Call Me by Your Name (2017 Film) Luca Guadagnino

Development

Two of the film's producers, Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman, saw a galley proof of André Aciman's debut novel Call Me by Your Name in 2007 and "optioned" the screen rights before its publication.[28] Rosenman first heard about the book through a friend after acting in Milk (2008) and described it as "divine".[29] Spears, moved by the novel and believing it deserved a cinematic adaptation, received his first credit as a producer from his work on the film.[30] They invited their friend James Ivory to work as an executive producer on the film adaptation.[31] Spears and Rosenman began production in 2008,[32] but the project was soon trapped in "development hell".[33] The producers met with three sets of directors and writers—among them Gabriele Muccino, Ferzan Özpetek, and Sam Taylor-Johnson[34]—but could not find anyone who would commit to the project.[28][35] Scheduling filming in Italy during the summer also proved difficult.[28][35]

The producers contacted Guadagnino, their first choice to direct, but he declined, citing a busy schedule.[13][32] However, as Guadagnino lived in northern Italy, he was initially hired as a location consultant instead.[20][36] Guadagnino later suggested that he co-direct the film with Ivory, but no contractual agreement was put in place.[14][33] Ivory accepted the offer to co-direct on the condition that he would also write the film;[33] he spent "about nine months" on the screenplay.[31][37] Guadagnino, who has described the novel as "a Proustian book about remembering the past and indulging in the melancholy of lost things",[21] collaborated on the adaptation with Ivory and Walter Fasano.[14][18] Screenwriting took place at Ivory's house, Guadagnino's kitchen table in Crema, and sometimes in New York City.[38] Ivory rarely met Guadagnino during the process, since the director was busy making A Bigger Splash (2015).[37]

The screenplay was completed in late 2015.[37] Aciman approved it and commended the adaptation as "direct ... real and persuasive", adding "they've done better than the book".[28] The completed screenplay was vital in securing funding for the film.[31][33] Among the financiers were the production companies La Cinéfacture (France), Frenesy Film Company (Italy, owned by Guadagnino), M.Y.R.A. Entertainment (United States), RT Features (Brazil), and Water's End Productions (United States). The project was also supported by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.[18][39][40] The backers deemed the production's initial cost estimates "too expensive",[41] so the production budget was reduced from $12 million to $3.4 million and the filming schedule was cut from 12 to 5 weeks.[40][42]

Ivory stepped down from a directorial role in 2016, leaving Guadagnino to direct the film alone.[13][14] According to Ivory, financiers from Memento Films International did not want two directors involved with the project because they "thought it would be awkward ... It might take longer, it would look terrible if we got in fights on the set, and so on."[31][37] Guadagnino said Ivory's version would have likely been "a much more costly [and] different film" that would have been too expensive to make.[20][36] Ivory became the sole-credited screenwriter[43] and later sold the rights to the screenplay to Guadagnino's company.[31][37] Call Me by Your Name was Ivory's first produced screenplay since Le Divorce (2003) and the only narrative feature he has written but not directed.[43] He remained involved with other aspects of the production.[43] Guadagnino dedicated the film to his late friend Bill Paxton, who came to visit the set in Crema before his death in February 2017.

Adaptation

The film differs from its source material in several ways. The novel is written in flashback, from Elio's perspective. The filmmakers set the movie entirely in 1983 to help the audience understand the characters, believing that this approach would allow them to remain true to the spirit of the book.[32][21] The setting was changed from Bordighera to the countryside of Crema, where Guadagnino lives.[b] The town square selected for filming differed from the one Aciman had pictured in his novel, which in his vision was "far smaller and stood high on a hill overlooking a windswept Mediterranean".[46] The arid climate and "spookily deserted" landscape in Crema suggested to him that the film would not correspond to the novel.[46] The director also changed the year of the events from 1987 to 1983. In his words, Guadagnino chose "the year—in Italy at least—where the '70s are killed, when everything that was great about the '70s is definitely shut down," but also a time when the characters could be "in a way untouched by the corruption of the '80s—in the U.S., [Ronald] Reagan, and in the UK, [Margaret] Thatcher".[38][44]

