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Call Me By Your Name- sp

This is a beautiful gay coming-of-age romantic film with a screenplay by James Ivory, who has dealt with this subject in the past as a filmmaker. The story is based on a novel by Andre Aciman and brought to the screen by a very skilled Italian director, Luca Guadagnino.

The movie is set in the magnificent countryside of Northern Italy. Elio (Timothée Chalamet) a 17-year-old young man living with his parents in their summer home meets Oliver (Armie Hammer) a young man in his late 20s who is a colleague of his professor father who is studying some sunken archeological discovery of ancient statues of young men that is being raised from the coastal waters. Also being raised is Elio’s attraction to Oliver and vice versa which the viewer experiences through both their eyes. This awakening of physical chemistry and love develops into somewhat overly drawn out two hours and eleven minutes of this film which incorporates the absolutely beautiful countryside with magnificent lush hills, valleys, coves, and waterfalls which sets the tone for the overwhelming feelings that both of these young man were feeling for each other.

There is one particular scene which may very well be remembered as a classic, in which Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg) shares his understanding and insight into his son’s feelings in a very tender and moving moment

This production was a very well-done in all aspects including some original songs and music by Sufjan Stevens. However, the filmmaker became too enamored of the magnificent artistic depictions of the luscious countryside and created a film that was overly long. Nevertheless, this film well deserves to become an important part of the genre of movies about the gay romantic experience. (2017)

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The City of Your Final Destination – rm – For more than 40 years director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant have been bringing forth signature films with screenplays written and adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Two years after the death of Merchant, the remaining team has created a film worthy of the genre, which took three more years to be released. Every frame is a masterpiece color photograph with period and location magnificently depicted. The story here is about Omar (Omar Metwally) a mid-western university doctoral student who has a grant to write a biography of a Latin American writer who had committed suicide. He takes temporary leave of Deidre (Alexandra Maria Lara), his controlling girl friend to travel to the beautiful Uruguay countryside in order to try to convince the executers of the writer’s estate to authorize the biography. He finds the deceased writer’s widow (Laura Linnley), the writer’s girl friend Arden (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and the 8 year old daughter she had with him, the gay brother of the writer (Anthony Hopkins ) along with his lover (Hiroyuki Sanada ) who has been with him since he adopted him at age 15, all living together on a magnificent ranch estate miles from nowhere. The movie becomes a study of the personalities of this group and the dynamics between them. It also follows and explores the emotions of the would be biographer as he rather quickly develops feelings for Adrenia which leaves him with some important choices to make. A very effective ending allows you to come away from the movie realizing that everyone has decisions to make, which may make life better in ways never thought possible. (2007)