The Moment I Fell For... Timothée Chalamet

Every successive time that I see Call Me By Your Name the first tear seems to fall earlier and earlier in the narrative, but I finally seem to have settled on this shot at the 34 minute mark in the movie as my Initial Tear Incident - it's the Patient Zero of Blubbering. Why this moment? What is this moment? This is the morning after the big dance scene that we've all seen and giffed - Elio rides along with his Dad and Oliver to the ruins on Lake Garda where a statue's being brought up from the water.

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Yes I have been right there where the boys are walking; that probably has a little bit of something to do with why this moment gets me - I feel myself enveloped in its world, its embrace, by then. And if you haven't noticed I like that feeling.

But it's more than that. I think you can pinpoint Elio finally understanding his feelings towards Oliver during that dance scene and this here shot represents his first opportunity to look at Oliver without anybody looking at him while he looks - as I wrote extensively at The Film Experience the tangled web of who's watching who in CMBYN is a huge part of its narrative thrust. Well here Elio's free to look upon the boy he likes for the first time knowing that he likes him and that little smile Chalamet steals...


And sure enough as soon as Elio swings around to join his father and Oliver he puts his defensive sunglasses back on, lest his playful eyes give up the game.