fears. (It would be nice to have a Oliver's point of view too :D ). Do you have some advices for the same kind of book? thanks!
So can I ask something?.. I haven't read the book though but in the film Oliver ..(at the last scene where they speak at the phone)Oliver says he's getting married..like..he truly moves on or in some part of their lives meet up again? Cause at the end of the call scene in the film we don't know much what happens in the future. What does the book says? I'd really love to end up together somehow in the film or at least at the book ..! Can u tell me ? Great video great point of view..💕 I love this movie so much!
i thought that the book also did a better job at building up the characters and their relationships (as most books do) and i really enjoyed the book ending! part of me does wish i could see the rest of their lives visually but i don't think a sequel will do the film justice. i liked the way the director ended it :)!
It does seem like the sequel is actually happening so I guess we will be able to see it visually. For whatever reason I just want to spend more time with these characters. They are so fully realized that I feel like they’re friends I’ve never met.
Kile, I first saw the movie then after a couple of weeks, decided that I needed more about the story. I agree with you in the sense that Elio appears more tormented. The book does a great job in developing his intelect. The movie does not. We perceived Elio as a very precious adolescent who knew exactly how to manipulate himself into the young professor's heart. Despite this his adolescence is obvious and an older man is making a conscious decision to become involved with him. I did not think that the book needed to be sexually graphic. The movie avoids sexual content and yet it is provocative and sexual tension is obvious. The famous peach scene, naturally bonding. Why did I enjoy the movie? A catharsis of feelings. My first mancrush with someone of my own culture. I met him in 1980 and every time I see him, we pick up where we started, practically and sex never happen. Through out the years I eventually told him of my sexuality. He listened, did not utter a word, was not inquisitive, did not judge me and allowed me to do the talking. I met this man hitchhiking in Spain. Felt immediately attracted to him and when the summer was gone, we both departed our ways. I wrote to him that summer and I remember crying as I told him that I missed him and that I had had a wonderful summer. I am sure that if he now reread my letter to him, that he would question my feelings for him. Throughout the decades we visited. I met him in Spain, Torino and France. Every time I saw him, I would question in my head if he had felt the same things .There have been only two moments of sexual tension between us. And both took place years after I first met him. On one occasion he wanted me to experience his bathtub. He had recently bought himself a condo in Turin. The bathtub had these relaxing jets. In any event, we drove to a " profumeria ". A place where one would find women purchasing perfumes, hand lotions... bath salts. Yes that's the word,he wanted to purchase bath salts so that we could bath in his tub. So we got home, and he prepared my bath. I got in alone, and that was it. When I was done, he rinsed the tub and prepared his own bath. You see, up until then, no one had ever prepared my bath, no one. You can just imagine how conscious I was about him being inside the tub and naked. I found myself avoiding his glance. Sexual tension perhaps....and maybe only one sided. On another one of my trips he took me to a desolate mirador. You could see (in bright daylight of course) the city of Torino from above this elevation. I questioned why he had taken me up there when really there was nothing to see. Just pitchdarkness as it was past 9pm. Sexual tension? What can I say? To this day I find him charming, loving, a gentleman and perhaps the most classiest man I have ever known. If the truth would be known, I would find myself falling in love every time I saw him. In the book Elio states something to the effect of feeling like he was 17 all over again, this during their encounter as adults in the USA. Well I am the same Elio. That love, the losses and the what ifs. As I became older and learned about my sexuality, I became involved with men. Have had three lovers. The movie brought me back to my last one. Perhaps the only one of the three which I allowed to " really love me". The one who taught me so much about myself. That it was ok to love unconditionally, that it was ok to hold hands in public and to show affection to one another. Only one big problem. My last lover was married to a woman. In the end she found out. I had spent too many hours under her scrutinized eyes, for he had brought me into his family, as a very special friend. The movie brought back every tender memory of my life with him. Every feeling of love, hope, deception and loss. I knew from the very start that this was a battle I would never win. My loss was there nurturing itself and finally the end to this beautiful relationship made its mark. It has been a number of years since R&R split. I also haven't seen my friend from Torino in eight years. We live in two different continents. For now, I am planning to move back to Europe. I expect this to happen within the next 2-3 years. I will be 60 when I return to my old roots, language and culture. I am scared to starting a new life all over again. And most probably alone. Thank you for reading.
Sorry for not responding sooner. I've let my channel languish. But I love that you've shared part of your story here. It's great how this film/book has allowed others to share their lives so intimately with strangers online. I have not had my Elio and Oliver romance. At least not yet. Thanks again for writing what you did.
Hi Kyle Thanks for another great vid. I have now read the book, but this is way behind my movie watching. 21x now, but slowing down :) I prefer the movie. I have never been so affected by a film in my life, and I have certainly never seen my emotions laid out for the world to see. Part of the attraction for me is the lack of a neat resolution. This continues the “documentary” feel, and the last part of the book felt like an add-on, to tie up loose ends. Without the book, the future lives of Elio and Oliver still have potential - Like the thought experiment "Schrödinger's Cat", where you don’t know if a cat in a box is alive or dead until you look. (A VERY brief and simplified explanation.) I could regard the movie as a segment of a real life - to some extent mine - and avoid the neat tying up and summation of the book. An open-ended observation of a life similar in many ways to mine. The Roman sequence in the book also had similarities to my interactions with Art, Culture, Contemporary “Classical/Serious” Music, and Drama - all with their own Capital Letters. Pretentious is the word that springs to mind now, but at the time they were authentic experiences of a senior secondary schoolboy /young university student. In the book, I am removed from the interactions of Oliver & Elio to a degree, while we tour around bars in Rome. It provides local colour I suppose, but the running around on the mountainside “The hills are alive …”, rolling around the streets of Bergamo, and tickle fights in the hotel room give me more emotional links to the 2 young guys. I have mentioned elsewhere, Oliver/Armie seems to get younger here, and Elio/Timothée seems older, and I wonder if that was intentional. The final sequences of the movie from this point on really give me the emotional shot that possibly explains why I love the film so much. I have only read the book once, and I will read it again, but only as an interesting side line. For me, the story of Elio and Oliver is as complete as I want it to be, and although I would go and see a follow-up, it would be a little like seeing “Son of Romeo & Juliet”, where they weren’t actually dead, but had recovered with good Manuka Honey and prayers from Friar Laurence - unnecessary. I would have liked to have seen the more fleshed out original, which would explain on film some of the odd cut-aways and seeming non-sequiturs, explaining the comment while he playing the guitar etc. For a small “Indi” movie, I continue to be amazed at the huge reaction this has generated on line. Maybe this is common, but as this is the only movie I have ever gone bananas over, it is the first time I have been aware of this.
The producer explain the metaphor of the waterfall and the spring they are in, Elio wants to take Oliver to the source of that spring and show him this massive waterfall: Look Oliver this is the depth of my feeling for u and this is how much I feel for u. Reply
I hadn't thought about how Elio seems to age slightly and Oliver becomes more youthful. That's fascinating observation! Again, I am cautious about any sequels. I'm to going to lie, I'll definitely go and watch one if it's made, but it would have to be treated very carefully to be good.
I think that I'm in broad agreement with you about a sequel. When asked about the prospect, Luca threw the question straight back - "Wouldn't you like to see these characters again?" Well, in the after-glow of this movie, you'd probably nod your head automatically. On reflection, I think that instead of revisiting Elio's story later in life there's a different story to be told. There's been comment over Elio's recollections not being complete and in the book he admits to probably relating his story a bit out of sequence. Memory plays those tricks. To my mind this leaves a door open for the very same story to be told but to hear it from Oliver's perspective. Let me qualify this straight off. It needs to leave out the influences that come from the united states of repression as that story has been done to death! However, we only got a small taste of Elio's father mostly through his devastatingly accurate description of how we destroy some things in life which we should care for much better. Working closely with him day-to-day would have been a huge culture-shock for Oliver (I speak from personal experience but in a different context) - most likely to the point where both of Elio's parents would have had a vastly different effect on his life than came from the narrow-mindedness of his own. So instead, the effect of removal of a threat of being sent to a "correctional facility" there's a story about its release from Oliver's mind and the freedom to express himself that came with it. There's one clue well ahead of the father's monologue that he's aware of what's going on. The suggestion of calling each other by their own names comes from Oliver - but I somehow don't think that it could come from a repressed past. Vimini was just the truth incarnate that affirmed the love that Oliver was experiencing in the Perlmann house-hold let alone with Elio, because of its simple innocence. It's another of aspect of the potential richness in telling Oliver's version of that summer.
Really good points. Thank you so much for sharing. Seeing the same story but from Oliver’s point of view would be fascinating. It does seem like most everyone who made the movie wants the sequel to happen. So I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the best.
