It’s a warm and windy early autumn day in
Toronto, and we are hanging out in the West
End above the Humber River near where I live.
We’re here because it’s something beautiful
to look at as I talk, without being distracting.
I'm Craig, I’m a film buff, have been for
years, the type who would go to the theatre
every week to see a film, then binge on 40-or-so
of them over ten days when the Toronto International
Film Festival, or TIFF, hits town in September…
and then do it again when Hot Docs kicks off
every April. Starting at the beginning of
the 2010s though, my film-viewing declined
as I became totally wrapped up in a new job.
In 2017, however, I began paying more attention
again as some pretty stellar fare was drawing
me back to the cinema more regularly. Standouts
like Get Out, Brimstone & Glory, Dunkirk,
Blade Runner 2049, The Florida Project, Lady
Bird, and more re-ignited my passion for film…
and while I did miss TIFF that year, a friend
told me about a film he and his girlfriend
had seen at it that “YOU HAVE TO SEE!!!”
Why?
It was another few months before I got a chance
to catch Call Me By Your Name when it started
its regular run, but I was blown away by it.
My friends had only told me a little bit,
and I hadn’t done more than watch the trailer:
all I knew was that a teenager was about to
have his life rocked by a grad student who
was helping out his dad, a university professor,
during a summer in Italy, and that the film
had great reviews. So while I went in with
high expectations, the combination of the
gorgeous setting and cinematography, sly writing,
the transportive soundtrack, and a totally
captivating cast easily sucked me in. Sure,
the film was slowly paced, but it revelled
in everything about a blissed-out sultry Italian
summer holiday… and then those last 20 minutes?
WOW!
If you know why I’m wowing, you’ve seen
the film. If you don’t, I hope you will
see it… and for both the group that gets
the wow and wants to talk more about it, and
the group that’s still to see the film,
I’m making videos. I’m making them because
earlier in the year I was talking to a friend
who considers himself a cinephile, but who
has missed quite a bit of the recent stuff,
and when I mentioned Call Me By Your Name,
he said “Huh?” When he asked why he should
see it, and I started to explain, I began
to realize just how much I have learned about
this film over the last year or so, and that
I had a lot to say about it. So, somehow,
it all got formalized, and now I’m making
videos, like I said, both for those who have
seen the film and for those who have not. I’ve
been putting these together over the course
of the summer, and soon you’ll find a number
of them on my channel, each one covering different
aspects of the film, and the book it’s based
on. It’s all become timely now, as André
Aciman, the author of the original novel,
is publishing a sequel to Call Me By Your
Name at the end of October, 2019, and doubtless
some film fans will be wondering what the
new book, Find Me, means for some of their
favourite characters.
There are already a pile of terrific film
and book reviews on YouTube—I’m pretty
late to that game—so I’m doing videos
on how the film came together, what's significant
about the story, the approach to creating
the soundtrack, the musical pieces themselves,
a few little controversies that swirl around
the film in some circles, the accolades and
awards the film received, how the book and
film differ and, as I mentioned, what the
new novel may mean for a film sequel… maybe
more. You will find two more videos published
already: one for people who haven’t seen
the film yet titled Call Me By Your Name:
Worth A Watch?, and one for people who are
fans and want to know how it all came to be,
titled Call Me By Your Name: How Did It Come
Together?. More videos are coming soon. You’ll
find links below!
