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Call Me by Your Name

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Published: Dec 18, 2018

Words: 512 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Aciman, A. (2007). Call Me By Your Name. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
• Guadagnino, L. (Director). (2017). Call Me By Your Name [Motion Picture]. Frenesy Film Company.
• Ehrlich, D. (2017). "Call Me by Your Name Review." IndieWire. Retrieved from https://www.indiewire.com/2017/01/call-me-by-your-name-review-luca-guadagnino-1201778129/
• Gleiberman, O. (2017). "Film Review: 'Call Me By Your Name'." Variety. Retrieved from https://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/call-me-by-your-name-review-1201963392/
• Chang, J. (2017). "Review: Call Me By Your Name." The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/movies/call-me-by-your-name-review-armie-hammer.html
• Nashawaty, C. (2017). "Call Me By Your Name is a sensuous, sun-soaked movie masterpiece." Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved from https://ew.com/movies/2017/11/22/call-me-by-your-name-ew-review/
• Breen, L. (2019). "The Sartorial Storytelling of Call Me By Your Name." AnOther Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/11420/the-sartorial-storytelling-of-call-me-by-your-name
• Murphy, M. (2018). "The Music of Call Me By Your Name." Den of Geek. Retrieved from https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-music-of-call-me-by-your-name/
• Carucci, J. (2018). "The Fashion and Style of Call Me By Your Name." Vogue. Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com/article/call-me-by-your-name-fashion
• Simek, P. (2018). "Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom on the Making of Call Me By Your Name." Texas Monthly. Retrieved from

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Connect with us, review of the movie call me by your name : a critical essay, by maya cruz.

Call Me By Your Name is an extraordinary story showcasing genuine romance: fleeting and pure. The story brings the spontaneous essence of love to the light, despite unfavorable circumstances.

The captivatingly beautiful novel-turned-film, Call Me By Your Name , dares to toy with the idea of pure, boundless, consuming romance despite unfavorable odds. Recently more than ever before, people have come together to fight for love, leaving behind the dated ideals of heteronormative relationships. In fact, Call Me By Your Name fights for so much beyond destroying the stigma around homosexuality. Between summer days, swimming at the secluded lake and getting lost in books, peach trees and bike bells, Oliver and Elio’s story encapsulates the true and fleeting essence of love that dominates the ill hand they were dealt. 

This expression of passionate, intimate love governs the story, leaving the aspects of their circumstances that would be considered problematic, controversial, or repentant left in dust. As the story was set in the 1980s, the aura of disgrace surrounding homosexuality was far more common. For a long time, there was a widespread belief that there was shame in same-sex love, or that it was unnatural and against God’s will. With Oliver and Elio’s budding relationship evolving to a strong admiration, Oliver is put on edge. Oliver was resistant at first, as he says they “haven’t done anything to be ashamed of” and they “can’t talk about those kinds of things.” Same-sex attraction wasn’t the only underlying idea of controversy in Oliver and Elio’s relationship. With the seven-year age difference between the men, Elio being 17 and Oliver 24, it could be viewed as a pedophelic relationship. Some may argue that the story puts a “stamp of approval” on pedophilia, masking it with the beauty of the story. With gender and age confining their relationship, Oliver and Elio also live far from each other. Nothing other than the summer of 1983 ties them together. 

What makes the story so overwhelmingly genuine and beautiful is that despite everything, they were in love. They overcame the stigma around gayness because when their feelings intensified, they had no choice. The story paints Oliver and Elio amidst a deeply genuine and rare romance, as well as proving that love is simply love. While it can be argued that Elio is a minor and Oliver is too old for him, pedophiles are also known as sexual predators; it is apparent in the story that in no way is Oliver preying on Elio, exclusively attracted to children, or fetishizing his adolescence. Instead, their romance buds from a place of observation, or even contemplation. It first came off as condescending, jealous, slightly trivial. However, their fondness for each other overpowers adversities in their situation in the eye of society. Their ephemeral love follows no rules. It is pure and vivid, uncaring of whether their ages or genders align, if they live near to each other, if they would be thought of as shameful, if what they wanted could fit under a label. It just was; they just loved, untouched, once there was a release of all margins. 

The story of Oliver and Elio is the birth of everything people may have said no to before. The captivating composition of the plot allows for the beauty of love to overcome everything else. It shows them as doing everything society would have labeled as wrong, yet still being absolutely pure, amidst an inexplicable experience. 

