The hues and tones of Luca Guadagnino‘s “Call Me By Your Name” are immeasurably rapturous. Each frame consists of blues, yellows, greens, all playing their part to purport a seductive atmosphere. Gaudiagnino’s air of desire goes further than the colors on screen. Every detail has been thread together for Gaudagnino’s final installment of his thematic desire trilogy. In this stunning film, memory, desire, and seduction are purely encapsulated in through the story of a summer romance. The subtleties used have a seductive effect on audiences; we fall right into the pool of this quiet love affair.
In a video essay, I Am That Roby breaks down how this atmosphere of seduction by first noting the cinematography of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. “Call Me By Your Name” is dreamlike; otherworldly. When the film opens and tells us we are, “somewhere in Northern Italy,” it feels like we’ve fallen out of our conscious world and into a dreamscape. Even the score and music has a softness to it, as we follow Elio and Oliver riding their bikes to their first kiss. The tone of the music mimics the velvet colors of yellows, blues, and greens surrounding them.
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The video essay notes, as well, that Guadagnino’s style concerning the film was to have audiences see something that had the appearance of a memory. The lines are not harsh, and the colors are not bold. There is a subdued beauty to the look and sound of “Call Me By Your Name.” In the film’s final moments, the soft, bright colors are gone, leaving us with dark blues, grays; darkness. The film in its entirety appears as only a memory. We are left focusing on Elio and the man on the other side of the phone; we’ve woken up from the dream. We know this, as soon as Oliver whispers, “I remember everything.”