Guadagnino was tempted to remove the scene in which Elio masturbates into a pitted peach, finding it too explicit.[28][47] Chalamet was also nervous about the scene,[48] describing it as "a metamorphosis of some of the strongest ideas in the movie" and the key to illuminating the character's "overabundant sexual energy".[32][49] Both Guadagnino and Chalamet believed it was implausible to masturbate with a peach, but each independently tested the method. To their surprise, it worked, so Guadagnino shot the scene and ultimately included it in the film.[50] A scene featuring Elio and Oliver dancing enthusiastically to The Psychedelic Furs song "Love My Way" in a small bar is not drawn from the book. It was inspired by Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986), and Guadagnino's experience of dancing by himself when he was young.[28][51] Ivory altered Mr. Perlman's profession from a classics scholar to "an art historian/archeologist type",[32][45] a decision that Aciman described as "perfect" and "more visual, [...] more exciting, as opposed to what a scholar does at his desk".[45]

When he was revising Ivory's draft of the script, Guadagnino removed the voice-over narration and much of the nudity.[21][36] He said that explicit nudity was "absolutely irrelevant" to his vision for the film,[52] and that he did not like the idea of having the main character tell the story retrospectively, stating that "it kills the surprise".[21] Towards the end of the novel, the two protagonists visit Rome, a trip which lasts an entire chapter and introduces new characters in multiple locations.[37][43] Because of the film's limited budget, Ivory and the producers wrote several variations, one of which was to leave the lead characters alone in the family's house.[37] Ultimately, the filmmakers settled on another trip—to Bergamo, rather than Rome—where the characters spend much of their time alone together in a hotel room.[37] In his original script, Ivory depicted Elio's parents discussing HIV/AIDS in two scenes,[53] and Elio decorating a Christmas tree in his family's home in the final scene.[54][43] Ivory had to reduce the length of Mr. Perlman's speech but was committed to keeping it in the script.[55] Aciman said in an interview with Moment that, while keeping intervention with the script at a minimum, he suggested to Ivory to keep dialogue prior to Perlman's speech to a minimum so as not to "steal the surprise and the suspense that happens" as it unfolds.[56] Ivory described the scene in which Elio conveys his feelings to Oliver as one of the moments that captures the "euphoric passion and nervousness" of their first love.[57] Aciman was surprised by Guadagnino's final scene where Elio is seen crying by the fireplace;[46] he wrote of the film adaptation:

Cinema can be an entirely magical medium. What I do as a writer, and what Guadagnino does as a film director, is more than speak two different languages. What I do is chisel a statue down to its finest, most elusive details. What a film director does is make the statue move.[46]

Many of the changes to Ivory's screenplay were made during the filming; the screenwriter was not present at the shooting set.[54] In May 2016, Ivory said that he and Guadagnino discussed how to film the scenes involving nudity, but the director later dropped them.[53] In Ivory's view, some of the director's statements to the press had misrepresented the film's omission of nudity as a "conscious aesthetic decision", even though they had never discussed removing nudity from the screenplay.[53] Ivory said, "When people are wandering around before or after making love, and they're decorously covered with sheets, it’s always seemed phoney to me."[53] By contrast, Ivory cited scenes from his earlier film Maurice (1987)—a gay romantic drama that includes male nudity—as "a more natural way of doing things than to hide them, or to do what Luca did, which is to pan the camera out of the window toward some trees."[53] Guadagnino said that he understood Ivory's position, but that it was clear that there were "no limitations on what we wanted to do."[52]

Casting

In 2015, Shia LaBeouf and Greta Scacchi were reportedly set to be cast in the film.[58] In September 2016, Ivory confirmed they were no longer involved in the project. Ivory said he got along with LaBeouf, who had read for the film in New York City, but the production company later felt the actor was unsuitable after his "various troubles". Ivory thought Scacchi and LaBeouf read well together and could have made it into the film, but the company disagreed.[59]

Guadagnino was impressed by Armie Hammer's performance in The Social Network (2010),[14][50] describing him as a "sophisticated actor, with a great range".[14] Hammer almost turned down the role of Oliver after reading the draft script because it contained nudity, saying, "There's a lot of stuff here that I've never done on film before. But there's no way I can't do this [film], mostly because it scares me so much."[60][61] Hammer had previously played gay characters in J. Edgar (2011) and Final Portrait (2017).[47][62]

