I listened to Sufjan Stevens'”Visions of Gideon” a while before watching the film.
ONE SENTENCE SYNOPSIS: In the Italy, during the summer of 1983, 17-year-old Alio meets, falls in love with, and is heartbroken by Oliver, a 24-year-old college student.
After watching this film, I wanted to visit Italy so badly, and just thinking about this film makes me dream of Italy!
What can I say, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me by Your Name is stunning on so many levels.
The story of this film is relatively simple, but it is the intricacy and intimacy of the emotions that Alio experiences throughout this film that make this story so special. For the majority of the film, the audience sees and spends time with Alio which provides many opportunities to understand and even feel a part of Alio’s exploration into his sexuality. The movie does document the summer that Alio falls in love with and is heartbroken by Oliver.
To me, the film has all of the essential elements of a love story, but it isn’t actually about a love story. It is about Alio’s personal development and coming to terms with himself.
Alio and Oliver’s relationship is unique. They are both on different playing levels in their relationship. Thus, the experiences that they are looking for do not always line up. For Alio, it is so clear to see that he yearns to be loved physically and emotionally by Oliver. Although Oliver cares about Alio in his own way, he also sees Alio as a person that he can be entertained by and can toy with.
There are some absolutely beautiful moments in this film as well as humorous and sad moments. The location and scenery in this luscious green and blue Italian setting are magnificent. To match the colorful and dreamy Italian landscape, are the wonderful collection of bright shorts which are worn on nearly every occasion and lying around everywhere! One of my favorite moments of the film is of different shots of brightly colored shorts drying in the bathtub and lying on the bathroom floor.
Overall, I was enthralled by this movie. From the music, acting, location, and story this film took me to another place geographically and personally.
RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
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THE FILM ALIEN 