While the news that Luca Guadagnino would be shooting his “Suspiria” remake this fall grabbed headlines, less reported was the revelation that the director was going to sneak in another picture first. “I am doing a movie from the novel by André Aciman called ‘Call Me By Your Name,’ ” he told us earlier this month about the project he would be shooting imminently, and while the production seems to be flying under the radar, some details are now emerging about the picture.
Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Timothée Chalamet are starring the movie, co-written by legendary filmmaker James Ivory (“Howard’s End,” “The Remains Of The Day,” “A Room With A View“), that finds the “A Bigger Splash” director returning to Italy to tell an ’80s-set story about the romance that blooms between two young men over a sultry summer. Here’s the official synopsis:
Mid 1980’s. North of Italy not far from the Garda Lake. The sensitive and cultivated 17-year-old Elio, an only child of the American-Italian Perlman family, is facing another lazy summer at his parents’ villa when Oliver arrives. Oliver is an academic who comes to help Elio’s father, an eminent professor and specialist in Greek culture, with his work. The visitor will be their guest for the next six weeks during the summer. A charming 24-year-old American scholar, Oliver is breezy, spontaneous, handsome, and he’s the kind of person who charms everyone he meets. The meeting of these two young men sets in motion the danger of an unbridled adolescent passion in the setting of the beautiful and languid Italian countryside.
Intriguing stuff, made all the more so knowing that cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“Arabian Nights,” “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives“) is lensing the picture. Cameras are now rolling on “Call Me By Your Name,” and it’s probably safe to say it’s one to keep an eye out for on the festival circuit next year. [The Film Stage]
