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Call Me by Your Name (film)

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Call Me by Your Name is a 2017 film, set in northern Italy in 1983, about the romantic relationship between a 17-year-old Elio Perlman and Oliver, a 24-year-old graduate-student assistant to Elio's father, an archaeology professor.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino. Written by James Ivory, based on the novel by André Aciman.
Is it better to speak or die?

Elio Perlman

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  • [to Oliver, crying] I don't want you to go.

Oliver

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  • Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine.
  • [opens the door to Elio's room] Elio, come here. Take your trunks off. [Elio complies and Oliver briefly goes down on him in the doorway] Well, that's promising. You're hard again. Good. [stands up and closes the door to Elio's surprise]

Mr. Perlman

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  • We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new, but to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste.
  • When you least expect it, nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot.
  • Right now you may not want to feel anything. Maybe you never wanted to feel anything. And maybe it's not to me you'll want to speak about these things, but, uh, feel something you obviously did.
  • In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away, pray their sons land on their feet, but... I am not such a parent.
  • Look, you had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you.

Marzia

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  • People who read are hiders. They hide who they are. People who hide don't always like who they are.

Dialogue

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Annella Perlman: [Reading from The Heptaméron] A handsome young knight is madly in love with a princess, and she too is in love with him, though she seems not to be entirely aware of it. Despite the friendship that blossoms between them, or perhaps because of that very friendship, the young knight finds himself so humbled and speechless that he is totally unable to bring up the subject of his love - until one day he asks the princess point-blank: Is it better to speak or to die?
Elio: I'll never have the courage to ask a question like that.
Mr. Perlman: I doubt that. Hey, Elly-Belly. You do know that you can always talk to us?
Oliver: I like the way you say things. I don't know why you're always putting yourself down though.
Elio: So you won't, I guess.
Oliver: Is there anything you don't know?
Elio: I know nothing, Oliver.
Oliver: Well, you seem to know more than anyone else around here.
Elio: Well, if you only knew how little I really know about the things that matter.
Oliver: What "things that matter?"
[long pause]
Elio: You know what things.
Oliver: Why are you telling me this?
Elio: Because I thought you should know.
Oliver: Because you thought I should know?
Elio: Because I wanted you to know. [to himself] Because I wanted you to know. Because I wanted you to know. Because I wanted you to know. [to Oliver] Because there's no one else I can say this to but you.
Oliver: Are you saying what I think you're saying?
[Elio nods]
Oliver: Don't go anywhere. Stay right here.
Elio: You know I'm not going anywhere.
Mr. Perlman: Have I spoken out of turn? Then I'll say one more thing. It'll clear the air. I may have come close, but I never had what you two have. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business. Just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once, and before you know it your heart's worn out; and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now, there's sorrow, pain. Don't kill it and with it the joy you've felt.
Elio: Does Mom know?
[long pause]
Mr. Perlman: I don't think she does.
Mr. Perlman: You're too old not to accept people for who they are. What's wrong with them? What's wrong with them? You call them Sonny and Cher behind their backs...
Elio: That's what mom calls them.
Mr. Perlman: ... then accept gifts from them.
Elio: That's what mom calls them!
Mr. Perlman: The only person that reflects badly on is you. Is it because they're gay or because they're ridiculous?
Oliver: Can I kiss you?
Elio: Yes, please.
Mr. Perlman: You two had a nice friendship.
Elio: Yeah...
Mr. Perlman: You're too smart not to know how rare, how special what you two had was.
Elio: Oliver was Oliver.
Mr. Perlman: Parce-que c'etait lui, parce-que c'etait moi.
Elio: Oliver may be very intelligent but...
Mr. Perlman: Oh no, no, no. He was more than intelligent. What you two had, had everything and nothing to do with intelligence. He was good. You were both lucky to have found each other, because you too are good.
Elio: I think he was better than me. I think he was better than me.
Mr. Perlman: I'm sure he'd say the same thing about you. It flatters you both.
Elio: I miss you.
Oliver: I miss you too, very much. I have some news.
Elio: News? Oh, you're getting married, I suppose.
Oliver: I might be getting married next spring, yeah.
Elio: You never said anything.
Oliver: Been off and on for two years.
Elio: That's wonderful news.
Oliver: Do you mind?
Elio: They know about us.
Oliver: I figured.
Elio: How?
Oliver: From the way your dad spoke to me. He made me feel like I was a part of the family, almost like a son-in-law. You're so lucky. My father would have carted me off to a correctional facility.
Elio: Elio. Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio, Elio...
[long pause over the phone followed by a sigh]
Oliver: Oliver. I remember everything.

Cast

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