I watched the movie 3 times, read the book once, listen to audio book once. I agree with most of your analysis, with different nuances. I thought the book was quite different from movie, and each is great work. Here's a few foci in book I thought set it apart from movie. 1. TONE OF NARRATOR Book = Elio (passionate, neurotic, questions about his awareness of himself and goings on around hm), Movie = camera, ambient sound, scores (silent, still, angles, cuts, stable, lyrics) 2. BECOMING Elio & Oliver both sailed into instinct of wanting to know/be the other (names, eating cum, asking to see Elio's shit in toilet, elio letting him do all of that without shame.) 3. ELIO'S TRANSFORMATION In The last chapter "San Celemente Syndrome", Elio almost becomes intoxicated and overwhelmed by the new sensory and social experiences. He literally only mentioned Oliver less than 10 times. I thought Oliver said good bye and I missed it. This contrast from last chapter so much that I was quite confused & angered. "WTF, Elio, are you not talking about O cuz you a unreliable narrator now? Or you too good for O now that people at the party he brought you to treat you like a star?" In other words, E was changing before our eyes, with very very little firsthand evidence from O, eg, E's senses of him (either from afar or directly) like sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, which would be common in their relationship in previous chapters. Most importantly, what really happened to O? Did E really leave O by himself? O, are you not pissed, sad, angry, or you got your own thing going on too? Toward the end, my questions went full blown... What happened to E? What happened to O? What happened to their relationship? What is gonna happen to E, O, & their relationship? 4. PLOT DIRECTION Continue my #3 - I wouldn't let no a question during the entire reading of chapter (San Celemente): "Surely author/Elio will address this obvious explicit change?" For me, this change was sudden and wasn't addressed. For me, the way the chapter's end didn't address blatant changes (in E's mindfulness & attachment to O) constitutes and introduces "unconscious negligence or avoidance" of E (compared to E's neurotic micro-reading & O's attendance to E). I see such "unconscious negligence/avoidance" (as behaviors) as the starting point for E to continue his adult version of semiconscious negligence & avoidance (mostly in emotions & thoughts) Movie's plot (first love, consistent with personality shown, etc) ended reasonably. In contrast, novel's plot could've taken many reasonable directions. For instance, given what we know about E & O & their environment, plot didn't *have to* unfold the way it did in epilog (eg, E&O having no contact for 20+years, etc). However, as epilog showed, E turned out to be an unreliable narrator, he told readers of his avoidance, and gave us his thoughts & his mostly cognitive reasons behind his behaviors. However, at his final meeting with O, E's dialog & narration about the conversation (ie, of both himself & O) revealed to readers a few critical info we didn't have before. (A) E explicitly narrated he was anxious & fearful of directly engaging O (what'd O say? What do I expect? Etc) (B) E's in-real time narration (about O, about conversation, about himself) Implicitly revealed very clearly that he *was* & *had been* emotional. In fact, judging from the last few pages (where he inferred O forgot their name thing), he had been unaware that (unresolved) emotions drove his decisions & experiences all. (C) How aware was E towards the end of novel? This is critical to examine the plot possibilities. If E had navigated his world semi-consciously (even without much awareness of himself), the plot is not driven by unreliable narration (random), but a *systematic* (not random) point of view. Ex., we readers were left thinking "Is E aware that his focus on reasoning (Cognitive) was flawedas it didn't account for emotions?", or "was this another case of E's unreliable narration, in which he left out crucial pieces underlying his sudden change to "subconscious negligence/avoidance" (to himself & O) in previous chapter. So, plot direction. For me the author left it ambiguous, because no evidence was strong enough to serve as a reference point, in which we can assess characters' choices & pilot's unfolding and day "this plot makes sense more than another". 4. SEPARATION I disagree with Kyle on why E & is O didn't keep in touch for subsequent decades was due to "they know they couldn't be together". Evidence (ie, Elio's experience & awareness via narration) didn't elude to societal or environment reasons behind E's decisions to not see O, even when E was minutes away for a while. In the epilog, they barely indulged in their memories of their attitude towards such memories. E disclosed very little about his explicit emotional state (ie, readers can question his self-awareness). Interestingly, as E narrated the conversation in real time, readers see a different type E's self-awareness now vs that of self dialog in epilog. E's narration now had more varieties, also more engaging as he engages O, showed more sentimental fluctuation (internally & to O). For me, the most important climax at end last 2 pages. E's tone went from disappointment about O's possible forgetting of names, to unapologetically uttering to himself what he wanted & needed from O. requesting when E passage worked thru a sudden change of tone from distancing (from self & O). Essentially, E had been stoic & avoidant since separating from O (ie, cutting off from a piece of himself). At present, he had brought his desires all these years into awareness, organized into words, and all in a way we could tolerate.
Maybe it was just a matter of me wanting more. Instead of a quick overview of a couple decades I wanted that to be expanded. With the sequel apparently being a reality maybe I’ll get what I want out of that.
I watched the movie and then read the book. Both are phenomenal in my opinion. I am very glad that I watched the movie first, though, because the movie is much more simple than the book. If I were to have read the book first, I would not have liked the movie as much as I do. Reading the book after watching the movie filled in a lot of gaps for me and made me have a greater appreciation for the film, the book, and the story as a whole. That being said, I prefer the book. I read it in a few days and fell in love with everything about it. I first listened to it as an audiobook that Armie Hammer actually reads, and his voice is so amazing. Anyway, the book being mostly Elio's thoughts helped it feel so real, and like I was actually Elio in the story. And so that was absolutely magical. In the book, my favourite part is when his father has that conversation with him. I am so glad it is also in the movie because it is one of the most importnant parts of both the book and the film. "What lies ahead is going to be very difficult... Fear not. It will come. At least I hope it does. And when you least expect it. Nature has cunning ways of finding out weakest spot. Just remember: I am here. Right now you may not want to feel anything. Perhaps you never wish to feel anything. And perhaps it's not with me that you'll want to speak about these things. But feel something you did... In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away or pray that their sons land on their feet soon enough. But I am not such a parent. In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything-what a waste! That has to be by far one of my favourite parts of the book. And my favourite part in the film is definitely the last scene, which is no surprise. I cried my eyes out when I watched that scene. I have been in nearly the same situation as Elio, and that scene really made me feel the feels. I relate very much to the movie and the book.
@@april_showers_7 hey there, just read your comment, could we please talk.. finished the movie and I'm in this shitty mood for like more than a week now and I just need someone to talk to or else I might explode from the inside, it's by far my favorite movie ever, but so much sadness is inside me now because of it...
@@yazanlavigne Yes! I would be happy to talk to you :) I was sad after I watched the movie, too. But also very happy, because a romance like that is such a beautiful story and I am glad I was able to read and watch it.
Dear, first of all nice thoughts on those book& movie. As for myself, I did read the book first. I was so touch by it, the way Andre is getting himself inside Elio’s head. The questioning of a teenager, the doubts and tries. All this intensity between the two of them. I had to see the movie, so I went. I left before the end because there was nothing added from the book. I found the movie extremely slow and passionless compared to the book. I remember seeing the ble en herbe French movie from 1990 and I was amazed how much the relation was so well transcribed by the movie. The intensity extremely present. The book made me cry, laugh, sight, moan,cry some more, no matter where I was I didn’t care to show emotions I couldn’t hide. I didn’t want to hide them. I wanted them so hard. The way Andre wrote that book made me slave of Oliver in the same kind of way. Nothing in the movie moved me. Vimini is played by the mother. I didn’t mind but... there is a whole reason for it and I felt the whole movie was softening the edges replacing controversial scenes with politically correct scenes, like eating the peach, which is soooooo intense, the way the words are said out loud, out of the body, out of the mind. Nothing pornographique. Just real intense private moment. I do agree with you for the train scene when Oliver leave then he called his mum. This did had a lot of intensity , too bad I was out of the movie theater already, I saw it on TH-cam. But the whole end of the book with the back and forth of him going to the state or Oliver going back to the house was kinda essential or giving a twist that they did had a long life and still seeing each other’s still feeling. Just feeling. Hurting themselves in a way because they both know they never reached this intensity before neither after. And most of it the last paragraph of the book with the last sentence. Ps. Agreed with you again for that filthy room! Why? Didn’t need it at all ! Maybe a director’s own memory he wanted to put in?
Oh my. Well, different strokes and all that. I've never left a movie theatre before the end of any movie in my life, and I can't even imagine how much I'd have to hate a movie to do so. This one I'm still going to see in theatre at least a couple of times while I still can, even though I already have the blu-ray. For me the book was fine, whereas I love the movie to bits, and could watch it over and over - and indeed have. Incredibly beautiful, and utterly engaging from beginning to end. The most authentic, most touching and most sensual love story depicted in a movie I've ever come across, it felt so real and honest, and every kiss and caress - when they finally happened - were so well deserved and earned. Amazing direction, acting, cinematography, music, costume design, locations, set decoration, sound design. A feast for eyes and ears. I loved the humour, the all-encompassing sensuality, the wisdom, the beauty. I'll always be grateful for this precious gift that Luca and others involved gave me.
I loved the movie...and was frustrated by the book...even a bit sorry that I read it, but I'm looking forward to the next movie, let's hope they don't destroy the characters...
Elio on the movie was not the same the boy I imagined in the book. The book version had less arrogance or swag to me. In the book, Elio had more honest and his emotions were more... raw... and creepy. I don't know, he just wasn't the same in the movie.
I'm so torn! I ADORE both the book and the movie, however, I feel as though the women in the movie vs the book are presented very differently. Marcia in the book plays such an important role in Elio's life and he has a unique regard for her. In the book he has genuine affection for her, spends equal intimate time with her when he is not with oliver, and he also describes her smell/body and general love for her. In the movie, she is an accessory. In the movie, she is used by Elio, but not much indication that he cared for her or that he lost his virginity to her. Next, the director shows us her body/she is naked in the movie but we do not see Elio and Oliver naked once. Elio and Oliver talk about her friend's body...but her along with all in all women in Call Me By Your Name (except the mother) are not regarded for more than that. They are easily ignored, their feelings are not considered. Just the fact Oliver is marrying a woman and hides her from Elio...if this is such a love story, then why do we ignore how Elio and Oliver both two-time each other with women they care about? Why don't these women given a more important perspective in the movie or the book? Why do we feel dread about Oliver's marriage when we watched Elio lie to two people? (They are so alike). Again, I ADORE both the book and the movie. As a woman, these instances bother the crap out of me. But the love between elio and oliver (except for that blowjob moment/door slam) are captivating. What do you think? Am I missing something? Am I wrong for perceiving it this way?
The story is much more concerned with the love story between the two men. However, especially in the movie, the women are not treated very well at all. I feel bad for them. They are are ignored, and their feelings are not considered. I believe they are forgotten because both men are focused only on each other and they don't really care about these other relationships. At least not fully. So, I think you're right to feel the way you do.
Thank you! I thought I was ridiculous for perceiving this. I love Marcia in the book. But hey, both Oliver and Elio are hiding women from each other. They are perfect for each other haha
I don't want them to make a sequel either, it just feels like it would be a huge mistake. Like all those years after their summer together were so sad and frustrating to me as a reader, because I wanted them to get together, but they just never did. It's as if they both had subconsciously accepted the fact that they would never even attempt to get together. And I don't want them to make a sequel even less now that I've learned the director wants to departure from the book and do his own thing, and has said also he wants to take on the AIDS crisis of the late 80's. What if one of them gets infected and dies in this supposed sequel?!!! Nope, nope, nope! Leave it as it is!
