The signs were looking good for the gay-themed movie Call Me By Your Name even before it premiered as Sundance, as Sony Classics bought worldwide distribution rights before the fest even started. The reviews coming out of Sundance suggest Sony had good reason to snap it up, as most have said it’s a great film, with the potential for crossover mainstream success.
The movie is based on Andre Aciman’s novel of the same name and stars Armie Hammer as a 24-year old American scholar spending the summer of 1983 in Northern Italy, where he attracts the attention of a 17-year-old Jewish-American boy, played by Timothee Chalamet. Michael Stuhlbarg rounds out the cast as the boy’s father.
Hammer, Chalamet, Stuhlbarg and director Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) caught up with THR at Sundance, and you can take a look at what they had to say about the movie below. Guadagnino also took the time to talk separately about a scene that#s already becoming quite buzzed about, involving an encounter between Hammer and Chalamet’s characters which involves a peach and the two getting down and dirty. It’s a beloved scene in the book and many wondered whether its frank depiction of someone making love to the fruit would make it to the screen. It does, and the director talks about what he was trying to get across.
No release date has been set yet, but expect to see it later this year.
Take a look at the video below to find out more.
Both of the characters are Jewish, both in the book and in the film, and both actors have Jewish heritage.
In fact, interestingly, the only major films to feature intrafaith, Jewish-Jewish romances, these days are also same-sex ones (see also the upcoming Disobedience with Rachel Weisz). Those and ones set in biblical times (Ben-Hur).