Movies: Timothee Chalmet, In The Mood For Love In “Call Me By Your Name”

At 22, Timothée Chalamet becomes the youngest Oscar Best Actor nominee in 74 years, and he gets this distinction for his performance in Sony Pictures Classic's heartwrenching love story, Call Me By Your Name.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the film is the heady awakening of a 17-year old young man’s first passion. When Elio (Chalamet) falls for Oliver (Armie Hammer), the charismatic 24 year-old graduate student staying at his parents’ villa in northern Italy, it sets in motion an experience that will linger with both of them forever.

A large percentage of the story focuses on the myriad steps forward and backward between Elio and Oliver before their relationship finally becomes physical. Stressing anticipation through an unhurried buildup is common in Guadagnino’s films. Says Chalamet: “It’s the universally relatable game of cat and mouse and push and pull that occurs between people that are attracted to one another but have suspicions and insecurities about whether the other holds the same level of attraction. They also have trepidations because they aren’t in a time period or a location that is accepting or encouraging of them having an intimate relationship.”

While his films are praised for their eroticism, Guadagnino doesn’t depict sexuality gratuitously. Says Chalamet: “When you first see Elio and Oliver kiss, and the first time they really make love, the shots play out for awhile. You see the awkwardness and the physical tension in a way where, if there were a million cuts, would be lost.”

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.

Now showing exclusively at Ayala Malls Cinemas, Call Me By Your Name is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.