Call Me by Your Name (2017 Film)

Call Me by Your Name (2017 Film) Study Guide

Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 coming-of-age romance film directed by Luca Guadagnino and based on the book of the same name by André Aciman. It stars Timothée Chalamet as Elio and Armie Hammer as Oliver, two young men who find themselves unexpectedly falling in love while summering in northern Italy in 1983.

After reading the novel, Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman purchased the rights to the film and got James Ivory, a British producer, screenwriter, and director, to sign on as adapter of the novel. While Luca Guadagnino was initially signed on to co-direct with Ivory, Ivory decided to give directing duties to Guadagnino on his own in 2017.

Upon release, Call Me by Your Name was met with widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Anthony Lane of The New Yorker saw it as an ode to consensual sex in the #metoo era, writing, "So assailed are we by reports of harmful pleasures, and of the coercive male will being imposed through lust, that it comes as a relief to be reminded, in such style, of consensual joy." Richard Brody, also at The New Yorker, was less impressed, writing that the film was flat and self-satisfied with its progressive premise and glamorous setting, displaying "no interest in its characters."

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won one for Best Adapted Screenplay (James Ivory). Additionally, it was nominated for Best Actor (for Timothee Chalamet), Best Picture, and Best Original Song for "Mystery of Love" by Sufjan Stevens.