He said it would be more like a summer adventure for them traveling together. I dont think it will be based on the book. If they dont end up together in the sequel i will be forever depressed haha
That won't happen. Luca Guadagnino said he wanted to follow the characters over the span of many years, so he won't kill either of them. Also, André Aciman says he considers the end of the book a happy ending, as he thinks Oliver stays this time around. That means the sequel or last installment of a possible film series could potentially have a happy ending. It's scary to have a sequel, I agree, but I support it as long as it's done well. André Aciman should be involved with the story.
I know a stand up comedy person is not in my future. Serious question why did they put the nose bleed event in the book and movie? To make Elio seem more vulnerable or perhaps show Oliver's caring side for Elio.
The last paragraph, that is the "final scene" of the book. I cried for a while when I read that.
It’s so great.
Same here. And it’s first time for me to cry while reading a book.
Same
It wasn't only me then
"20 years ago was yesterday, yesterday was this morning, and this morning was ages away"
Vimini was probably my favourite character. for anyone who doesn’t know: she’s a child prodigy, only 10 but considered a genius. Her and Oliver developed a great friendship, speaking most mornings, with even Elio commenting “Oliver’s friendship with her was a lot more organic than Oliver’s friendship with me” The reason that she will probably never see Oliver again despite them developing a closeness throughout the book is because she is terminally ill with leukaemia. Her frustration with Oliver not saying goodbye because he was focusing on Elio really made me feel sad.
For some reason I didn't pick up on the leukaemia. Guess I need to do a re-read. 🙂
The leukaemia part is only mentioned in her introduction, she passes away like 2 years after the summer. it’s not the most important aspect of the book but I feel like she was important in the story as far as her death being the final excuse for Elio to write to Oliver. And it also creates a really sad moment towards the end, in Oliver and Elios last meeting one of them says, “she would’ve been 30 now”
I'm from the future ... Vimney, it seemed to me, this is the love between Elio and Oliver in an allegorical form. young, beautiful, but doomed to death. "We are both sick ..."
@@nonamenoface1259 oh my fucking god. This just ruined me 😭
In my opinion the movie doesn’t really capture how Elio genuinely thought Oliver hated him for a large portion of the summer, also the shame that Elio felt which completely turned him off Oliver for the morning after they did it.
I agree about the first part. In the movie it feels like Oliver might be indifferent to Elio, but in the book Elio truly believes it's hatred.
I prefer how the book ends. The heartbreak and longing that Elio goes through years later just tugs on my heartstrings and really hits you. I don't think I've ever cried while reading a book
I definitely felt bad for him.
I love the part in Rome when Elio said "Oliver Im happy"...
Ugh. It cuts me deep that line.
No, you’re just horny)))
Awwww, so touching. 😢😢😢 I wish that they had included that line in the movie.
I felt like Elio and Oliver’s conversation on the phone at the end of the film was the answer to Elio’s last lamentation at the end of the book.
In the film Elio calls Oliver by his name and Oliver does the same and tells Elio he remembers everything.
This felt like a direct reply to Elio desired wish of acknowledgment from Oliver in the book.
In the film Elio is a little more forward with his desire for Oliver which makes sense because in the book Elio never really got over Oliver and nor did Oliver really let go of his feelings for Elio. I would definitely say this is a story about Star-crossed lovers as well as first love.
Channing, I agree with your interpretation re "Elio's last lamentation"/wish for Oliver to call him by his (Oliver) name.
Per the movie's phone convo--Oliver DID call Elio , Oliver.
I was also struck --dunno why--by Elio's sort of off handed 'guess' about Oliver's news. "you are getting married I suppose", and just as significantly struck by how Oliver presented the news. "I MIGHT" be getting married in the Spring he says. But I was absolutely intrigued when he actually asked Elio if he minded! "Do you mind?" Elios never answered the question, the parents picked up the phone. But I would have liked to hear his answer. Dunno did he want permission or a denial from Elio to move forward? I will bet my bottom dollar that Oliver never asked his wife to call him by her name nor did Elio ask any of his lovers to call him by their names. Nor was there more peaches and cream (sorry) 'act' played out in any other relationship these two had. Their love was raw and intense and passionate and real and I think circumstance ---timing/age/distance--forced them to take the path they did. And I like you Channing, don't believe they really got over each other.
@@hiddenpick Crying! 😭😢😭
Before call me by your name, I was a firm believer that films can never live up to their book counterparts - but with this film I was proved wrong. Both the book and film made me feel incredible amounts of sadness and happiness, and even jealousy. I think that they are both equally beautiful in both some of the same ways, and in completely different ways. André Aciman and Luca Guadagnino are both absolute geniuses and have created two incredible pieces of art.
Both different but both great. I agree!
There's that conversation near the end of the book where Oliver tells Elio about the postcard he had taken from Elio's room as a keepsake, and that he had written "Cor Cordium" ("heart of hearts") on the back of it. The conversation that came out of that, where Elio imagines the future time when Oliver is no longer alive, and that he doesn't want to be told about it... I think he tells Oliver to please not have his children notify him about his passing when that time comes... that hits pretty hard. Until that finality, there still exists the hope and possibility, however remote, of meeting and seeing each other again. But knowing the other one is gone forever, has crossed over and can never come back, that is the cruelest separation of all, it is the end of Hope, and the thought of Oliver gone forever is something Elio cannot bear.
The Father's speech at the end to Elio...THAT PART...I was utterly destroyed. He is right. Every time we lose somebody, a part of us is diminished...we are never the SAME person we were...and we become more guarded and less trusting after each hurt...after each disappointment....after each abandonment. But such is Life...and you learn to move on...no matter how painful and difficult it may be.
Very true. Thanks for sharing.
My favorite quote from the book: "20 yeard ago waa yesterday, yesterday was this morning, and this morning was ages away"
I cried. For days.
My first love at 17 WAS my only love...and I'm 52. It's not unrealistic to write a character who experiences only one love.
I appreciate your outlook. Thank you for sharing.
I really really like your take on the book and the movie. It's been months and I have not been able to get over this movie. I still cry every time I read the last page of the novel.
That last page is pretty intense. Interested to see if they do make any other movies or not.
Elio was sooo obsessed by Oliver in the book than in the movie :') But i can't wait for the sequel of the book and i loved the movie, i found timothée so good in it !
Love your analysis, Kyle, which was clearly well thought through. I've seen the film six times and have scanned the audio book. I enjoyed the movie much more, as the book seemed a bit pretentious and flowery in its prose. But, that's just me. I've never had a film affect me like this one has. I think about it a lot and am constantly trying to learn a new nugget about the story or those who were involved in the film. Perhaps, one day I'll turn the page and move on with my life. My favorite scenes from the film? 1. Elio confessing his attraction to Oliver at the memorial, 2. the first kiss at the berm, 3. the father's monologue, 4. the ending by the fire place. Of course, there are countless other scenes that I adore as well. In fact, the more I see the film, the more I like it. Thanks again for your insights! Oh, one last thing, I would have preferred that Chalamet had narrated the book, because as I was listening to Hammer, I had to keep reminding myself that this is ELIO talking -- not Oliver.
I agree with Armie Hammer doing the audio book would throw me off while listening to it. Still want to try, though!
For me Hammer doing the audiobook worked beautifully, and he did a great job. Certainly didn't throw me off one bit. I loved it, and it made me appreciate the book more. Also, that's a good point, Gabriel ML. It made perfect sense to me that Hammer was reading it.
Steve Krause I agree with you about how the books makes it seem so light yet sometimes there are darks
coz Oliver is Elio, Elio is Oliver. They are two but one
For me, what completely broke me is:
“She always wept because she slept alone,
Now she sleeps among the dead.
I can, from the distance of years now, still think I’m hearing the voices of two young men singing these words in Neapolitan toward daybreak, neither realising, as they held each other and kissed again and again on the dark lanes of old Rome, that this was the last night they would ever make love again.
“Tomorrow let’s go to San Clemente,” I said.
“Tomorrow is today,” he replied.”
This is the only book that’s ever properly made me cry. It - along with the film - feels so deeply profound to me.
after seeing the movie twice, i had such a big void in my soul, so i decided to read the book. read it in one day. honestly, it is hard to compare the book and the film because the film made me feel so many emotions and the songs were so beautifully placed, that the book, for me, turned out to be a great filler to the gaps i had and helped me to understand elio better. i also loved some of the quotes that weren't present in the film, especially that last paragraph. oh.my.god. that story just crashed me, wracked me, torn me apart even tho i haven't experienced love again.
also i mostly liked the language of the book, the similes were so unique and interesting, i would never thought of the pale skin as the reminder of an underbelly of a lizard etc
ALSO ican't get over the film because the performances were outstanding, especially of Timothee. he is such a great actor and i am really rooting for him and the movie at the Oscars
There are gorgeous passages in the book. The final paragraph may be my favourite.
After reading the book and watching the movie I feel so empty! It’s like when I was done I lost a piece of my soul😅
It’s a great world to be a part of. If only for a little while.
great video. i like the book better. it captures the passion of pining for someone as a teenager so well.
I found Oliver to be somewhat cold and distant in the film, not to the point that I didn't enjoy it, but I felt in the book that distance was explained and he was revealed to be a far more sensitive and tormented person. I think Oliver is the character that might be hard-wired gay and facing a life in the closet, while Oliver, at the very least, believes that the more fluid Elio has a whole other world open to him. Oliver revealing that he never was off sleeping with town girls - as Elio presumed he was and as Elio did in part to compete with Oliver - is probably my favorite scene missing from the film and really transformed Oliver for me.
I do think the book undermines the father's speech and a potential empowering message, because as you point out, Elio never gets over Oliver. He doesn't find love with another man or a woman. He just pines away for Oliver. Oliver at least seems to find some contentment in his family and career.
