Call Me By Your Name

[Patrick Sun]

Title: Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Tagline: Is it better to speak or die?

Genre: Romance, Drama

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel, Victoire Du Bois, Vanda Capriolo, Antonio Rimoldi, Elena Bucci, Marco Sgrosso, André Aciman, Peter Spears, Xhuliano Ujka

Release: 2017-09-01

Runtime: 132

Plot: Elio Perlman is spending the summer with his family at their vacation home in Lombardy, Italy. When his father hires a handsome doctoral student, the curious 17-year-old finds himself developing a growing attraction to the young man.

Thanks to #MoviePass I’m caught up on the Best Picture nominees for the Oscars. Last movie was “Call Me By Your Name”. It sneaks up on you and hits you in the feels by the end of the film. Belongs on the list of nominees for Best Picture.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Chalamet did an amazing acting job in a film that is essentially a moving ode to the nervous fear, excitement, wonders, and ultimate tears of first love. That it happened to be for another guy doesn't change the dynamics of what that experience can be like, and even us hopeless romantic heteros can appreciate what Chalamet's unbelievably self-conscious-free performance re-took us through.

 

[benbess]

Enjoyed the movie. One of my favorites from 2017.

 

[SteveJKo]

...It sneaks up on you and hits you in the feels by the end of the film....

... a moving ode to the nervous fear, excitement, wonders, and ultimate tears of first love....

Just got back from seeing "Call Me...". Gentlemen, thank you both for putting it in words for me. Now pardon me while I go and have another little cry.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

Congratulations to Call Me By Your Name winning Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writer's Guild Awards. I think the beautiful speech by the loving and tolerant father at the end of this film single-handedly sealed the victory, but because it was adapted almost verbatim from novel, credit really should go to the original author more than the adaptation. It was for that reason, my vote went elsewhere.

The most important award of Best Original Screenplay went to Get Out by Jordan Peele. That should shake things up a bit for the Oscars.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I have 3 BP noms left to go and I admit this one is on the bottom of my "want to see" list.

Still have this, "Phantom Thread" and "Lady Bird". Anyone want to convince me I should elevate "Name" above the others on my viewing list?

 

[TravisR]

I have 3 BP noms left to go and I admit this one is on the bottom of my "want to see" list.

Still have this, "Phantom Thread" and "Lady Bird". Anyone want to convince me I should elevate "Name" above the others on my viewing list?

Call Me is a fine movie but I liked those other two more.

 

[Jake Lipson]

There's some more talk about a sequel:

https://deadline.com/2018/07/call-m...uhlbarg-luca-guadagnino-interview-1202425741/

Putting aside the artistic merit of the film, Call Me By Your Name grossed $18 million in the U.S. plus $23 million foreign for a worldwide total of $41 million and change. Box Office Mojo does not list whatever the production budget was.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=callmebyyourname.htm

So I wonder: this obviously is not a lot of money. Was it enough to make it profitable? And is the sequel a financially viable thing to do?

Again, I'm not talking about anything creative here, just looking straight at the numbers. Without knowing the production budget, we don't have a full picture, but $41 million is not a high gross, and the production companies had to split that cost with the theater owners, plus distributors probably took a distribution fee. So financially, it would be interesting to know if this was a success or not, and what the numbers would have to look like to make a sequel be profitable.

I didn't love the first film, but it was obviously well-crafted with a lot of talent involved, and I hope they can do another one. I'm not trying to be a wet blanket here. It's just that the numbers on the first one are not so high that it makes a sequel an automatic slam-dunk thing.

We'll see.

 

[Malcolm R]

Several sources list the budget around $4 million, so it sounds like it made a nice profit. Plus there's the awards/prestige factor, as well.

 

[Jake Lipson]

around $4 million

The awards factor is nice...but wouldn't justify making a sequel if the budget didn't check out. But if the $4 million budget is correct, then yeah, it sounds like a sequel is a natural thing to do. Good for them.

Also, it did not look that cheap. They really used their money well on the first one.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Seems like an odd film to sequelize! Kinda had the appropriate, "wrapped up" ending, didn't it?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Seems like an odd film to sequelize! Kinda had the appropriate, "wrapped up" ending, didn't it?