In 2013, Swardstrom—Spears' husband and agent—introduced Chalamet to Guadagnino,[14][22] who immediately felt the actor had "the ambition, the intelligence, the sensitivity, the naivety, and the artistry" to play Elio.[21] Chalamet had already read Aciman's novel and described it as "a window into a young person".[48] His character, 17-year-old Elio, is fluent in three languages: English, French and Italian.[40] Upon his arrival in Italy, Chalamet—who already spoke French fluently and had played piano and guitar for years[32][40][63]—prepared for his role with a schedule of daily lessons in Italian, gym workouts three times a week,[32] and by working with composer Roberto Solci.[32][40]

Michael Stuhlbarg, who was cast as Elio's father, Mr. Perlman,[60][64] did not read the book until he had already joined the production.[65] He found the script moving and described Mr. Perlman as having a "sense of generosity and love and understanding".[66] Esther Garrel was contacted by Guadagnino when he was in Paris for the promotion of A Bigger Splash.[67] Garrel was cast as Marzia without any formal audition, and she chose not to read the book before shooting.[67] Towards the end of the film, Marzia asks Elio, "Friend for life?"—a line taken from J'entends plus la guitare (1991), directed by the actress's father, Philippe Garrel.[41] "I like the idea of talking virtually with Philippe Garrel through her," Guadagnino said.[41] During shooting, Garrel spoke French with Chalamet on set and watched the American sitcom Friends with English subtitles to improve her English.[67]

Guadagnino chose Amira Casar, whom he had known for twenty years, for the role of Elio's mother Annella.[41][64] In an interview with French magazine Télérama, Guadagnino expressed his admiration of Casar's "sense of transgression" and called her "the most audacious" in European art cinema.[c][41] Casting director Stella Savino met Vanda Capriolo when she was bicycling in the countryside. Capriolo, who was not an actor, was chosen to play Mafalda, the Perlmans' maid.[51][68] Aciman and Spears also appear briefly in cameo roles as Mounir and Isaac, an openly gay couple who attend a dinner party.[32][45] Aciman was asked to be in the movie after actors became unavailable. "It was a last-minute decision," Spears recalled, "André turns out to be a phenomenal actor! So comfortable, not nervous at all. His wife was sitting there and said, 'I had no idea!'"[69] In dialogue, the characters switch between English, French, Italian,[70] and in one scene Annella reads a German translation of 16th-century French literature.[71]

Hammer and Chalamet both signed contracts prohibiting the film from showing them with full-frontal nudity. Ivory, whose original screenplay contained nudity, was dismayed by the decision. He criticized what he saw as an "American" attitude, saying, "Nobody seems to care that much or be shocked about a totally naked woman. It's the men."[33][36] Guadagnino picked actors based on their performances and chemistry rather than on their sexuality.[23] He said, "The idea that you have to cast only someone who has a certain set of skills, and worse, a certain gender identity in any role: that's oppressive to me."[13]

Production design and costume

The main location set for the Perlmans' residence was Villa Albergoni, an uninhabited 17th-century mansion in Moscazzano.[32][72] Guadagnino wanted to buy the house but could not afford it, so he made a film there instead.[40][73] A landscape designer was hired to construct an orchard in the mansion's garden.[68] A pergola was built on the patio, and apricot and peach trees were placed in the garden.[72][74]

Guadagnino did not want the film to be a period piece and tried to resist making a film that would reflect "our idea of the 80s". His goal was an accurate recreation of the period that was invisible to the viewer."[20] The crew, including production designer Samuel Deshors and set decorators Sandro Piccarozzi and Violante Visconti di Modrone, styled the house with furniture and objects inspired by the characters.[32][73] Much of the furniture, including dishes and glassware from the 1950s, belonged to Guadagnino and Visconti di Modrone's parents. Di Modrone, a grandniece of Luchino Visconti from the famous Visconti family said, "That made it cozy and personal ... I wanted to give it the sense of time passing by".[75] Many paintings, maps, and mirrors influenced by Asian art came from an antiques shop in Milan.[74][75] The books seen in the background were all published before 1982.[68] The swimming pool used in the film was based on a watering trough common in the area.[32][75]