I also do wonder what the symbolic purpose of the little girl Vimini is, who is seven years younger than Elio and shares his birthday. Oliver is seven years older. She seems to be representing some part of Elio - his childhood, a feminine side - that dies. Maybe that's too obvious but she seems like she's very important symbolically in the book and the move chose not to explore that. I also think it's highly significant that Elio and Oliver's names are near-anagrams.
Anyway, thanks for this video. I enjoyed it.
Hadn't thought of the anagram part. Great catch.
I definitely have to think more about the broader purpose of Vimini. But I do agree that the way the book ends does undermine the father's speech. Elio should be able to honour the love and move on, but can't seem to.
Okay...wait for it...I think that on a symbolic level Vimini, Elio and Oliver are representations of the narrator's self. Oliver is his future, seven years on when he is fully a man. Vimini is his childhood, which is dying. It's Oliver who is platonically in love with Vimini and seems to feel her loss as much as the loss of Elio. I know some gay lit authors have criticized the book for it being so heavly autoerotic, playing with the idea that Oliver and Elio fall in love with mirror images of themselves like a modern day Narcissus. I think that's very much in the book for better or worse. It would not shock me if in some early version of the book Vimini, Elio and Oliver were versions of the same person at different points in time - but I don't think that is what it wound up as but it's hard to unsee all the mirroring and twinning in the book once you are looking it. I don't think there's much of that in film, especially with Chalamet and Hammer looking so different, but it's still there a little. I think it's effective storytelling if a bit uncomfortable for some.
Agreed. I found the movie missing the torment a teenager can feel, imagine. The shower scene in the book was really exiting although it was just Elio’s imagination . These were missing in the movie.
Elio is the classic unreliable narrator. He assumes things that are sometimes only obliquely revealed to be untrue. There's also some things Oliver says in the future that indicate that narrator Elio has left out some stuff and that makes the book very interesting and worth a second or third read.
It's interesting how differently people see things. To me Oliver didn't seem even remotely cold or distant in the movie, quite the opposite - the Oliver I saw was very warm, sweet, caring and vulnerable.
Though I watched the movie first, once I read the book I wondered about Vimini and why she wasn’t in the film, but when you think about the way elements of dialogue or interactions were slightly altered when transcended into film, usually in a different context, I realized the character of Vimini was transformed into Elio’s mother. When you think about it, Elio’s mother is barely relevant in the book, but very much so in the movie. In fact, an exact dialogue between Vimini and Elio in the book was between him and his mother in the film. I think Luca wanted the sense of Elio’s family to be portrayed very strongly, and recognized Vimini as an important element and decided to put her attitude and actions into the mother, to create that sense of a tight-knit family. I was wondering if anyone else was thinking this too. However, very interesting video! Loved hearing your interpretations.
I think you might be right. At the very least his mother does seem much more important in the movie.
I am such a coward. After watching and weeping and obsessing over the movie, I'm too scared to finish reading the book.
Totally understand. Take a few months and see if you want to dive in. 🙂
Kyle Marshall I really should do that. And rewatch the movie and savour every scene, compare it to the book, and really appreciate the music XD
better not to finish, not now, the perception is absolutely different
I put the book down for three days before I finished it for same reasons
Oh, I feel you! Took me more than two and a half years(!) to pick up the book again and listen to the audiobook after watching the movie two times in one week when it came out where I live in March 2018.
I just recently rewatched the movie (a few times; btw the audio commentary by Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg is SO GOOD), became really obsessed (again), and this time I had to know how the story is told in the book. It broke my heart in a million pieces and took me another one and a half weeks to get through the book, to take it all in, re-read sentences, paragraphs, pages, scenes, process all this intensity and the feelings this story evoked in me ... It was as wonderful and beautiful as it was tearful and hurtful and opened me up in a way that I haven’t been in quite a long time which I’m really quite thankful for 🙏
Right now I’m waiting for my copy of „Find Me“ to arrive soon and already looking forward to when my heart will be healed enough to pick up CMBYN again 🥰
I saw the film and bought the book right after I exited the cinema. Both have left a powerful impression; the last time a book had me thinking (and weeping) as much was several years ago, when I read The Hours. Curiously, they now both share top spot for my favourite books ever.
The book did indeed answer some questions I had in relation to the film and the prose was so refreshingly good. Out of all the characters, I have to say it’s Elio’s parents I like the most; if only all parents were like that.
I found it funny how you mention shame after the infamous peach scene. To me, the element that was overpowering was not shame, but rather Elio’s fear of letting go, of having to part with his lover. Seeing as this was his first meaningful relationship, it made perfect sense that he would not want to lose him despite knowing that he doesn’t have a choice. It was made even better by Oliver holding him closer because he too realises this will soon be over. That’s the first scene of the film that made me cry. The vulnerability, rawness and emotional openness portrayed by Chalamet was too good for words - not to mention genuinely heartbreaking. Maybe it’s because I relate on some level, but that was one of the scenes that have stayed with me the most.
I could go on discussing the minutest detail of the film and book, so I’ll stop here. Overall, both were remarkable.
P.S. you can get a copy of the book with the original cover if you go on the publisher’s website.
Thanks for the tip about the book cover.
I think the peach scene, again, is very different in the book and film. Absolutely I agree that in the book it's made clear that he's becoming closer to Oliver. But when I saw the movie I saw shame. But I've only seen it once, so it could be a misread on my part.
Kyle, while the peach scene is very different in the book and the movie, like Ro D I loved it in the movie and found it very moving. It's beautifully acted by both actors. It goes through many emotions for both the characters and the audience, and in the end there's such amazing vulnerability, tenderness and love. I think they become closer in the movie at that point as well.
I read and watched call me by your name and it was such a whirlwind of emotions for me. Your analysis helped me clear many of the meanings and misunderstandings of certain scenes in the book. I personally can’t choose a favorite between the two as there were so many defiant times that changed my perspective. They were both made perfectly for me to comprehend and I truly enjoy it. Thank you so much for your explanations, it really helped!
Glad I could be of help!
I watched the movie, chocked a little.
I read the book, bawled my eyes out.
GOSHHHH THOSE TWO!!!
I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO MOVE ON, EVER.
Poor my little heart :"""""
It does produce a bunch of tears.
I was 17 when I meet Les, we was 33. I had to finish schooling, university and 2 yrs national service. We made it happen and lived together until he died of cancer 19yrs on.
I was 36, I was told " now you have to learn to grow up" at 36 I learnt that I had been protected, was scared but had been loved, that's all that mattered.
Thank you for sharing your story. Sometimes love is all that matters no matter how trite that sounds.
Thanks for helping me organize my thoughts on both the book and the movie into words. It's so good because of how easy it is to relate to somethings. Not necessarily that we all grewup spending our summers there but the little things that we all go through, obsessing over someone, having feelings, the heartaches, and afterwards how we grow and deal with it all.
So true. Glad you enjoyed it!
the scene that really stuck with me is in the book I think it's before oliver goes back to italy but it's a few years after the summer maybe 5-10 years later but elio goes to the town oliver lives and he sits in one of his classes and then they go to his office and elio sees something the picture frame and then they go to a bar or diner and talk
I really like that scene too. I wonder if they'll do something similar in the sequel that's supposedly being made.
@@thekylemarshall_ I hope they do but I don't think they will since the sequel is going to be based off the book Find Me which is technically the next book after cmbyn but it focuses more on the father than just elio and oliver
Overall, your comparison/contrast analysis of the movie and the book was spot on.
The book was definitely more sensual and character development was much more thorough. I loved both characters in the film: Elio for his awkward, geeky innocence and enthusiastic exploration of his relationship with Oliver; Oliver for the inner battle he fought to love Elio as Elio needed to be loved.
In the book, however, my heart belonged to Elio, maybe because I identified with all the inner struggles Elio faced that goes with sexual experimentation in my late teen years
I'm not a fan of a follow-up film without the original cast, and I'm not sure it's in the best professional interest of either lead actor to typecast himself as a gay character.
In addition, the film's ending gave a remarkably upbeat closure to a sad story. It would take tremendous writing skills to craft a script as sensitive as the original film. It's not impossible, but rather highly improbable in today's Hollywood.
Beautiful love story. The lover's genders aren't really important.
I agree that the genders aren't necessarily important. And the book and movie are definitely different in how they handle the characters. It truly is a beautiful story.
There wouldn't be a follow-up without the original cast (not the whole cast necessarily, but certainly Chalamet and Hammer (and whoever else would be in the follow-up story from that cast). Both actors have said they'd be in - they're clearly not worried about being typecast and I don't see why they even would be typecast somehow, since they obviously continue to do other characters in other movies as well even if a sequel or sequels to this ever happen(s). The setting would probably be very different, based on what Luca has said, he's working on it, so we'll see... It's obviously risky and challenging in some ways, but since they seem interested... hey, I trust them and wish them all the best with it.
I would not want a sequel without the continuity and word craft of James Ivory, and that seems unlikely as he’s 89. Unless he’s already been working on it...
I'm not convinced Ivory was essential in the first place, the original author and the director far more so, and Aciman and Guadagnino have been talking about the possibly continuing with the story. They and the cast would surely provide the continuity needed. Aciman created the characters and the story and most of the word craft in the movie is actually his. Ivory worked with the materials provided by Aciman. Guadagnino changed a lot from the script (thank goodness), and gave the movie the look and feel it has (by casting, choosing location, choosing music, etc. - with the help of his crew), and the actors gave shape to the characters. Since Aciman, Guadagnino and the cast are on board, I wouldn't worry about Ivory.
You're probably not active here anymore but I'd like to post it anyway. I can't agree with you more on the ending of the book lingers more than what was necessary. Reading the ending, I didn't feel like Elio is in his 30s but rather the 17 year-old Elio who is still going through that heartbreak. I really enjoyed this video. Thank you!
Love your take on the book,keep It up!
I will! Thanks.
The book had my stomach totally knotted with anguish by how much Elio suffered as he silently lusted after Oliver. The writer has a lot to answer to. We need another book written from Oliver's perspective to see if he suffered as much as Elio did. And it is not fair that Elio appears to love Oliver more - he described his life post Oliver as "being in a coma" while Oliver just described it as "parallel life". Wonderful piece of literature...good job.
