Call Me By Your Name: How to Bungle Perspective
Call Me By Your Name is a rather silly title for a movie or even a silly thing to say. Why would anyone want their romantic interest to call them by their name? That is a stranger impulse than asking your romantic interest to call you by the name of their pet goldfish or snail. Of course, such impulse would make complete sense to people who are so mentally unstable that they don't even have a coherent sense of self; they can't distinguish between their own hands and others' or between their own names and others'. In other words, people who hopelessly lack a coherent point of view. And it so turns out that this flick is rather aptly titled. Because Luca Guadagnino has the hardest time distinguishing the points of view of the two protagonists. Point of view is everything. Richard Linklater always knows whose point of view each shot is. And so as the audience, we fully experience what both Jesse and Celine are feeling in each scene in the Before trilogy. Conversely, if ...