Summary
We see a young man, Elio, throwing clothes onto his bed, while a young girl, his girlfriend, Marzia. As he hears something, he whispers to Marzia, "The usurper," in French, and smirks at her. A supertitle tells us that we are somewhere in northern Italy, and as Elio looks out the window, he sees a car approaching. Abruptly, Marzia gets up and comes to look out the window with Elio, and they see a man in his 20s, Oliver, arriving and greeting Elio's father, Mr. Perlman, outside.
"He seems very confident," Elio says to Marzia, as his mother asks his father where he is. Elio goes downstairs and his mother asks him to help bring Oliver's bags upstairs. Oliver is an academic who is staying with the family. On the stairs, Marzia greets Oliver, kissing him on both cheeks. Elio brings Oliver's bags into his room and Oliver collapses on the bed. "My room is now your room, I'll be next door," says Elio, adding, "We have to share a bathroom."
Elio goes into the next room. We see him, later that evening, writing out sheet music at his desk. Downstairs, a servant rings a dinner bell and Elio calls to Oliver to let him know that they are being called for dinner. He knocks on Oliver's door, before opening it and finding Oliver asleep. He throws a book on the floor, pretending it's an accident, and Oliver wakes up with a start. "We're being called for dinner," Elio says, but Oliver wants to rest more and asks Elio to make an excuse for him. Before Elio leaves, Oliver thanks him for surrendering his room.
The next day, Oliver comes downstairs and looks for the family. Outside, Professor Perlman is sitting at a table with Elio and offers Oliver some espresso. Elio offers to show Oliver around, and Oliver asks if there's a bank in town, so he can start an account. When Mr. Perlman says there isn't a local bank, Elio offers to take him to another nearby town, but Perlman thinks they won't have luck there either. Oliver asks about the orchard and Perlman tells him that the trees belong to Annella, his wife, and include peach, cherries, and apricots. As Oliver makes smalltalk, Elio looks at the star of David necklace he's wearing around his neck.
Later, Elio and Oliver ride bicycles into town. At a cafe table in a square, they both read and Oliver asks Elio what people do in the area. "Wait for the summer to end," Elio says. Oliver questions Elio about his Jewishness and Elio clarifies that while they are Jewish, they are also American, Italian, and French. "Besides my family, you're probably the only Jew to set foot in this town," he says.
"I'm from a small town in New England. I know what it's like to be the odd Jew out," Oliver replies. Oliver asks Elio what he does in leisure and Elio tells him he reads books, transcribes music, swims in the river, and goes out at night. They bike their separate ways.
At home, Oliver and Mr. Perlman have an intellectual discussion while Elio sits nearby. After Oliver chugs a glass of orange juice, Perlman tells him that the word "apricot" comes from an Arabic word from which the words "alchemy" and "algebra" are also derived. Oliver corrects Perlman here, suggesting that the origins of the word "apricot" are more complicated than he believes. Perlman nods approvingly, revealing that he was testing Oliver all along. "He does this every year," says Elio, smiling.
We see Elio and Oliver in town, and they go into a small restaurant where men are playing cards. Elio watches as Oliver sits down with a group of older men, then pulls up a chair.
Later, Elio sits on a grassy hill with kids his age, watching a group play volleyball. Oliver is among the people playing volleyball. Suddenly, Oliver runs out of the game and touches Elio's shoulder intimately. When Elio pulls away, Oliver asks him if something is wrong and massages his shoulder, telling him he's about to be a doctor. He urges Elio to relax, then calls Marzia over to feel how tense Elio's shoulder is. She takes over duties massaging his shoulder, as Oliver runs back to play volleyball once again.
Elio walks away from Marzia's massage and runs towards a table where his mother and another woman are setting up a table. Mrs. Perlman tells Elio that Auntie Marcella and the others are coming to dinner that night, and asks if Oliver will be joining them. Elio says he does not know.
The scene shifts and we see Elio shaving his upper lip in the bathroom. At dinner that night, Oliver is late, and Elio asks his parents if they think that Oliver is a little rude and arrogant, the way he says "Later." He predicts that this is how Oliver will say goodbye that evening, and Mrs. Perlman makes a facetious joke, "Meanwhile, we'll have to put up with him for six long weeks, won't we darling?" Perlman suggests that Oliver is shy and that Elio will grow to like him. "What if I grow to hate him?" Elio says, and Mrs. Perlman tells the servant to clear Oliver's plates.