My idea for this piece came when I was rewatching the Call Me By Your Name film. I love it for everything it is, and I felt that what it stands for is something I am passionate enough to write about. I love the purity of the story, how unwaveringly true it felt, and the impeccable way it captivated that fleeting sense of romance. The rawness of the chemistry had my heart gripped, and I felt like writing about what made me feel so intensely, as well as speak of all it represents, would be something that I’d really love to do. I wrote this all in one sitting on a Sunday morning, sort of engrossed with the story, and essence of the summer it portrayed. I took a break from it for a little while, to let my words sit and to let my brain rest. I let a couple family members read or edit it, and I walked it through a Critical Essay Rubric. At first, I doubted my writing, and wasn’t proud of it. However, over some time, I grew to appreciate it because of the joy I got from writing it.

Maya Cruz is a New York City born and raised daughter, sister, and student. She has a burning passion for the arts and the overlap they have with the natural world. Writing especially has helped her evolve her perspective, which she hopes to continue sharing.

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Call Me By Your Name Andre Aciman

Call Me By Your Name literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman.

Call Me By Your Name Material

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Call Me By Your Name Essays

Elio’s feelings through the form and structure in call me by your name, by andré aciman claudia excaret santos campusano college, call me by your name.

Call Me by Your Name , by André Aciman, is a novel narrated in the form of stream of consciousness by Elio, a seventeen year old. Elio is smart for his age, and he has a vast knowledge of language. Through language, he is able to create atmospheres...

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Call Me By Your Name

André aciman.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on André Aciman's Call Me By Your Name . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Call Me By Your Name: Introduction

Call me by your name: plot summary, call me by your name: detailed summary & analysis, call me by your name: themes, call me by your name: quotes, call me by your name: characters, call me by your name: symbols, call me by your name: theme wheel, brief biography of andré aciman.

Historical Context of Call Me By Your Name

Other books related to call me by your name.

• Full Title: Call Me by Your Name
• When Published: 2007
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Realism
• Setting: A small town in Northern Italy
• Climax: Elio has sex with Oliver for the first time
• Antagonist: The inability to accept oneself
• Point of View: First-person

Extra Credit for Call Me By Your Name

Sequel Drama. Although the film adaptation of Call Me By Your Name was widely-acclaimed and won multiple awards, James Ivory (the film’s screenwriter) has said that he won’t work on a sequel, which would be based on the novel’s final chapter. Despite the fact that the actors and even the director are all onboard, Ivory objects because he doesn’t want to see actor Timothée Chalamet—who plays Elio—dressed up to look like an older version of himself.

Oliver’s Voice. Armie Hammer, who plays Oliver in the film version of Call Me By Your Name , is the voice of the novel’s audiobook.

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Poetry in Verse: Exploring the Themes of Longing and Loss in Call Me By Your Name

Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman is a poetic testament to a summer of love, longing and queerness nestled in the bosom of Italy. This essay seeks to dive into the themes of longing and loss it contains.

In the realms of literature, few narratives possess the unique ability to ensnare the readers within the intricate web of emotions they weave. You’d think it’s about the story – adrenaline-pumping adventures, mind-numbing twists, and whirlwind romances. But more often than not, the key isn’t what intricate plot the author has come up with. The beauty of a book may rely on the author’s skill to keep you hooked – the writing itself. Such is the case with André Aciman’s novel, Call Me By Your Name . The book, first published in 2007, has gracefully etched its name onto the canvas of modern storytelling.

Call Me By Your Name follows the journey of Elio, a precocious 17-year-old lounging away his summer against the picturesque backdrop of the Italian Riviera, and Oliver, a charming scholar from America. As they proceed to live within the same house, interacting and slowly getting to know each other, you are transported into a sun-drenched, aching romance that will leave you wanting more. While the story may seem like a typical run-of-the-mill, off-the-shelf love, Aciman turns it into a tale that speaks of a universal human yearning for connection, the pangs of desire, and the emptiness of loss. We dive into a world where longing is not just a sentiment – but a living, breathing entity, a character in itself, pulsating through every sentence said and unsaid.

In this essay, we shall explore how the author manages to capture both fleeting and binding emotions into an intense romantic episode.

Poetic style of writing

Centering on themes of longing and loss, the movie adaptation: translating longing and loss to the screen, by the same author: love and acceptance in a heteronormative society: themes in simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda by becky albertalli , exploring themes and writing style in call me by your name.

