Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

"There is a moment just before a teenage crush bursts its dam and becomes a fully-fledged first love. It's a moment in which time is briefly suspended; it's that shiver of uncertainty before you dive over the edge of the waterfall into the kind of love you could drown in. It's this – the exquisite torture of not knowing if feelings are reciprocated followed by the helpless flood of emotions – that is captured so intensely and urgently in this gorgeous work of yearning. Director Luca Guadagnino has a gift for romance" - Wendy Ide, Guardian.

Every description of this film includes words like beautiful, gorgeous, passionate… and not just for the budding love between Elio and Oliver, but for the scenery, the photography, the acting, even the script.

The budding love affair in question is made doubly fragile by being between two young men, both of whom have not done this before. As the glorious, Northern Italian summer progresses, so do their tentative steps towards each other. The film "trembles with a sense of impermanence, gorgeously developed as the summer's shadows grow longer (cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom blesses the imagery with an atmosphere you can breathe) and the duo becomes more brazen with its affections" - Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out.

For those who remember Guadagnino's 2009 film 'I Am Love', none of this will be a surprise, especially as his influences include Bernardo Bertolucci (he has directed a biopic about him). As Brian Tallerico finishes on Roger Ebert.com, the film "is unforgettable on every level, the kind of film that has the power to move and inspire. It is art of the highest caliber". Looks good to us!