When we talk about Luca Guadagnino‘s “Call Me By Your Name,” we don’t talk about James Ivory enough. Ivory won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay this past Academy Awards. Considering his years in the industry and his impressive filmography, it was an overdue victory for the filmmaker. Ivory’s credit, however, goes beyond the writing for ‘Call Me.’ Much of the film has a basis in the lessons learned from the work of Ivory and filmmakers like him. Guadagnino has created a truly unique experience by paying attention to the details of films that came before.
READ MORE: The 2018 Cannes Film Festival: The 20 Most Anticipated Movies
Honestly, you could sit through a class on the films that inspired Guadagnino when it comes to ‘Call Me.’ That’s the exact premise Nerdwriter1 takes when discussing the movies that influenced one of 2017’s best. “Call Me By Your Name” is the third film in Guadagnino’s desire trilogy. The first and second of the trilogy being “I Am Love” and “A Bigger Splash.”
Guadagnino’s style is consistent. Warm hues bathe the frame of each film, and the focus is on the subtleties of human desire. Guadagnino draws from the same subdued nature of films like “A Room With A View.” Other auteurs of the French New Wave movement and contemporaries to James Ivory are also given mention. But it is Ivory’s films that really draw a sincerity of comparison. Ivory and his partner Ismail Merchant have been a directing/producing team for 44 book-to-film adaptations. Truly, their collaborative efforts have influenced countless filmmakers. But Guadagnino has learned from their films what works for his own style of storytelling.
“A Room With A View” is just one of the influential films that breathe with life. Characters are surrounded by the freedom that comes with nature. Just like Elio and Oliver, so much of the space around and between them is imbued with that freedom. There is never a moment where we are waiting for Elio and Oliver to fight for their love against the systems and obstructions in their way. There’s a light beauty to Guadagnino’s direction and Ivory’s words that tip the scale, giving the film the right amount of weight.
