Call Me By Your Name’s director explains the film’s lack of nudity

Call Me By Your Name is a beautiful love story about two men falling for each other over one perfect summer in rural Italy. It’s among the finest films of the year. It’s also surprisingly abashed when it comes to its love scenes, particularly as it’s directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, who’s known for his erotically charged clinches and unapologetic approach to nudity in films like I Am Love and A Bigger Splash.

One person who’s been particularly miffed by Call Me By Your Name’s lack of flesh on display is the film’s screenwriter, James Ivory. “Certainly in my screenplay there was all sorts of nudity,” said the director of A Room with a View and The Remains of the Day in an interview with Variety.

Based on André Aciman’s acclaimed novel of the same name, Call Me By Your Name follows the love affair between precocious 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet), an American-Italian who lives with his parents in rural Italy, and Oliver (Armie Hammer), a handsome American student who has come to stay with the family during the summer to assist Elio’s professor father (Michael Stuhlbarg).

Ivory suggests that the lack of male nudity is down to Chalamet and Hammer’s reluctance. “According to Luca, both actors had it in their contract that there would be no frontal nudity,” says Ivory, “and there isn’t, which I think is kind of a pity. Again, it’s just this American attitude. Nobody seems to care that much, or be shocked, about a totally naked woman. It’s the men. This is something that must be so deeply cultural that one should ask: ‘Why?’”

Not only is there a lack of nudity in Call Be By Your Name, there’s also seems to be a sense of circumspection when it comes to the sex scenes themselves. When the two men first make love, for instance, Guadagnino’s camera discreetly turns away from the bed to the bedroom’s window, only to return once the act is completed. While there’s nothing wrong with a bit of discretion, it seems that Call Me By Your Name is only prudish when it comes to the sex scenes between members of the same gender. In the moments of passion between Elio and his on-off girlfriend Marzia (Esther Garrel), Guadagnino’s camera is far less squeamish.

We put Ivory’s complaints to Guadagnino at London Film Festival’s Call Me By Your Name press conference. The Italian director seems to have a different take on the film’s lack of nudity than his American screenwriter. “James and I worked on the script in the bridge between 2014 and '15 while I was shooting A Bigger Splash,” recalls Guadagnino, “and Raph was naked a lot on that set. James came on set and saw this spectacle and the beauty of Ralph jumping like a centaur, and I think he was really inspired by that.”

Initially it was hoped Ivory would co-direct Call Me By Your Name with Guadagnino, but that wasn’t to be. “I’m a cinephile and I wanted to watch a movie by James Ivory, let alone be the producer of a film by James Ivory – to be beside Mr Merchant would have been a great honour for me,” says Guadagnino.

When the baton passed back to Guadagnino to direct solo, Ivory’s script was considerably reworked by Guadagnino and the film’s editor, Walter Fasano. “The script is an organism that is alive until it ends in the eyes of who watches the film,” he says, “so the script changed a lot in the shooting and editing process.”

Interestingly, Guadagnino contradicts Ivory’s account that the scenes of nudity were reworked due to the actors’ reluctance. The director claims it was his own preference. “I already had so much fulfillment with Ralph that I didn’t need to be fulfilled by Armie or Timmy,” he says, “but they were very eager to be challenging Ralph in that regard.” Such is the nature of LFF's press conferences, we were not permitted a follow-up question.

Perhaps in the scheme of things Guadagnino’s sudden aversion to nudity is no big deal. After all, Call Me By Your Name is still a rhapsodic love story and sexy as all hell despite the camera never travelling below the actors' navels.

On the other hand, with other recent wonderful movies like God’s Own Country and Beach Rats showing no reluctance in depicting the realities of gay sex, Call Me By Your Name, despite all its sunny pleasures, is left looking rather backwards in its attitudes, especially as it lingers longer on its protagonist's erotic encounter with a peach than with the man with whom he’s fallen head over heels in love.

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Call Me By Your Name is released 27 Oct