Summary
Elio and Oliver stop for a break and Elio asks an old woman for water. After drinking, they continue down the road, eventually stopping near a river. Elio walks off the road and wades into the water, telling Oliver that it is his spot where he comes to read. When Oliver notes that the water in the river is freezing, Elio tells him that it comes from the nearby mountain.
"I like the way you say things. I don't know why you're always putting yourself down though," Oliver says, to which Elio responds, "So you won't, I guess." Elio walks towards Oliver, and when Oliver teases him, he jumps on him. They go and lie down in the grass next to each other. "I love this, Oliver," says Elio, and Oliver looks at him, touches his mouth and his face, and they kiss. Abruptly, Oliver turns away and rejects Elio's advances, saying, "We haven't done anything to be ashamed of and it's a good thing. I want to be good." Elio puts his hand on Oliver's crotch and asks, "Am I offending you?" After touching Elio's hand, Oliver pushes it aside and tells him again, "Just don't."
Standing up, Oliver worries that the scrape on his stomach is getting infected and Elio suggests they stop at the pharmacist on the way back to the house. Oliver agrees and they ride away.
Later, at the Perlmans, two bombastic guests, a married couple, argue about politics as the Perlmans watch in awe. Elio and his parents look exhausted by the passion of the guests' pontificating, and Oliver smirks at Elio. In the middle of the discussion, Elio gets a bloody nose and runs into the house, asking for ice. Oliver excuses himself from the table and goes to find Elio inside.
They sit on the floor next to each other and Oliver begins to massage Elio's foot. Elio touches Oliver's shoulder then looks at his necklace of the star of David, telling Oliver that he used to have a necklace like it. He tells Oliver that he got rid of it because his mother told him they were "Jews of discretion." After massaging his foot, Oliver kisses it.
On his way out of the house on a bicycle, Oliver runs into Marzia and Chiara, who ask after Elio. Oliver tells them he has a nosebleed and is resting. Chiara tells Oliver not to go anywhere, but he rides away on his bicycle anyway. Marzia and Chiara sit with Elio on the couch and ask if they are going to go out that evening. Elio asks where Oliver is and Chiara laughs.
At the river, Elio and his friends swim, and we now see that Elio is wearing his star of David necklace. When Elio returns home, he tells his mother and a servant that he's going out and the servant gives him a hard time. When he sits, Mrs. Perlman asks Elio if he likes Oliver. "I think he likes you too, more than you do," she says. She notices his star of David necklace.
In the evening, Elio cannot figure out where Oliver is. A Sufjan Stevens song plays while he sits in the terrazza. Later, he lays his head on his desk in his room, when he hears Oliver coming back. He gets on the bed as Oliver goes into the room next door and shuts the door. "Traitor!" Elio says under his breath.
The next day, Elio smokes in the living room of his house anxiously as his parents watch television. He calls Marzia and arranges to meet in town. When they meet, Elio gives her a book and they kiss. Marzia tells him, "I love reading too, but I never tell anyone." When Elio wants to know why, she tells him that she thinks "people who read are kind of secretive. They hide who they really are." Elio asks if she hides who she is, and she says, "not with you."
After a moment, Marzia tells Elio that she thinks he's going to hurt her. The scene shifts and we see them kissing. She notes that he has an erection, and asks him to slow down. In a clearing outside, they have sex, and he ejaculates on her stomach, which makes her laugh.
At his desk later, Elio writes notes to Oliver telling him that he feels ignored and upset by Oliver's silence. He crumples up each note as he writes, finally writing, "Can't stand the silence. I need to speak to you." This message he keeps and slips under Oliver's door.
The next morning, Oliver asks Elio if he had a good night and he runs upstairs as Perlman tells Oliver about some files they ought to start cataloging. In the next room, Perlman and Oliver look at slides of nude statues, which Oliver notes are "sensual."
When Elio goes in his room, he finds his note that he gave to Oliver sitting on his desk. Oliver has added, "Grow up, I'll see you at midnight." As Oliver and Perlman look at the slides, Perlman notes that the statues of the bodies look "as if they're daring you to desire them." Oliver looks at him.
At lunch, Mrs. Perlman reminds everyone that their friends, Mounier and Isaac, are coming for dinner. Elio scoffs and refers to the couple as "Sonny and Cher." Mrs. Perlman wants Elio to wear a shirt that the couple got him from Miami, but Elio says it's too big and looks ridiculous. Elio and Oliver go into the house. Inside, Oliver tells Mafalda, the servant, that he won't be there for dinner, and takes a bike out. As he leaves, Marzia is arriving. Marzia and Elio go in the pool, embracing and kissing, then go inside, where Elio shows Marzia an attic space. They kiss and hide from one another, giggling all the while.
Elio puts on a radio and does a goofy somersault on the ground, pulling Marzia towards him and seducing her. He takes off her bikini top and they begin kissing. Outside, they make out, but are interrupted by a car horn. Mounier and Isaac are arriving for the evening. Elio greets them and introduces them to Marzia. He invites Marzia to dinner, but she tells him she has to go home.
Analysis
After so much build-up, Elio and Oliver begin to admit their attraction to one another and connect physically. In the serenity of nature, far from the complications of society and their social worlds, they begin to breach the boundaries between them and discover their authentic feelings for one another. Their physical exploration is innocent and unsure, as they begin to consummate the sexual tension that has been building over their acquaintanceship.
Curiously enough, Elio's parents seem not only supportive, but encouraging of his emergent homosexuality. The film takes place in the 1980s, during the height of the AIDS crisis, a time when it would be unlikely for a family to actively approve of their child's homosexuality, yet the Perlmans are positioned as a kind of ideal parental structure. They smile knowingly when Oliver goes to check on Elio's nosebleed, and assure Elio that he can tell them anything. Their support reads as an image of the perfect parents to a gay child, intellectuals with a progressive ethic that seems almost a fantasy.
As Elio and Oliver begin to connect, their shared Jewishness becomes part of their entanglement. When Oliver follows Elio into the house after he gets a nosebleed, Elio notes that he used to have a star of David necklace like Oliver, but that his mother told him they were "Jews of discretion." Later, we see Elio emerge from swimming in the river wearing the star of David necklace. Not only is he attracted to Oliver, but Oliver, in his more active relationship to Judaism, encourages Elio to embrace another part of himself.
Mr. Perlman's study of antiquity is put in overt parallel to Oliver and Elio's growing erotic connection. As he and Oliver look at the slides of the nude statues, Perlman notes the ambiguity and the allure of the bodies depicted. In this moment, he too expresses a homoerotic sensibility, as it is connected to his study of ancient sculpture. Oliver sees in Perlman's admiration for the statue his own admiration of Elio's body and sensuality, and his own homoerotic desire.
Ironically enough, the more that Oliver and Elio admit their attraction to one another, the more they begin going in opposite directions. Oliver goes out on his bicycle abruptly and ignores Elio, and Elio begins an intimate relationship with Marzia, losing his virginity and seducing her whenever possible. Performing heterosexual rites becomes a game through which the two lovers can avoid one another, avoid their own homosexuality, and make the other jealous, all at the same time.
