A Love Letter to Call Me By Your Name.

Call Me By Your Name is a coming-of-age drama, adapted from Andre Aciman’s 2007 novel of the same name. The story, set in 1980’s Italy, follows 17 year old Elio and the love that blossoms between him and an older grad student staying with him and his family for the summer, named Oliver. This gem that is taking the festival circuit, and soon the cinema, by storm is directed by Luca Guadagnino, who we know for films such as A Bigger Splash and I Am Love and with Armie Hammer and breakthrough actor, Timothee Chalamet as the forefront of this movie, who can truly have any doubts before watching?!?!

Since I saw a preview screening of Call Me By Your Name yesterday, I have been trying to figure out some structure for a review; something similar to how I’ve always reviewed, you know, ramble too much, talk more about my inability to hate movies and then write a line about the movie itself, but, and not surprisingly, that wasn’t working for a piece on this film. Trying to write a borderline generic analysis of this movie, but with a Velvetian flare, seemed too bland for it, I’m not disrespecting my other reviews or saying it's bad writing, because to me it’s not and you should totally go check them out; just in this instance, it seemed too formal. This viewing and this movie became a personal thing for me, so rather than writing a review, I have decided to write it a love letter. So here it is, my ode, if you will, to Call Me By Your Name.

Dear Call Me By Your Name,

Many people will tell you this and many probably already have, but; you are beautiful. You are like the rusted, seabound statues you teach us about. Everlasting, flawed, closer to human than history itself. You have made a bed at the pit of my stomach and the springs in the mattress jump up and down every time I think of you; which has been a lot in the past 24 hours. You’re too relatable so I see parts of you everywhere in everything, but mostly in my thoughts of my own experiences; you dragged up the lost love and dressed up the idea of future ones and have made me realise I am a romantic. I’m still trying to figure out how you can be momentous in just a moment, no matter how big or small. Speaking of big and small, the representation of anatomy in the suggestions of pre love before post love have haunted me; shoulder blades and toes, knee caps and nose bleeds. My vision of these skeleton parts, as well as the metaphorical moments of the heart, give me ideas that I can touch. I feel like I have been shown a body in a point of view I’ve never had before. For times it is your eyes and other times it is your kisses that bring me the joy and heartbreak of your story, but most of the time it is your words and all the mouths that say them, not just one, or two, but all. You have made me feel, not only loving, but also parented, like someone has told me the secret to life and patted me on the head; the pat I felt, but life I’m still trying to figure out. You have given me key pieces to the puzzle, pieces I didn’t even realise I was missing and now I must figure out the bigger picture with only the inspirational static left after experiencing meeting you. You have given me such beautiful lessons to learn and friendships to savour and steer and I will take that with me throughout time and lend the same such things to those around me; and with that, I want to give something back to you, a treasure of gratefulness if you will- Don’t you ever, EVER, take in anything negative anyone has to say about you, I know you're strong enough to handle it but I also know you’re sensitive, so do not take to heart anything that can turn into a cancer. You have shown, not just myself, but many others, what love is, what it can be and can do and made us face that we have always known these things and that can cause fear in people who fear feeling fearful. This is a love letter, that may not make sense to others who have not quite met you yet, but for those who have you know what I mean. All in all, I guess I’m trying to say that you have affected me, very deeply and it’s something close to love.

Velvet.

Call Me By Your Name comes out in cinemas around October 27th.

Image taken from: http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/call-me-by-your-name-armie-hammer-timothee-chalamet.jpg