Thanks! I don't know if you heard or not, but they just announced a sequel to the book that's going to be released this year.
And about bloody time too. Well the author would have had a riot on his conscience from the world wide CMBYNer family 😂
Thank you so much for this insightful review of the book as well as the film. I love your interpretation of Heraclitus and what you said about how some people have such a profound impact on our lives (4:08). I find the novel incredibly moving and nostalgic. But it is not nostalgic in the way that Proust's novel is nostalgic. It's more melancholy and emotionally raw to express the narrator's longing. This emotional intensity of the narrator's voice stays with me after reading the novel for weeks (perhaps, this is a testament of a masterpiece?). I could only compare this experience to other books that have touched me such as Marguerite Duras' 'The Lover' (1984), L. P. Hartley's 'The Go-Between' (1953) and a novel by Balzac called 'The Lily of the Valley'.
Thank you for your kind words. I agree with the feeling of nostalgia even though I don’t really share the same experience as the author, but it feels like I do. While reading it felt like a summer I had many years ago.
I have to admit that I haven’t read those other books. I guess a trip to the library is in order!
Absolutely loved your analysis. Your appreciation & passion for these characters really shine through in your video. Looking forward to seeing more of your videos.
Thanks for watching! Hope I don't let you down.
The Battle Of Piave scene resonates with me the most because in that moment, Elio is everything I wish that i was.. courageous enough to "speak"
Good catch.
5:49 I totally agree. This idea is so rightly manifested in the book coz it's from Elio's narrative. not quite in the movie tho. Dunno if it is just me, but i feel that this point also leads to another: as it all the more shows how fleeting human relationships are, the idea that no one is "meant to be" if we consider all possibilities in all parallel universes. It is not a must that we would end up with this person or the other, it is really kind of dependent on fate, or how I like to see it is all the past experiences and things that we have been through, one leading to another, so it is kind of "meant to be" but also not coz it is not "absolute".
Besides, even if we do end up with this one true love that we feel that we're gonna live with for the rest of our lives, as you rightly referred to as "the first love" in the video, we might still part from each other due to all sorts of reasons -- unwillingly/forcefully separated like it was in the story, or naturally (because of time) as we all change over time also well said in the video at 7:46 our personality our beliefs because of all the experiences we had all along. ..
I liked the train scene in the movie and I feel that it could have been in the book but it isn't, even tho the book without it is still damn fine. and so yes I like the book more than the movie overall/generally(such as the peach scene I like the message in the book more, the ending, all the thoughts running in Elio's head that can only be written/that cannot possibly be exactly/entirely portrayed even with Timothee's magnificent acting, etc. etc.)
I wanted to add that: I feel that it is thanks to the fact that it is hard if not impossible for them to be tgt that makes it so good so heartrending but so beautiful so unforgettable. It is thanks to the tragedy that makes the whole thing right, if that makes sense. And I absolutely love this idea that yes it is tragic but it's beautiful and it is just right, which makes it "worth it" in a sense, worht the tragedy. It is not just about "oh it is so sad makes me cry for three hours straight", but I feel that it is just *right*. and pray to God that they don't make a sequel I definitely think that making a sequel will just ruin the whole thing, which was really just "right"; anything added or deducted from the story (in this case, the film) will completely ruin it.
anyways thanks for the video and the analysis, thought-provoking, so on point, and organised !!(unlike me, my problem as clearly seen from above with all my thoughts entangled in my messy brain)
❤️
I loved reading through this comment. I agree with your added points.
Sometimes I think I make videos because it forces me to organize my thoughts. Otherwise I would blather on without ever coming to the semblance of a point.
I’m very young and I saw the movie I tried to describe it to people in the nature of it isn’t the people it’s the concept but they didn’t understand. This was such an eye opener. I feel like I can’t talk to anybody so I express myself through movies , books, and shows. This movie is an example of me struggling with my mature yet Sometimes childish ways I bring into my fetus life that surrounds me and I can’t spread my wing only keep it growing in the inside like Black Swan but I know what happening
i saw a ton of interviews with the director about the sequels..i don´t think he wants to adapt them from the book anymore..He wants bring his own ideas into the story...for the first one he wants to pick up the story 5 years later, and just tell us what the characters are doing at that time...i´m actually excited for that cause i love these characters and i want to know more about them..and for me the book SUCKS after that summer, so i don´t mind at all if he wants to put new canon into the story, i trust the guy he made an amazing moving already changing some stuff for the better...
Yeah, it sounds like it , he actually said in one interview that he just wants to tell us stuff that isn´t in the book, so another adaptation is a no no, even the author André said that he´s done with the characters Luca can do whatever he wants with them, man another movie with Chalamet as Elio and Luca directing? YES PLEASE!!!
JESUS that part in the book when they go together to another town was so boring, what luca did with that in the movie was way better, I´m I the only one who thinks the movie is better than the book? If the director wants to make a sequel I´m boarding the Hype train, and he can change whatever he wants, it´s not like we´re losing much from the book, almost nothing happens in last chapter to be honest
I saw the movie and loved it so much, I had to buy the book.
I have to say I was a bit off with the Elio´s version of the book if that makes sense? In the book he seems way to obsessed and over the top, the movie version of Elio is more charming and interesting at least for me.
Also have mixed feelings about the ending in the book
so yeah I want more Elio (chalamet) movie version
it makes sense although to be fair the book being a different media it lets us know what´s going on in elio´s head , chalamet does a great job trying to tell us that with his (beautiful) face and body language, but i understand if you saw the movie first that might have been a bit to much for you in the book.
That makes me more willing to go along with the proposed sequels. There's a bunch of ways you could handle the storylines. The temptation is to do "fan service" and have them spend the rest of their lives together. Or, you could just have more pain thrown at the characters. I'm not sure what I'd be more interested in seeing. Or if there's a dramatically fulfilling way they could do either.
Hey Kyle! I loved your analysis (short but succinct and more than satisfying). I will agree with you on the most important thing you said which is that the closing scene of the movie is such a defining and extremely strongly concluding moment, not to mention probably the strongest and genre defining ending of a movie generally (period-full stop)! That I hope they do not do a movie sequel. CMBYN is my favourite movie of all time and took me about three months to get the strongest parts of it out of my system and keep it from distracting me from my own life! So I'd like to keep it that way (A Classic which should be re-visited). I think you're a re fantastic by the way! A ;-)
I really appreciate your kind words. Glad that you enjoyed the video! (Although it seems more and more likely that a sequel will be made.)
Watched the film then
read the book. Loved... Adored them both retrospectively.
I love them both for different reasons. 🙂
I was hooked weeks before I saw the movie or read the book... I went to the movies theather by myself because i wanted the cinema scenario and remember how important it felt. During the movie I was transported to Italy, almost could feel the heat of the sun. Bought the book the same night. Hard to choose because I love their performances in the film, brilliant! But I love the trip to Rome in the book, the party, artists and walking in the streets felling silly, happy and drunk, smiling to the world. I am still under the spell of this story, felling in love and enchanted.
I think you picked the perfect word. Enchanted. That’s exactly how I felt.
I had the CMBYN book & unread for a long time BUT wanted to see the movie first .. then read the book again (which I did)
* I once made a mistake by reading the book version of ‘Holding The Man, THEN watching the movie.
Like Chalk n Cheese .. all versions of both stories.
I'm intrugued about the grad student/applicant from the year before Oliver. His name is Maynard. I keep thinking about what may have transpired before for him to write "think of me someday" on the postcard he gave Elio.
I loved both.. The movie and the book accomplish each other... Without canceling the importance of one another.... My favorite scene in the movie was the Oliver's smile in the bus when Elio ask him "What?".. That feeling, that happiness resumes everything.
I don't know but it's the mirror of me nd my first relationship and movie definitely resonate with me atleast . I , my parents and he. Ufffff
Yeah! So happy to see you did another video on this! :D Seeing what works & trying it again! (or at least something similar)
Thanks. The last video did so well that I almost felt compelled to do this.
I totally agree with you about the sequel. The only way i feel that it may still hit as hard as the original is if the story is now told from Oliver's point of view. Perhaps an indication of how the marriage feels when he still longs for Elio
That’s a brilliant idea. Now I kinda hope that happens. 😄
I have seen and watch the movie twice really love both version i think this the the only film that bith book and film is great
They definitely are great!
Hi Kyle, thanks for making a video about this! I saw the movie, loved it, read the book, loved it (and discovered Andre Aciman, yay). I agree that they approach the subject matter differently, as is necessary when adapting a book to a movie, and that the movie's ending was better than the book's. I also hope they don't make a sequel; I heard that if they do it may contain a plotline about AIDS. I think I responded to the movie/book the way I did bc it strongly reminded me of my own first romance, which sadly did not end as well as Elio & Oliver's did (which didn't really end well).
Glad you enjoyed it! I definitely need to pick up more of Aciman’s books.
does anyone know what the scene in the movie with the sculpture that was found in the water was for? Unless my memory is really bad, there wasnt anything like that in the book and the significance was not really clear for me and seemed quite random. The handshaking with the arm of the sculpture was cute though
That scene in reverse colour - climbing the war monument, and Elio's cousin laughing: I took it to mean Oliver imagining the public hostility, and a feeling of doing something shameful, if they were to continue their relationship. Thoughts?
Very nice review to compare the book and movie. You read well and wouldn't mind hearing the entire book in your voice. I loved everyone in the movie was intelligent. Elio's musical talent and then teasing Oliver by changing the musical piece slightly. I loved when his parent's were in the den and he laid down. His mother reading the book to them and stroking Elio's hair. I loved after the sexual encounter Oliver was more at ease and human also caring to how Elio felt. Fun things one was when the door slammed shut in their room and the loud noise filled the house at night. Seeing Elio jumping silently up and down with his arms waving. I loved seeing the small flies in some of the views, made it real. I loved in the movie when Oliver picked up the peach, Elio started to cry and be scared of maybe in being in control and actually trusting someone. Then at the end of the film and his dad spoke to him.......................
