Movies: Armie Hammer Succumbs To Desire In “Call Me By Your Name”

Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe-nominee Armie Hammer (The Social Network) stars in Sony Pictures Classic's Call Me By Your Name as Oliver, the charismatic 24 year-old graduate student who forms a special bond with Elio (Timothee Chalamet), a 17-year old boy, setting in motion an experience that will linger with both of them forever.

The two actors became inseparable in the weeks leading up to shooting. “We rode bikes, we listened to music, we talked, we went to meals, we hung out in many of the same places you see us in the movie,” says Hammer. After shooting commenced, the two rehearsed their scenes every night before shooting. The intimacy and chemistry that became palpable on screen grew out of the closeness the two actors developed in real life.

The entire cast lived on location in Crema, Italy and were able to absorb the unique charms and rhythms of Lombardian small town life. Says Hammer: “[Director] Luca Guadagnino was able to introduce an element of la dolce vita that doesn't really exist in Italy anymore. Working on the movie, being with all these people who I honestly fell in love with, was incredibly analogous to the story of the movie for me. When I look back on it, it’s my love affair with making the movie.”

While his films are praised for their eroticism, Guadagnino doesn’t depict sexuality gratuitously. “Sex on screen can be the most boring thing to watch,” he says. “In general, if the lovemaking is a way to investigate behavior and how this behavior reflects the characters, then I’m interested.

But if it’s only about the illustration of an act I’m not interested.” Says Hammer: “I think a lot of movie sex scenes are about: ‘What angles look best?’ But in this movie what you see are two people hungrily exploring each other’s bodies. And I think it feels organically like the first time you have a sexual experience with someone new: where there’s uncertainty, there’s that unknown, there’s all those things that you’re figuring out as you go.”

Rated R-16 With No Cuts by the MTRCB, Call Me By Your Name, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman.

It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothee Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old young man, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel).

Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly about matters of the heart.

One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a 24 year-old American college graduate student working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

Opening exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas starting January 31, Call Me By Your Name is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.