That evening, Elio watches television and Perlman asks him to play something on the piano, but he doesn't want to. "You're spoiling everyone's fun," Mrs. Perlman says, and he reluctantly goes over to the piano and plays a little tune. That night, Elio undresses for bed, but when he lies down to sleep, tosses and turns.
The next day, Oliver arrives back at the house on a bicycle. Lying in bed, Elio slowly begins to touch himself sexually, when Oliver bursts into the room and asks what he's doing. Elio deflects and when Oliver asks why he's not with everyone else down by the river, Elio insists that he has an allergy. "Me too, maybe we have the same one," Oliver says. Pulling him up off the bed, Oliver invites Elio to go swimming with him. When Oliver goes to get changed, Elio throws himself back on the bed, frustrated by his attraction. He walks into the bathroom and peers into Oliver's room, where he catches a glimpse of his naked body as he puts on his bathing suit.
At the pool, Elio looks at his sheet music while Oliver swims laps. Oliver asks him what he's thinking about and Elio tells him it's private. As Mrs. Perlman comes over, they jump out of the pool and begin to pick apricots from the tree nearby. Later, while Oliver lies on the grass, Elio plays the guitar. When Oliver compliments his playing, Elio says, "I thought you didn't like it," but Oliver asks him to play it again. Sulkily, Elio walks past him and tells Oliver to follow him into the house.
Inside, Elio sits down at the piano and begins to play. Oliver asks Elio if he changed something about the music, and Elio tells him that he plays it "the way Liszt would have played it if he altered Bach's version." Oliver asks Elio to play the music he played outside and Elio does. "I can't believe you changed it again," Oliver says laughing and Elio tells him that he played it the way Busoni would have played it if he altered Liszt's version. "What is wrong with Bach?" Oliver asks and Elio begins to play again. Oliver sits and listens, and Elio tells him it's Bach, a composition written for his brother.
Later, Elio writes something in a notepad on his bed, then leaves to go downstairs. The camera pans down to his note, which reads, "I thought he didn't like ME" with scribbles all around it. Outside, Elio writes at a picnic table and looks over when he sees Oliver going to talk to his father. A servant walks by holding a fish that he caught in the river, still moving its mouth, and Elio mimics the fish, smiling.
Analysis
The setting of the film is an idyll of intellectuality and wealth. The viewer is dropped "somewhere in northern Italy" in a large villa, where a talented, thoughtful, and loving young man is living with his parents for the summer, in a house with servants, large wardrobes, and gorgeous trees outside. The house is spacious and beautiful, and Elio seems to have a close and ideal relationship with his understanding parents. The characters do not seem like they struggle very much, and their existence is charmed, leisurely, and monied.
From the start, there is an erotic component to the relationship between Elio and Oliver. Elio shows Oliver to his room, explaining that it is usually his room, but that he will staying in a guest room next door. This foreshadows the connection that the two men will form, as well as the blending of identities that will occur, as suggested by the film's title. Elio is giving over his room to Oliver, allowing him to live where he usually lives, in a way allowing him to take over his identity, but he will be close by.
Soon enough, Elio and Oliver realize that they are connected in their Jewishness, with Elio suggesting that besides the Perlmans, Oliver is the only Jewish person ever to come to the town. Oliver offers that, having been raised in a small town in New England, he is used to the alienation of being one of the few Jewish people in a place. Their moment of mutual recognition is brief, but the conversation serves to bond Elio and Oliver, to align them in the margins of their environment.
Elio is all the more intrigued and charmed by Oliver when he demonstrates his intellectual gifts, correcting Elio's father about the linguistic origins of the word "apricot" with a brisk confidence. We watch as Elio admires Oliver's intellect, smiling warmly at the scene. Thus, part of Elio's draw to Oliver is about the fact that Oliver fits in so well to the intellectually charmed life that has been created by his parents. Oliver fits in with the Perlmans, a fact that makes him all the more alluring to the impressionable young Elio.
A tension arises between the two men, with Oliver paying attention to Elio, then ignoring him. As a result, Elio develops tense and erratic feelings towards Oliver, one minute craving his attention and the next minute insisting to his parents that he thinks Oliver is "arrogant" and that he will grow to hate him. Oliver toys with Elio's attraction, massaging his shoulder and challenging his knowledge of music in a flirtatious way. In this way, a pointed sexual tension arises between the two of them, a sense that the ways they are drawn to one another are complicated by their desire to keep their feelings under wraps.