Very powerful scenes, for sure.
I just finished reading the book and I can say that in the book we get to discover better the characters, especially Elio. The books is kind of his dairy when we understand the deepest thoughts and feelings of Elio, something that we do not see that well in the movie. In general I LOVEEEEE BOTH,THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE and I believe that they complete each other. The aesthetic, the soundtrack, the visuals take the movie to a next level.
Just wanted to say I love your interpretation of book versus movie, probably because it matches mine! I read the book after watching the movie, and while I can't say I regretted it, I was kind of disappointed. The movie strongly brings across the fact that one of the themes is first love, and the bitter-sweetness of it all, and you have hope for Elio. The book otoh says, IMO, that Oliver was IT for Elio, at 15, 2O years later, he's still resentful of Oliver's wife and kids. So I don't really need a sequel, unless it's like the Before Sunrise trilogy, and Elio and Oliver get together eventually. Hey, I love my happy endings in fiction, life is sad enough!
Let’s see if it follows the Before trilogy in quality. I hope so. I’m curious if they subvert expectations and have them reunite but ultimately decide that they don’t belong together. But maybe I just like my heart broken.
@@thekylemarshall_ that kind of ending would be ok for me, as long as it results that Elio has some kind of life after, not remaining hung up on his teenage summer love!
Well... A brilliant video ! I've just seen this movie and I want so much read the book. Thank you for this, it's really great :) (a little comment from a french girl so sorry if there are mistakes)
I really liked the book
I really liked the movie
Your interpretation of both made me like like them even more
Thank you
Glad I could help!
Legenda em português uhull
Thank you very much
Hi Kyle:) Thanks for your video. It was just what I was searching for, after watching the movie AND reading the book. I must say that I enjoyed the book more (although I also LOVED the movie). The book was so much more flushed out. Silences were understood. Love scenes were more explicit. The passion was palpable! I disagree with you on the ending of the book. I was utterly heartbroken and moved by the last section, when Elio goes to Oliver's University to visit him. Their drinks at the bar. 20 years later, and the spark is still there. It all felt so real. The one thing I didn't love about the book was all the stuff in Rome. I wish Acerman would have focused more on just Elio and Oliver, and their 3-days away in private paradise. I didn't care for Alfredo, and the poetry readings, and the people they partied with in Rome. I would have liked more descriptive romance at the end of their affair. And agreed- the goodbye at the train in the movie was amazing. That was better than the (lack of) goodbye in the book.
I think I would have loved the ending more if it seemed like there was real closure on their relationship. Instead it felt like Elio was pining for a person who was never again going to reciprocate it. However Aciman's prose is really great so I can't be too upset by it.
off course its sad that so many great parts of the story like vimini and the poet didnt make the movie, but I still think that the alterations for the movie were all amazing and necessary, and really made the movie just as good as the book, which is rare with bookadaptions. It conveys the emotions of longing, passion and grief extaordinary well and I also thought the songs by sufjan stevens were so beautiful and fitting for the characters.
Kyle Marshall - Love your enthusiasm, humor and mostly on-point observations about this movie. However, since you typically like to open and close your reviews of this film with sly reference to the peach scene (at 1:40), make sure you know that a peach is a stone fruit (like a cherry or nectarine), not a citrus (like a lemon or grapefruit). The latter would probably be too acidic and caustic for its unorthodox use.
Thank you! Why I thought it was a citrus is beyond me. Probably just trying to be too poetic.
Silently for you in Italy ... I would also have loved that he was in the movie.
Loved your video! Thanks mate!!
Can't get them out of my head, still remains deeply sorrow and regret. I have already finished both the movie and the novel, but I prefer the book more than the movie and wish the moviesequl won't come true. What my favorite in the novel is "we had found the stars, you and I. And this is given once only." I cry every time whenever I read this. Could somebody tell me when can I get over it? I have been stuck in cmbyn for a month!
Oh, boy...This is one my favorite moment in the book too..I feel like I got stuck in an emotional loop and can't get out. The movie didn't deliver this depth of their relationship and no wonder that a lot of viewers saw it like just a summer romance. I loved the movie and the book.
That's a beautiful passage.
I really enjoyed how you did this review. I saw the film first, then listened to the Armie Hammer reading of the book. I started to read the book, but I'm glad I found the audio version, as I don't think it would have held my attention well enough to actually get through it. The book is SUPER wordy. All of Elio's conflicting thoughts running chaos through his immature brain....too much. Especially in the first section. So in many ways I like the movie much better, although knowing the book helps explain what is going on behind the scenes in the movie...which (great directing aside) one can only guess at in the movie, especially up until the "monument scene."
I actually enjoy the later parts of the book better than the first part. But then, the movie doesn't really even include these, as you note. All the stuff in Rome....and years later....touching.
For me the major faux pas was having Armie do the reading for the Audio Book instead of Timothee or better yet, a dramatized version with both of them and a narrator. I found myself being confused by Armies voice being Elio. It was too call-me-by-your-name-ish for me.
I do still want to listen to the audio book, but I think Armie reading it will throw me off. At least for the first few minutes.
Thank you so much for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Kyle, just listen to it. :) Armie reading it is actually perfect. (And Timothée would have sounded too young for it anyway.)
Pause. 52 seconds into this and I’m laughing out loud. I appreciate your humour. PS I’ve seen the movie, haven’t read the book. Resume watching …
I read the book before seeing the movie and I liked it. It reminds me a lot of David Leavitt's style.
I thought that the ending of the film was done beautifully and would have never been as impactful as it was if it was done like the book but still I had to prepare myself for the last chaptor for about 3 weeks and when I read the last few lines I just couldn‘t do anything else but give myself to my emotions and cry both the film and the movie are in there own why perfect and perfectly relatable not in a melanial way but just in all the thoughts that these caracters have to go threw.
One thing that I really appreciate about the book is the long pages of Elios thoughts ❤️
In the book, Oliver's words to Elio around eating the peach were more important than in the movie. Oliver was describing how special Elio was to Oliver. He did that one more time outside the post office, admitting he was afraid of his feeling for a young man that might not even know yet what love is, that this was just fun and games for a 17 year old. "Don't claim you didn't know"
The movie disappointed me, probably for how much I already loved the book.
My take on the book? They're still in love even years later even if Oliver doesn't quite realise it! Can't they at least get back together & spend the remainder of their lives together? Maybe Oliver's relationship with his wife is over - it was on & off when he & Elio were together so it wasn't very stable from the start, & Oliver's kids are all grown adults. Couldn't that be the ending for them? Together finally in old age & just living out their final years together
We can all hope that this is how it turns out for them!
very good job, I really liked it, especially how you underline the role of Eraclito "message" on this book! I think the film was beautiful (it's cool to see and hear the piano scene!) but the introspective style of the book is unbeatable; the author has done an amazing job with all the descriptions and we can really feel Elio's torments and fears. (It would be nice to have a Oliver's point of view too :D ). Do you have some advices for the same kind of book? thanks!
Yes! The piano scene as describe in the book is good, but I think it's hilarious in the movie.
So can I ask something?..
I haven't read the book though but in the film Oliver ..(at the last scene where they speak at the phone)Oliver says he's getting married..like..he truly moves on or in some part of their lives meet up again?
Cause at the end of the call scene in the film we don't know much what happens in the future.
What does the book says?
I'd really love to end up together somehow in the film or at least at the book ..!
Can u tell me ?
Great video great point of view..💕
I love this movie so much!
i thought that the book also did a better job at building up the characters and their relationships (as most books do) and i really enjoyed the book ending! part of me does wish i could see the rest of their lives visually but i don't think a sequel will do the film justice. i liked the way the director ended it :)!
It does seem like the sequel is actually happening so I guess we will be able to see it visually. For whatever reason I just want to spend more time with these characters. They are so fully realized that I feel like they’re friends I’ve never met.
Kile, I first saw the movie then after a couple of weeks, decided that I needed more about the story. I agree with you in the sense that Elio appears more tormented. The book does a great job in developing his intelect. The movie does not. We perceived Elio as a very precious adolescent who knew exactly how to manipulate himself into the young professor's heart. Despite this his adolescence is obvious and an older man is making a conscious decision to become involved with him.
I did not think that the book needed to be sexually graphic. The movie avoids sexual content and yet it is provocative and sexual tension is obvious. The famous peach scene, naturally bonding.
Why did I enjoy the movie? A catharsis of feelings. My first mancrush with someone of my own culture. I met him in 1980 and every time I see him, we pick up where we started, practically and sex never happen. Through out the years I eventually told him of my sexuality. He listened, did not utter a word, was not inquisitive, did not judge me and allowed me to do the talking. I met this man hitchhiking in Spain. Felt immediately attracted to him and when the summer was gone, we both departed our ways. I wrote to him that summer and I remember crying as I told him that I missed him and that I had had a wonderful summer. I am sure that if he now reread my letter to him, that he would question my feelings for him. Throughout the decades we visited. I met him in Spain, Torino and France. Every time I saw him, I would question in my head if he had felt the same things .There have been only two moments of sexual tension between us. And both took place years after I first met him. On one occasion he wanted me to experience his bathtub. He had recently bought himself a condo in Turin. The bathtub had these relaxing jets. In any event, we drove to a
" profumeria ". A place where one would find women purchasing perfumes, hand lotions... bath salts. Yes that's the word,he wanted to purchase bath salts so that we could bath in his tub. So we got home, and he prepared my bath. I got in alone, and that was it. When I was done, he rinsed the tub and prepared his own bath. You see, up until then, no one had ever prepared my bath, no one. You can just imagine how conscious I was about him being inside the tub and naked. I found myself avoiding his glance. Sexual tension perhaps....and maybe only one sided. On another one of my trips he took me to a desolate mirador. You could see (in bright daylight of course) the city of Torino from above this elevation. I questioned why he had taken me up there when really there was nothing to see. Just pitchdarkness as it was past 9pm. Sexual tension? What can I say? To this day I find him charming, loving, a gentleman and perhaps the most classiest man I have ever known. If the truth would be known, I would find myself falling in love every time I saw him. In the book Elio states something to the effect of feeling like he was 17 all over again, this during their encounter as adults in the USA. Well I am the same Elio. That love, the losses and the what ifs.
