MovieChat Forums > Call Me by Your Name (2018) Discussion > The sick fetishization of the subject ma...

The sick fetishization of the subject matter


I will preface by saying I have zero interest in watching this film ever since I saw the trailer with its awful digital cinematography where the skins are yellow and the sky is green and the zero sex appeal of both stars, however I have noticed the absolute fetishizing of the subject matter by everyone involved, and how cutesy and lovey dovey the stars act in public as a way to pander to the sick fans of this movie and it is very troubling. These people are not gay, they don't suffer the consequences of being gay so their fetishizing of it is just another form of black face or minstrel showing, it's quite pathetic.

reply

I honestly don’t see how you could be offended by it. It looks like it has immense potential. And the actors have no sex appeal?

reply

potential for what? and no they don't.

reply

Potential to be a damn great film.

reply

Highly doubt that.

reply

LetThemEatCake, the film presently has a 98% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 95 score on Metacritic, so it's being well-received by critics. There's Oscar buzz for the film, its screenplay, and Chalamet, Hammer, and Stuhlbarg for acting.

Furthermore, even though CMBYN only opened in four theaters in the US over the weekend (two in LA, two in NY), it made an estimated $404K at 4 theaters, $101K per, the highest per-theater-average of the year.

reply

LOL, this smacks of homophobia and jealousy!

Also, "Call Me by Your Name" was shot on 35MM FILM, dumbass.

reply

and it was still color graded digitally which makes it look like shit, dumbass.

reply

Can you really tell from a preview how a film’s cinematography looks and informs the viewers’ experience? I just saw the film today and was about as floored by the cinematography as I was by the acting. I think it deserves an Oscar nomination.

Could you level with us and tell us if you just really don’t like digital?

reply

I do not like digital, not because I am opposed to it but because it looks bad. I can tell from the trailers and previews that the skies look green on that film, the skins don't have texture. I don't think that is good cinematography.

reply

Having just seen it today, I can assure you that the skies are blue throughout the film.

As far as the skin, I didn't notice it not having texture; I think I just thought Armie Hammer's face looked perfect like always.

Regarding the cinematography though, I do believe it was the filmmaker's intention to present an idyllic world, which, if that was the intention, was brilliantly achieved. Have you seen Far From Heaven? If so, what do you think of its cinematography? The film, I think due to the screenplay (and the actors execution of it) and the cinematography, is actually kind of cheesy. Obviously though, Todd Hayne's vision was to present our revisionist, idealized version of the 50's and hold this version up against truths we wanted to deny existed; in the case of this film, one of these truths is that there were gay people and unhappy marriages during the beloved 1950's.

I find at least a vague similarity in CMBYN; they're in this idyllic, utopian place living very charmed lives, but everything isn't as easy and simple as it would seem.

reply

I saw it many years ago and was impressed but if I saw it today I probably wouldn't since it was done after 2000 and was probably digitally color corrected, which to me looks fake and terrible.

reply

Far From Heaven is the rare exception that proves the rule...

Not only was shot on 35mm film, but the cinematographer (Ed Lochman) and director decided to try to only use techniques that were available in Douglas Sirk's days... Even the desolves were done optically rather than digitally! Oldschool 😎

It's not a good example of current filmmaking though, as it really is exceptional... 😉 ... It's rare for movies these days to have a film look

But back to the original topic after Moonlight, Carol (interesting cinematography by the way), etc... Isn't Call Me By Your Name just this year's entry in the not-allowed-to-love-because-gay Oscar prestige movie? There is one exact same movie every year it seems...

I haven't seen it, but in terms of hype and marketing it seems similar to those, but without the victim-as-hero marketing narrative of Moonlight...

Is it just that Call Me By Your Name works really well, or is it relying on having a worthy/topical subject matter?

reply

not sure why it is so popular. Films today are still being shot on film the thing is that the film is scanned and processed digitally and it just looks really bad.

reply

Why is it a problem that the actors are not gay in real life? Actors are expected to act like they are the characters they portray. It is irrelevant.
I like to look at this movie as love story mainly and only secondly look at the homosexual aspect.
I saw tree movie today and it is exceptional. I highly recommend it.

reply

From now on I demand all movies portraying assassins have to be played by real life assassins as well.

reply

I did not say they had to be gay in real life.

reply

I haven't seen this movie, but I've read about it and I think what the OP is saying is the characters are having fun 'playing gay' because it's naughty and forbidden. Then at the end of the movie they go back to their regular, heterosexual lives so they can be happy and 'normal,' never having dealt with any homophobia or hatred.

If this is the case, I too don't like movies like that.

reply

yes that is my point, but it's even worse because they have continued with the pathetic gay charade in press interviews and events, it's really embarrassing.

reply

There isn't much left of the film once they separate but sure Oliver gets engaged to a woman so from his side you could argue he was just fooling around and then went back to his hetero life.

It doesn't come off that way from young Elliot though but rather as the starting point of his life as a gay man.

reply

my issue is mainly with the actors and their gay pandering.

reply

Not sure if I agree entirely with what you're saying...but I do see fetishization in this movie. In gay films, why is it always a white man that comes in and swoops the main character off their feet. I'm so sick of seeing this happen in nearly every movie. The lack of principle love interest diversity in this film (and most other gay movies)is all too reflective of the gay societies preference for white men.

reply

ZZZZZZzzzzzz...

reply

[deleted]

I don't care much about the sexual orientation of the actors, but I agree that there's fetishization of the subject matter.

reply

LetThemEatCake, You just don't understand!

reply

Hmm . . . I can see the future. A straight celerity will innocently dress up as their favorite singer or actor, who happens to be gay, for Halloween. In dressing and acting like them as realistically as possible for the evening, they will be branded as insensitive and homophobic, as currently happens if any white person who truly admires a black actor or athlete and tries to so dress up for Halloween.

reply