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I know, I know, it's another Call Me By Your Name post - listen if you don't want to read these don't read these, save them for after the movie comes out in 15 days. They'll still be here, as long as we are all still here I suppose. Anyway yesterday I was talking not talking about one of my favorite scenes in the film, which a portion of was released via a new clip, wherein Elio and Oliver first address the big pink elephant in the room. I very much wanted to know more about how this scene was shot - it's all one take and it moves all over the square with the actors traveling away and towards each other - and today the AFI Fest released a chat with Timothée Chalamet (CMYBN is the centerpiece screening at their fest tomorrow) wherein he answers that very question! So I share. Ignore if you like!
AFI: One of the film’s centerpieces involves Elio and Oliver maneuvering around a statue, almost like a nervous dance, at once communicating and not communicating their feelings. Talk about blocking this scene.TC: We got to set, and there was this great monument in the middle of the square, and Luca gave us the direction to play the scene going around the monument, and then we blocked it out and there wasn’t enough track there that day to do the whole take in one shot, going up and down the side of the street. Luca went to the line producer and said we need more track, and Luca said we have to get this track and we’ll worry about the money later. We had about an hour to do it; we had two or three takes. Luca was very specific as related to that scene about this confession of love — he didn’t want to play in the close-up and see actors’ emotion. It only served some sort of human truth that a confession of love is often the moment we choose to be the most coy.
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