As I became older and learned about my sexuality, I became involved with men. Have had three lovers. The movie brought me back to my last one. Perhaps the only one of the three which I allowed to " really love me". The one who taught me so much about myself. That it was ok to love unconditionally, that it was ok to hold hands in public and to show affection to one another. Only one big problem. My last lover was married to a woman. In the end she found out. I had spent too many hours under her scrutinized eyes, for he had brought me into his family, as a very special friend. The movie brought back every tender memory of my life with him. Every feeling of love, hope, deception and loss. I knew from the very start that this was a battle I would never win. My loss was there nurturing itself and finally the end to this beautiful relationship made its mark.
It has been a number of years since R&R split. I also haven't seen my friend from Torino in eight years. We live in two different continents.
For now, I am planning to move back to Europe. I expect this to happen within the next 2-3 years. I will be 60 when I return to my old roots, language and culture. I am scared to starting a new life all over again. And most probably alone. Thank you for reading.
Sorry for not responding sooner. I've let my channel languish.
But I love that you've shared part of your story here. It's great how this film/book has allowed others to share their lives so intimately with strangers online. I have not had my Elio and Oliver romance. At least not yet.
Thanks again for writing what you did.
Hi Kyle
Thanks for another great vid. I have now read the book, but this is way behind my movie watching. 21x now, but slowing down :) I prefer the movie.
I have never been so affected by a film in my life, and I have certainly never seen my emotions laid out for the world to see. Part of the attraction for me is the lack of a neat resolution. This continues the “documentary” feel, and the last part of the book felt like an add-on, to tie up loose ends. Without the book, the future lives of Elio and Oliver still have potential - Like the thought experiment "Schrödinger's Cat", where you don’t know if a cat in a box is alive or dead until you look. (A VERY brief and simplified explanation.) I could regard the movie as a segment of a real life - to some extent mine - and avoid the neat tying up and summation of the book. An open-ended observation of a life similar in many ways to mine.
The Roman sequence in the book also had similarities to my interactions with Art, Culture, Contemporary “Classical/Serious” Music, and Drama - all with their own Capital Letters. Pretentious is the word that springs to mind now, but at the time they were authentic experiences of a senior secondary schoolboy /young university student. In the book, I am removed from the interactions of Oliver & Elio to a degree, while we tour around bars in Rome. It provides local colour I suppose, but the running around on the mountainside “The hills are alive …”, rolling around the streets of Bergamo, and tickle fights in the hotel room give me more emotional links to the 2 young guys. I have mentioned elsewhere, Oliver/Armie seems to get younger here, and Elio/Timothée seems older, and I wonder if that was intentional. The final sequences of the movie from this point on really give me the emotional shot that possibly explains why I love the film so much.
I have only read the book once, and I will read it again, but only as an interesting side line. For me, the story of Elio and Oliver is as complete as I want it to be, and although I would go and see a follow-up, it would be a little like seeing “Son of Romeo & Juliet”, where they weren’t actually dead, but had recovered with good Manuka Honey and prayers from Friar Laurence - unnecessary. I would have liked to have seen the more fleshed out original, which would explain on film some of the odd cut-aways and seeming non-sequiturs, explaining the comment while he playing the guitar etc.
For a small “Indi” movie, I continue to be amazed at the huge reaction this has generated on line. Maybe this is common, but as this is the only movie I have ever gone bananas over, it is the first time I have been aware of this.
The producer explain the metaphor of the waterfall and the spring they are in, Elio wants to take Oliver to the source of that spring and show him this massive waterfall: Look Oliver this is the depth of my feeling for u and this is how much I feel for u.
Reply
I hadn't thought about how Elio seems to age slightly and Oliver becomes more youthful. That's fascinating observation!
Again, I am cautious about any sequels. I'm to going to lie, I'll definitely go and watch one if it's made, but it would have to be treated very carefully to be good.
That last paragraph broke me
Me too.
Excellent review!
Thanks! I appreciate that.
I think that I'm in broad agreement with you about a sequel. When asked about the prospect, Luca threw the question straight back - "Wouldn't you like to see these characters again?" Well, in the after-glow of this movie, you'd probably nod your head automatically. On reflection, I think that instead of revisiting Elio's story later in life there's a different story to be told.
There's been comment over Elio's recollections not being complete and in the book he admits to probably relating his story a bit out of sequence. Memory plays those tricks. To my mind this leaves a door open for the very same story to be told but to hear it from Oliver's perspective. Let me qualify this straight off. It needs to leave out the influences that come from the united states of repression as that story has been done to death!
However, we only got a small taste of Elio's father mostly through his devastatingly accurate description of how we destroy some things in life which we should care for much better. Working closely with him day-to-day would have been a huge culture-shock for Oliver (I speak from personal experience but in a different context) - most likely to the point where both of Elio's parents would have had a vastly different effect on his life than came from the narrow-mindedness of his own.
So instead, the effect of removal of a threat of being sent to a "correctional facility" there's a story about its release from Oliver's mind and the freedom to express himself that came with it. There's one clue well ahead of the father's monologue that he's aware of what's going on. The suggestion of calling each other by their own names comes from Oliver - but I somehow don't think that it could come from a repressed past.
Vimini was just the truth incarnate that affirmed the love that Oliver was experiencing in the Perlmann house-hold let alone with Elio, because of its simple innocence. It's another of aspect of the potential richness in telling Oliver's version of that summer.
Really good points. Thank you so much for sharing. Seeing the same story but from Oliver’s point of view would be fascinating. It does seem like most everyone who made the movie wants the sequel to happen. So I’ll cross my fingers and hope for the best.
this video is so nice to watch
Thank you so much!
I watched the movie 3 times, read the book once, listen to audio book once. I agree with most of your analysis, with different nuances.
I thought the book was quite different from movie, and each is great work. Here's a few foci in book I thought set it apart from movie.
1. TONE OF NARRATOR
Book = Elio (passionate, neurotic, questions about his awareness of himself and goings on around hm),
Movie = camera, ambient sound, scores (silent, still, angles, cuts, stable, lyrics)
2. BECOMING
Elio & Oliver both sailed into instinct of wanting to know/be the other (names, eating cum, asking to see Elio's shit in toilet, elio letting him do all of that without shame.)
3. ELIO'S TRANSFORMATION
In The last chapter "San Celemente Syndrome", Elio almost becomes intoxicated and overwhelmed by the new sensory and social experiences. He literally only mentioned Oliver less than 10 times.
I thought Oliver said good bye and I missed it. This contrast from last chapter so much that I was quite confused & angered.
"WTF, Elio, are you not talking about O cuz you a unreliable narrator now?
Or you too good for O now that people at the party he brought you to treat you like a star?"
In other words, E was changing before our eyes, with very very little firsthand evidence from O, eg, E's senses of him (either from afar or directly) like sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, which would be common in their relationship in previous chapters.
Most importantly, what really happened to O? Did E really leave O by himself? O, are you not pissed, sad, angry, or you got your own thing going on too?
Toward the end, my questions went full blown...
What happened to E?
What happened to O?
What happened to their relationship?
What is gonna happen to E, O, & their relationship?
4. PLOT DIRECTION
Continue my #3 - I wouldn't let no a question during the entire reading of chapter (San Celemente): "Surely author/Elio will address this obvious explicit change?" For me, this change was sudden and wasn't addressed.
For me, the way the chapter's end didn't address blatant changes (in E's mindfulness & attachment to O) constitutes and introduces "unconscious negligence or avoidance" of E (compared to E's neurotic micro-reading & O's attendance to E).
I see such "unconscious negligence/avoidance" (as behaviors) as the starting point for E to continue his adult version of semiconscious negligence & avoidance (mostly in emotions & thoughts)
Movie's plot (first love, consistent with personality shown, etc) ended reasonably. In contrast, novel's plot could've taken many reasonable directions. For instance, given what we know about E & O & their environment, plot didn't *have to* unfold the way it did in epilog (eg, E&O having no contact for 20+years, etc).
However, as epilog showed, E turned out to be an unreliable narrator, he told readers of his avoidance, and gave us his thoughts & his mostly cognitive reasons behind his behaviors.
However, at his final meeting with O, E's dialog & narration about the conversation (ie, of both himself & O) revealed to readers a few critical info we didn't have before.
(A) E explicitly narrated he was anxious & fearful of directly engaging O (what'd O say? What do I expect? Etc)
(B) E's in-real time narration (about O, about conversation, about himself) Implicitly revealed very clearly that he *was* & *had been* emotional.
In fact, judging from the last few pages (where he inferred O forgot their name thing), he had been unaware that (unresolved) emotions drove his decisions & experiences all.
(C) How aware was E towards the end of novel?
This is critical to examine the plot possibilities. If E had navigated his world semi-consciously (even without much awareness of himself), the plot is not driven by unreliable narration (random), but a *systematic* (not random) point of view.
Ex., we readers were left thinking "Is E aware that his focus on reasoning (Cognitive) was flawedas it didn't account for emotions?", or "was this another case of E's unreliable narration, in which he left out crucial pieces underlying his sudden change to "subconscious negligence/avoidance" (to himself & O) in previous chapter.
So, plot direction. For me the author left it ambiguous, because no evidence was strong enough to serve as a reference point, in which we can assess characters' choices & pilot's unfolding and day "this plot makes sense more than another".
4. SEPARATION
I disagree with Kyle on why E & is O didn't keep in touch for subsequent decades was due to "they know they couldn't be together". Evidence (ie, Elio's experience & awareness via narration) didn't elude to societal or environment reasons behind E's decisions to not see O, even when E was minutes away for a while.
In the epilog, they barely indulged in their memories of their attitude towards such memories. E disclosed very little about his explicit emotional state (ie, readers can question his self-awareness).