I haven't read it, but apparently the novel extends beyond the end of the film, so presumably they will use that as a basis.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I haven't read it, but apparently the novel extends beyond the end of the film, so presumably they will use that as a basis.

I guess. Still feels to me like the existing ending wrapped enough of a bow on that story that anything more will feel gratuitous, but I could be 100% wrong.

I wasn't wild about the movie anyway, so a sequel won't spoil my childhood or anything!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I wasn't wild about the first one either, but I assume they have what they think is a good idea, or they wouldn't be doing it. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

 

[SteveJKo]

"Call Me..." was my favorite film of last year. But as much as I loved it, I really don't see it needing a sequel. According to this recent interview with James Ivory, author Andre Aciman doesn't think it's going to happen...

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...-by-your-name-sequel-hugh-grant-a8463176.html

 

[Mark-P]

"Call Me..." was my favorite film of last year. But as much as I loved it, I really don't see it needing a sequel. According to this recent interview with James Ivory, author Andre Aciman doesn't think it's going to happen...

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...-by-your-name-sequel-hugh-grant-a8463176.html

Sounds more to me like Aciman doesn't want a sequel to be made and Guadagnino is champing at the bit to do one. If they offer Aciman enough $$$, he'll relent.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Armie Hammer says the sequel "will happen."

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/armie-hammer-call-me-by-your-name-sequel-will-happen-1202933533/

 

[Jake Lipson]

Armie Hammer has changed his tune about the sequel:

Handler: I have to ask about the Call Me by Your Name sequel. It’s in my contract.
Hammer: Is it really?

No, but we do care so much. So what’s the latest?
Timmy’s out! I’m not sure why. Timmy said the only way he’d do it is if they paid him $15 million. [Laughs.] No, the truth is, there have been really loose conversations about it, but at the end of the day — I’m sort of coming around to the idea that the first one was so special for everyone who made it, and so many people who watched it felt like it really touched them, or spoke to them. And it felt like a really perfect storm of so many things, that if we do make a second one, I think we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment. I don’t know that anything will match up to the first, you know?

The experience of filming it, or the movie itself?
Both.

Do Timmy and Luca feel that way, too?
I don’t know. I haven’t had that conversation with them explicitly. But I mean, look. If we end up with an incredible script, and Timmy’s in, and Luca’s in, I’d be an asshole to say no. But at the same time, I’m like, That was such a special thing, why don’t we just leave that alone?

That’s new, though, because you’ve said for a while now that you guys were saying it was definitely happening. What shifted for you?
I’m not sure that it was ever really definitely going to happen. People just seemed so excited about it that we were like, “Oh, yeah, fuck it! We’ll do it, sure!” [Turns to publicist.] Was it ever really like, real real?

Publicist: I think it’s not real until it is.

Hammer: It’s not real until it is. And I won’t do it for less than, uh, $10 million! [Laughs loudly.]

So there’s no script or concrete plans.
No. I was talking to Luca, and he was like, “I think it might be fun to do this, or it might be fun to do this!” And I was like, “Those all sound like great ideas!” But that’s as real as it is right now. And I was joking about $10 million. I want $12 million.

Okay, I’ll make sure to write that down.
$12.5 million actually. Let’s go $12.5 million. Plus 10 percent commission for my agent. [Laughs.]

When was the last time you talked to Timmy and Luca?
Timmy and I texted yesterday. Luca, I talked to him the day of the Indie Spirit Awards.

The last time you spoke to Vulture, you did this great profile with Kyle Buchanan. And you spoke about how, in certain ways, you had fallen in love with Luca on set. When he read that profile, what was his response to it?
It didn’t really come up. But it was the thing we both felt. It’s not like he read it and was surprised. He was like, Aw, nice of you to say. I feel the same way. It’s a really intense process to make a movie in a foreign country. And when you do it with people you really resonate with, it forms a special bond.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/armie-hammer-on-call-me-by-your-name-2-and-invisible-man.html

 

[SteveJKo]

And now apparently Andre Aciman is writing a sequel! https://www.vulture.com/2019/03/call-me-by-your-name-sequel-find-me-andre-aciman.html

 

[Jake Lipson]

Here's the cover and other details about the book sequel, which is to be released on October 29:

https://ew.com/books/2019/05/03/find-me-call-me-by-your-name-sequel-cover/