The filmmakers set up faded political billboards in public places to reflect the Italian general election in 1983[68] and re-created a newsstand full of magazines of that time.[68] Residents of Crema helped the production team with their research, inviting them into their homes and providing pictures from the 1980s.[20][76] Chen Li, the film's graphic designer, created a handwritten typeface for the film's title sequence of photocopied images of statues alongside items on Mr. Perlman's desk.[68]

Costume designer Giulia Piersanti avoided using period costumes; instead, she wanted to provide "a sense of insouciant adolescent sensuality, summer heat and sexual awakening" to the characters.[75] The costumes, which were influenced by the French films Pauline at the Beach (1983), A Tale of Springtime (1990) and A Summer's Tale (1996),[75] included some pieces made by Piersanti's team.[68] For the Perlmans' wardrobe, Piersanti took inspiration from her parents' photograph albums. For Oliver's "sexy, healthy American" image, Piersanti referred to "some of Bruce Weber's earliest photographs".[75] Oliver's clothes change throughout the film as "he's more able to free himself".[68] Aiming to emphasize Elio's confident style, she chose several Lacoste costumes and a distinctive, New Romantic-looking shirt in the final scene.[20][75] For Elio's other costumes, Piersanti picked some items from her husband's closet, including the polo shirt and Fido Dido T-shirt.[75]

Principal photography

Principal photography began on May 9, 2016, and wrapped in June 2016,[77][78] lasting around 33 days.[68][79] The film was shot primarily in Crema and the surrounding province of Cremona.[14][17][80][81] An unusual series of rainstorms coincided with the shooting schedule, with heavy rain on 28 of the shooting days.[30][79] Scenes set in the nearby villages Pandino and Moscazzano were filmed between May 17 and 19, and shooting in Crema began on June 1.[82][83][84] Additional outdoor scenes were shot on December 4, 2016.[85][86] The City of Crema invested €18,000 in the film, including a publicity campaign costing €7,500.[87][88]

The arch of Torrazzo at Crema Cathedral and several historical locations in the streets of Crema and Pandino were chosen during production.[72][82] Businesses requested compensation for financial losses caused by the closure, which was scheduled for May 30 and 31.[89] Two days' filming at the cathedral were postponed due to the rainy weather.[90] Filming also took place in the Lodigiano area near Crespiatica and in two small towns near Crema, Montodine and Ripalta.[72][32][85] The archaeological discovery scene was filmed at the Grottoes of Catullus in Sirmione on the Brescian shores of Lake Garda.[72] The trip to Bergamo was filmed at the exterior of multiple historical buildings, including Bergamo Cathedral, the Santa Maria Maggiore, the courtyard of Liceo Classico Paolo Sarpi in Piazza Rosate and the University of Sciences, Letters and Arts.[72] The train station scenes were filmed at Pizzighettone.[91] Because of security concerns, the production team was only granted permission to film at the Cascate del Serio in Valbondione for half an hour.[72][80][92]

Before and during filming, the actors lived in Crema and were able to experience small-town life.[32] Guadagnino engaged with the cast and filmmakers and often cooked for them and showed films at his house.[28] Hammer and Chalamet, who did not have to do a screen test together,[21][93] met for the first time during production in Crema.[32][78] Before filming began, they spent a month together, watching TV and going to local restaurants.[12][61][78] "We'd hang out with each other all the time, because we were pretty much the only Americans there, and we were able to defend one another and really get to know one another," Chalamet said.[63] During the first two days of production, Guadagnino read the script with the cast.[38] The first scene that Hammer and Chalamet rehearsed was the kissing scene,[29][93] and they spent several days filming nude.[94] "I've never been so intimately involved with a director before. Luca was able to look at me and completely undress me," Hammer said.[50]

• Selected filming locations
• The Villa Albergoni ()
• The arch of Torrazzo at the Crema Cathedral ()
• The Grottoes of Catullus, on the Brescian shore of Lake Garda ()
• The Piazza Vittorio Emanuele in Pandino ()
• Cascate del Serio ()
• The South portal of Santa Maria Maggiore, Bergamo ()
• The Station of Pizzighettone ()

