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In this episode we dive into the indie drama “Call Me By Your Name” and discuss:

the camerawork of “Call Me By Your Name”;
audio;
the story;
and much more!

“Concentrate on what you want to say to yourself and your friends. Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don’t care who’s listening.” – Allen Ginsberg

Film Analysis (spoilers):

This is an interesting scene, because it maintains a very loose feel as we dolly around, tracking with the characters, so to me it feels like the beginning of the scene has the 180º line established to our right, then as Elio moves to camera-right breaking the 180º line as we turn to track him, and anytime the camera breaks this line it tends to signal a shift in perspective or that we’re entering new territory in the story. You’ll also notice that Oliver moves to the right in an attempt to re-establish the line, a tug-of-war between the characters. Of course, I could be reading too much into the 180º line here and maybe the only real line is the dolly track itself, but I think it’s interesting to consider.

I’m largely working from available clips on YouTube, but looking at this scene does tell us a cool visual story. We watch Oliver dancing for a while from a low-angle perspective that allows us to break him out from the crowd, then he moves into the crowd and Elio looks to join where it looks like he is possibly intercepted by Marzia, he then immediately escapes for a brief moment to go dance on his own, occupying the same space and framing as Oliver. The composition connects the two, that they’re in the same space, and perhaps on a character-level it feels like Elio is just wanting to be inhabit the same space as Oliver.

Notes & References:
The cinematographer discusses shooting on one 35mm lens and lighting conditions