Aciman’s writing can be described as a symphony of words instead of just words strung together to make grammatical or logical sense. There is a certain lilt and poetic sensibility that appears and transcends description. The running theme throughout the book, to simplify it, is yearning full of youthfulness. The author’s choice of words, the rhythm of his sentences, and the evocative imagery he employs craft a lyrical narrative that lingers on your mind way past the book’s pages. They read like verses of a poem, case in point, the following situation.

In a moment of reflection about his memorable summer, Elio once remarks, “Smells and sounds I’d grown up with and known every year of my life until then but that had suddenly turned on me and acquired an inflection forever colored by the events of that summer.”

Also Read: Call Me By Your Name (2017) – An intense exploration of first Love 

The language used in the book serves as a carrier through carefully chosen words to elevate a character’s emotions at any given point, making their sorrows and desires tangible to the observer. It immerses you and helps amplify the intensity of the way Elio longs for Oliver and vice versa. 

Longing – and yearning – is the emotional undercurrent that propels the narrative ahead. Treated as a fundamental need that drives the actions and thoughts of the main characters, Aciman skilfully depicts the manifestation of these feelings in each. This leads to an artful showcase of Elio’s internal struggles with his identity and battle with his feelings, Oliver’s plans for the near future, and the unspoken back-and-forth between members of Elio’s family, who also form a major part in the occurrences while maintaining an ostensibly backstage role for most of the book.

Elio’s struggles are a mixture of teenage infatuation and profound emotional connection, while Oliver’s struggles are masked by his eventual vain attempts at keeping a distance. A powerful instance of this struggle is captured in one of their conversations, which goes as follows:

Elio: “If only you knew how little I know about the things that really matter.”

Oliver: “What things that matter?”

Elio: “You know what things.”

And scene. Sigh.

Here, much is said without saying much, as is the case with multiple dialogues that may baffle most people. But it is those who have loved similarly and experienced such loss who understand, nay, feel the meaning behind these words. To put it simply, this is precocious Elio’s way to let Oliver know, “ I like you, deeply .” Oliver understands it, but neither of the protagonists wants to admit it out loud; it is an implicit agreement in bold. The characters often speak in seemingly mysterious, eclectic terms, appearing as if they have come to an understanding only with each other and nobody else.

Additionally, the novel is set at the Italian Riviera, a place of stunning beauty and idyllic landscapes. The languid summers, tranquil shores, and cyclic lanes serve as the perfect backdrop for a dreamy romantic escapade and allow you to live inside the setting and watch as the love unfolds.

Without taking up much of the joy of reading the actual book, let’s say that loss permeates the narrative as well, reminding us of the ephemeral nature of joy. It settles itself as the aftermath of longing, the emptiness that may settle when things don’t go as planned. Elio introspects years later about his summer, and this section underlines the lasting impact of his connection with Oliver. The loss of innocence, of an opportunity, of unspoken words. The heart-wrenching moment of separation bundled with the realization of what might have been. The theme of loss transforms from a plot device into a resonant emotional experience for us all.

“In your place, if there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, don’t snuff it out, don’t be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than we’d want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything – what a waste!”

Also Read: Celebrating Pride Month: 10 LGBTQ+ Fiction Classics You Need to Read

The poignant book is brought to life in the 2017 movie adaptation of the same name. Directed by Luca Guadagnino , an artist popular for creating movies characterized by their emotional complexity, the movie has struck a chord with audiences and critics alike. Breathing life into evocative storytelling with breathtaking visuals, the actors’ performances have been lauded as well.

Translating Aciman’s writing into the visual medium presented its challenges. However, the movie successfully manages to capture a good portion of it – a golden shower seems to envelop the photography, lending a certain warmth to the two-hour run. Timothée Chalamet ‘ s portrayal of Elio and Armie Hammer’s Oliver brings a tangible vulnerability to their relationship, while their chemistry simmers profusely beneath the surfaces. Along with these visual aids, the movie’s soundtrack is a soothing and loving tribute to the story, adding to its overall melancholic beauty.

Call Me By Your Name is a deftly written novel that explores the complexity of human emotion and connection. It captures what it means to long for deeply and creates melodies out of romantic settings. The book shall leave you with a bittersweet appreciation for the happiness as well as the pain that tears through. It invites the readers to unravel fictional hearts and cherish the power of words as they are planted in your souls.