Guadagnino shot the film in chronological order,[38][95] which allowed the filmmakers to "witness the onscreen maturity of both protagonist and actor", according to Fasano.[96] The scene in which Mr. Perlman delivers an emotional speech to Elio was filmed on the penultimate day of filming.[12][38] Stuhlbarg spent months preparing for the scene,[12][66] which Guadagnino wanted to make "as simple as possible" by shooting fewer takes and "let[ting] the actors be."[19] The scene took three takes to film and Stuhlbarg was "on three different levels of getting emotional".[96] Garrel enjoyed filming her sex scene with Chalamet, which she described as filled with "joy and simplicity".[67] Chalamet was listening to "Visions of Gideon", one of the original songs written by Sufjan Stevens for the film, in an earpiece while filming the final sequence;[97][98] the director asked him to perform three variations of the scene, one per take.[99] The camera was set in the fireplace with nobody behind it. "It was bit of an acting experiment," Chalamet said.[51] During this scene, the title of the film was shown for the first time, rather than in the opening sequence.

At the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele,[91] a memorial to the victims of the battle of the Piave in Pandino,[46] the filmmakers laid a long camera dolly track to film the scene where Elio tells Oliver of his feelings for him in a single long take. This provided the flexibility and "flow of emotion" a cut scene could not.[100] During the dancing sequence, Hammer had to perform to a click track in front of 50 off-camera extras with the music turned down so the dialogue could be recorded.[51][61] In preparation for the scene, Guadagnino arranged for Hammer to practice with a dance coach.[51] Hammer said that it was "the worst scene" he had ever filmed.[101] Choreographer Paolo Rocchi, who was contacted by the Frenesy Film Company in June 2016, described the routine as "awkward and realistic".[102] Rosenman considered the scene one of the most emotional moments; he said "It embodied and encapsulated, for me, what teenage love is all about, what desire is all about."[29]

Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who had previously collaborated with Guadagnino on Ferdinando Cito Filomarino's Antonia (2015), served as the director of photography.[22][103] He had read Aciman's novel before receiving the script and walked around filming locations to "get a feeling for everything ... to see the color, to see how the light changed during the day, and input it into my data".[104] Mukdeeprom had to use artificial lighting to capture the Northern Italian summer atmosphere,[14] compensating for heavy rains that lasted throughout the shoot.[22][79] While filming the confrontation scene between Oliver and Elio, Mukdeeprom cried in a corner of the room after they finished the first take, overwhelmed by a feeling of profound empathy for the actors.[14] The film was shot using 35 mm celluloid film and a single lens,[105] a decision influenced by the work of David Cronenberg to "solidif[y] the point of view"[15] and make "the tension of the performance come off the screen"—even if it meant increasing the production budget above the cost of shooting in digital.[105] Guadagnino praised Jean-Pierre Laforce, the film's sound designer and mixer, for his "wonderful" and "pivotal" contributions. Guadagnino, who had previously worked with Laforce on A Bigger Splash, said he was "able to create a sort of Cathedral of sound without overwhelming the movie."[19]

Post-production

Fasano collaborated with Guadagnino during the post-production.[106][40] They had worked together for 25 years since Guadagnino's debut feature The Protagonists (1999).[40] Fasano described working with Guadagnino as "atypical [and] very demanding, but it's a great experience."[106] Post-production took only a month, between June and July[14]—the fastest they had ever edited.[78] Fasano cited the films of Bernardo Bertolucci and the "fast and unexplained" storytelling in Pialat's À nos amours as inspiration.[106]

Their first cut of the film ran three hours and 20 minutes long.[106][107] Fasano described it as his favorite saying it made him "lose [him]self in the story and the images."[106] The final cut lasts two hours and 10 minutes with a shooting ratio of 25:1.[106]

Several notable changes were made, or almost made, near the end of post-production. The monologue sequence with Elio's father once had piano playing beneath it. The scene where the two protagonists bike to a courtyard almost failed to make the final cut after one of the producers said it was inconsequential.[96] Hammer revealed that some scenes were digitally altered to fix wardrobe malfunctions caused by his short shorts.[108][109] Guadagnino has discussed several scenes that did not make the final cut. There was a "well-acted" scene where Elio and Oliver were "teasing one another" under a lime tree, which the director felt was "too precious".[47] A scene where Elio's parents make love in the bedroom while Elio and Oliver are kissing under the moonlight in the garden was also cut.[47] The latter scene was shown at a screening in Castiglioncello in June 2018, which also included a deleted scene of Elio inviting Oliver to tour the village.[110]