Interestingly, as E narrated the conversation in real time, readers see a different type E's self-awareness now vs that of self dialog in epilog. E's narration now had more varieties, also more engaging as he engages O, showed more sentimental fluctuation (internally & to O).
For me, the most important climax at end last 2 pages. E's tone went from disappointment about O's possible forgetting of names, to unapologetically uttering to himself what he wanted & needed from O. requesting when E passage worked thru a sudden change of tone from distancing (from self & O).
Essentially, E had been stoic & avoidant since separating from O (ie, cutting off from a piece of himself). At present, he had brought his desires all these years into awareness, organized into words, and all in a way we could tolerate.
I love your analysis! Now I want to re-read the book. Thanks for you thoughtful and detailed comment.
Who is the top or bottom elio or oliver?
Personally, the end of the book os where I found most meaning. I believe that without it, wouldn't be the same
Maybe it was just a matter of me wanting more. Instead of a quick overview of a couple decades I wanted that to be expanded. With the sequel apparently being a reality maybe I’ll get what I want out of that.
I watched the movie and then read the book. Both are phenomenal in my opinion. I am very glad that I watched the movie first, though, because the movie is much more simple than the book. If I were to have read the book first, I would not have liked the movie as much as I do. Reading the book after watching the movie filled in a lot of gaps for me and made me have a greater appreciation for the film, the book, and the story as a whole.
That being said, I prefer the book. I read it in a few days and fell in love with everything about it. I first listened to it as an audiobook that Armie Hammer actually reads, and his voice is so amazing. Anyway, the book being mostly Elio's thoughts helped it feel so real, and like I was actually Elio in the story. And so that was absolutely magical. In the book, my favourite part is when his father has that conversation with him. I am so glad it is also in the movie because it is one of the most importnant parts of both the book and the film.
"What lies ahead is going to be very difficult... Fear not. It will come. At least I hope it does. And when you least expect it. Nature has cunning ways of finding out weakest spot. Just remember: I am here. Right now you may not want to feel anything. Perhaps you never wish to feel anything. And perhaps it's not with me that you'll want to speak about these things. But feel something you did... In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away or pray that their sons land on their feet soon enough. But I am not such a parent. In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don't snuff it out, don't be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we'd want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything-what a waste!
That has to be by far one of my favourite parts of the book.
And my favourite part in the film is definitely the last scene, which is no surprise. I cried my eyes out when I watched that scene. I have been in nearly the same situation as Elio, and that scene really made me feel the feels. I relate very much to the movie and the book.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. In both the book and the movie, his father’s speech makes me cry. Keep the flame alive!
Kyle Marshall Me too, thank you and you're welcome!
@@april_showers_7 hey there, just read your comment, could we please talk.. finished the movie and I'm in this shitty mood for like more than a week now and I just need someone to talk to or else I might explode from the inside, it's by far my favorite movie ever, but so much sadness is inside me now because of it...
@@yazanlavigne Yes! I would be happy to talk to you :)
I was sad after I watched the movie, too. But also very happy, because a romance like that is such a beautiful story and I am glad I was able to read and watch it.
@@april_showers_7 hey, I'm still a wreck and still need to talk plz can we exchange something?
Kyle, I was able to purchase the original paperback, the original hardcover edition and even the UK edition. I dislike the movie tie-in cover too.
Good to know. Thanks!
Please , can you tell me how can I get this book on the phon ?
I may be wrong, but i don't think it is Oliver who waves goodbye from the train; it's a random man.
You may be right. I’ll have to double check.
Dear, first of all nice thoughts on those book& movie. As for myself, I did read the book first. I was so touch by it, the way Andre is getting himself inside Elio’s head. The questioning of a teenager, the doubts and tries. All this intensity between the two of them. I had to see the movie, so I went. I left before the end because there was nothing added from the book. I found the movie extremely slow and passionless compared to the book. I remember seeing the ble en herbe French movie from 1990 and I was amazed how much the relation was so well transcribed by the movie. The intensity extremely present. The book made me cry, laugh, sight, moan,cry some more, no matter where I was I didn’t care to show emotions I couldn’t hide. I didn’t want to hide them. I wanted them so hard. The way Andre wrote that book made me slave of Oliver in the same kind of way. Nothing in the movie moved me. Vimini is played by the mother. I didn’t mind but... there is a whole reason for it and I felt the whole movie was softening the edges replacing controversial scenes with politically correct scenes, like eating the peach, which is soooooo intense, the way the words are said out loud, out of the body, out of the mind. Nothing pornographique. Just real intense private moment. I do agree with you for the train scene when Oliver leave then he called his mum. This did had a lot of intensity , too bad I was out of the movie theater already, I saw it on TH-cam. But the whole end of the book with the back and forth of him going to the state or Oliver going back to the house was kinda essential or giving a twist that they did had a long life and still seeing each other’s still feeling. Just feeling. Hurting themselves in a way because they both know they never reached this intensity before neither after. And most of it the last paragraph of the book with the last sentence. Ps. Agreed with you again for that filthy room! Why? Didn’t need it at all ! Maybe a director’s own memory he wanted to put in?
Oh my. Well, different strokes and all that. I've never left a movie theatre before the end of any movie in my life, and I can't even imagine how much I'd have to hate a movie to do so. This one I'm still going to see in theatre at least a couple of times while I still can, even though I already have the blu-ray. For me the book was fine, whereas I love the movie to bits, and could watch it over and over - and indeed have. Incredibly beautiful, and utterly engaging from beginning to end. The most authentic, most touching and most sensual love story depicted in a movie I've ever come across, it felt so real and honest, and every kiss and caress - when they finally happened - were so well deserved and earned. Amazing direction, acting, cinematography, music, costume design, locations, set decoration, sound design. A feast for eyes and ears. I loved the humour, the all-encompassing sensuality, the wisdom, the beauty. I'll always be grateful for this precious gift that Luca and others involved gave me.
Can anyone suggest me any book or movie like CMBYN??
I loved the movie...and was frustrated by the book...even a bit sorry that I read it, but I'm looking forward to the next movie, let's hope they don't destroy the characters...
Someone said that the end of the movie was not the end of the book just tell me do they end up together pleaaasee 😭
Sorry. I have some bad news...
There is a sequel called find me
Elio on the movie was not the same the boy I imagined in the book. The book version had less arrogance or swag to me. In the book, Elio had more honest and his emotions were more... raw... and creepy. I don't know, he just wasn't the same in the movie.
Yeah can't peaches for a while...
Did you find the peach? :-)
It was hiding behind the couch. 🙂
So you making Oscar predictions this Saturday? Have a good weekend👍
I will be! Enjoy your weekend as well.
All that’s left is dream making and strange remembrance
HOW DID I MISS THIS VIDEO? CMBYN was one of my favourite films of the year! Did you know that Armie Hammer reads the audiobook for this?
I’ve heard about the audiobook. But I think it’d be too weird hearing Armie as Elio.
I'm so torn! I ADORE both the book and the movie, however, I feel as though the women in the movie vs the book are presented very differently. Marcia in the book plays such an important role in Elio's life and he has a unique regard for her. In the book he has genuine affection for her, spends equal intimate time with her when he is not with oliver, and he also describes her smell/body and general love for her. In the movie, she is an accessory. In the movie, she is used by Elio, but not much indication that he cared for her or that he lost his virginity to her. Next, the director shows us her body/she is naked in the movie but we do not see Elio and Oliver naked once. Elio and Oliver talk about her friend's body...but her along with all in all women in Call Me By Your Name (except the mother) are not regarded for more than that. They are easily ignored, their feelings are not considered. Just the fact Oliver is marrying a woman and hides her from Elio...if this is such a love story, then why do we ignore how Elio and Oliver both two-time each other with women they care about? Why don't these women given a more important perspective in the movie or the book? Why do we feel dread about Oliver's marriage when we watched Elio lie to two people? (They are so alike).
Again, I ADORE both the book and the movie. As a woman, these instances bother the crap out of me. But the love between elio and oliver (except for that blowjob moment/door slam) are captivating. What do you think? Am I missing something? Am I wrong for perceiving it this way?
The story is much more concerned with the love story between the two men. However, especially in the movie, the women are not treated very well at all. I feel bad for them. They are are ignored, and their feelings are not considered. I believe they are forgotten because both men are focused only on each other and they don't really care about these other relationships. At least not fully. So, I think you're right to feel the way you do.
Thank you! I thought I was ridiculous for perceiving this. I love Marcia in the book. But hey, both Oliver and Elio are hiding women from each other. They are perfect for each other haha
I don't want them to make a sequel either, it just feels like it would be a huge mistake. Like all those years after their summer together were so sad and frustrating to me as a reader, because I wanted them to get together, but they just never did. It's as if they both had subconsciously accepted the fact that they would never even attempt to get together. And I don't want them to make a sequel even less now that I've learned the director wants to departure from the book and do his own thing, and has said also he wants to take on the AIDS crisis of the late 80's. What if one of them gets infected and dies in this supposed sequel?!!! Nope, nope, nope! Leave it as it is!
Yeah. I don’t think I could take that. Too emotional already.
He said it would be more like a summer adventure for them traveling together. I dont think it will be based on the book. If they dont end up together in the sequel i will be forever depressed haha
That won't happen. Luca Guadagnino said he wanted to follow the characters over the span of many years, so he won't kill either of them. Also, André Aciman says he considers the end of the book a happy ending, as he thinks Oliver stays this time around. That means the sequel or last installment of a possible film series could potentially have a happy ending. It's scary to have a sequel, I agree, but I support it as long as it's done well. André Aciman should be involved with the story.
luca actually mentioned in an interview that andre said he liked the movie ending better than his own book ending loll
Comic relief: whey did you leave your umbrella open in the room.......
It does look like an umbrella, but that's a light. It uses the umbrella to diffuse the light. But I can understand why it looks strange.
I know a stand up comedy person is not in my future. Serious question why did they put the nose bleed event in the book and movie? To make Elio seem more vulnerable or perhaps show Oliver's caring side for Elio.
It is written.....