THE SUCCESS OF CALL ME BY YOUR NAME REMINDS US MUCH LOSERS WE – ITALIANS – ARE.

“Call me by your name” did it! Luca Guadagnino’s movie, adapted from André Aciman’s novel of the same name, won an Oscar for best nonoriginal screen-play after being nominated for 4 Oscars in 2018 (best movie, best song and best actor). In Italy we were already celebrating this victory, many started saying: “the last time was 19 years ago with Benigni’s movie, we did it again!” and so on.

The movie is AMERICAN and we shouldn’t even call Guadagnino the “Italian director” like everyone does. I would rather call him “the Italian who became director abroad” because to obtain these results and to become famous he had to go away from Italy.

After the poor response, he received from one of his first movies “Melissa P.” no producer wanted to deal with him and his last movies (eg. “I am Love” and “A bigger splash”) were completely ignored during Venice Film Festival.

“My movies are not successful when they come out in Italy. (…) There I don’t exist as a director” L. Guadagnino (Arianna Fino’s interview for the newspaper “La Repubblica”)

“Call me by your name” doesn’t belong to the Italians, because Italy didn’t give Guadagnino the funding to shoot the movie.

This didn’t happen by chance.

“Call me by your name” presents an atypical response to homosexuality, is anti-rhetorical and showcases a gay love story.

It’s a movie that doesn’t support the status quo of the Italian cinema. About this topic Guadagnino said that many funded the movie because there’s the absence of cliché, for example, there isn’t an antagonist that tries to obstruct the two lovers. Viceversa we find supportive feedback from all the characters.

And it doesn’t surprise me that this attitude in Italy didn’t attract anyone.

“Call me by your name” is a movie that embodies what does not exist and also may never exist in my country: the perception of innate gravity and pathos of every love’s type and that being said also the beauty of love between two people of the same sex.

Homosexuality in Italy is seen as something to unwillingly tolerate, almost a tabù or a concession only because there’s a group of people that has the “same lifestyle”.

I don’t even understand why this movie is labeled as a homosexual-themed movie when it’s only a love story that doesn’t have anything to do with gender rights or categories.

“Call me by your name” shows the exile of homosexuality from Italy where if you’re gay you have the “freedom” to live your life based on heterosexual norms.

In my opinion, this movie has the power to move people, it makes you think about your first love no matter which is your sexual orientation, is a special movie that handles the homosexual side of the story with grace.

And this is the reason why we (Italians) can’t claim the success of this movie, we can’t claim to own the compassion, affinity, genuine and authenticity that are present in the movie because in our country when it comes to homosexual relationships, those words are missing from our vocabulary.

So, if Italians really want to claim the movie and take credit for Guadagnino’s victory, then feel free to call us by our name: HYPOCRITES.