Call Me by Your Name Page #9

OLIVER thinks about this.

OLIVER:

Look, we can’t talk about such

things, we really can’t.

He slings his bag with its papers around him and the two are

off down hill.

58 EXT. COUNTRY ROAD/SPRINGS -FONTANILI GAVERINE -DAY 58

Now that ELIO has laid his cards on the table, the sceneryand the fine weather buoy his spirits. They ride together on

the empty country road that at this time of day is all for

them. The sun pounds exposed patches along the way, exposing

the undergrowth. Thirsty they stop by a factory. They look

for water and in the factory Oliver is surprised to see a

Mussolini picture hanging on a wall. They laugh.

Later, at another crossroad.

ELIO:

Follow me. I’ll show you a spot

visitors have never seen. That is,

if you have time.

ELIO turns off into a little path towards some spring water

ponds surrounded by willow trees. ELIO leans his bike against

one of them, followed by OLIVER.

ELIO (CONT’D)

This is my spot. All mine. I come

here to read. I can’t begin to tell

you the number of books I’ve read

here.

Oliver puts his hands in the water.

OLIVER:

It's freezing cold!

40.

ELIO:

The spring is in the mountains, the

Alpi Orobie. The water comes

straight down from there.

Oliver freshens up his face with this water.

OLIVER:

Do you like being alone?

ELIO:

No one likes being alone. But I’ve

learned how to live with it.

OLIVER:

Are you always so wise? So very

wise?

ELIO:

I’m not wise at all. I told you, I

know nothing. I know books, and I

know how to string words together it

doesn’t mean I know how to speak

about the things -about the things

that matter most to me.

OLIVER:

But you’re doing it now -in a way.

ELIO:

Yes, in a way -that’s how I always

say things:
in a way.

Staring out at the view so as not to look at him, ELIO sits

down on the grass. OLIVER crouches a few yards away from ELIO

on the tips of his toes, as if at any moment he might spring

to his feet and go back to the bicycles.

ELIO (CONT’D)

I come here to escape the known

world.

OLIVER:

I like the way you say things. Why

are you always putting yourself

down?

ELIO:

(shrugging)

I don’t know. So you won’t, Isuppose.

OLIVER:

Are you so scared of what others

think? Or what I think?

ELIO shakes his head. OLIVER waits for ELIO to say something.

He stares at him.

41.

In the silence of the moment, ELIO stares back. It is the

first time ELIO has dared to stare back at OLIVER openly.

Before this moment he has always cast a glance, then looked

away from Oliver’s steely gaze. It is as if, finally, ELIO is

saying to Oliver: This is who I am, this is who you are, this

is what I want. He stares back with an I-dare-you-to-kiss-me

gaze.

OLIVER (CONT’D)

You’re making things very difficult

for me.

ELIO doesn’t back down. Neither does OLIVER.

ELIO:

Why am I making things difficult?

OLIVER:

Because it would be very wrong.

ELIO:

Would?

OLIVER sits down on the grass, then lies down on his back,

his arms under his head, staring at the sky.

OLIVER:

Yes, would. I’m not going to

pretend this hasn’t crossed my

mind.

ELIO:

I’d be the last to know.

OLIVER:

Well, it has. There! What did you

think was going on?

ELIO:

Going on? Nothing...nothing.

After a long silence:

OLIVER:

I see. You’ve got it wrong, myfriend -if it makes you feel

better, I have to hold back. It’s

time you learned to do that too.

Each leaning on one arm, both stare out at the view.

OLIVER (CONT’D)

You’re the luckiest kid in the

world.

42.

ELIO:

(in something of a mocking

tone)

You don’t know the half of it.

OLIVER thinks about this. Then ELIO blurts out:

ELIO (CONT’D)

So much of it is wrong.

OLIVER:

What? Your family?

ELIO:

That too.

OLIVER:

Us, you mean?

ELIO doesn’t reply. OLIVER moves up close to him. Very close.

He stares right in Elio’s face, as though he likes Elio’sface and wants to study it, linger on it.

OLIVER touches Elio’s lower lip with his finger, lets it

travel left and right, then right and left again. OLIVER

smiles at ELIO as he lies there, and that very smile fills

ELIO with a kind of apprehension about what will happen next.

What happens next is that OLIVER brings his lips to Elio’s

mouth in a warm I’ll-meet-you-halfway-but-no-further kiss, a

conciliatory kiss. ELIO’s return kiss is so famished he loses

himself in it.

OLIVER (CONT’D)

(afterwards)

Better now?

ELIO doesn’t answer. He kisses OLIVER again, lifting his

face, as if to discover more, know more. Even with theirfaces touching, their bodies are angles apart. ELIO lifts one

knee as if to face OLIVER.

OLIVER (CONT’D)

I think we should go.

ELIO:

Not yet.

OLIVER:

We can’t do this -I know myself.

So far we’ve behaved. We’ve been

good. Neither of us has done

anything to feel ashamed of. Let’s

keep it that way. I want to be

good.

43.

ELIO:

Don’t be. I don’t care. Who is to

know?

ELIO reaches for OLIVER in a quick, desperate move, lets his

hand rest on Oliver’s crotch. OLIVER doesn’t move. With total

composure, in a gesture that is both gentle and commanding,

he brings his own hand there, letting it rest on Elio’s for a

second. He twines his fingers into Elio’s, then lifts his

hand. A moment of silence.

ELIO (CONT’D)

(suddenly abashed by hisown action)

Did I offend you?

OLIVER:

Just don’t.

He gives Elio his hand and helps him stand up. He pulls up

his shirt to examine the scrape.

OLIVER (CONT’D)

I should make sure it doesn’t get

infected.

ELIO:

We can stop by the pharmacist on

the way back.

59 EXT. ROAD -DAY 59

They glide down the slope on their bikes, with wind in their

hair.

ELIO:

We’ll never speak again, you know..

OLIVER:

Don’t say that.

ELIO:

I just know it. We’ll chit-chat,

chit-chat, chit-chat. And the funny

thing is, I can live with that.

OLIVER:

You just rhymed.

60 EXT. GARDEN IN FRONT OF THE KITCHEN -PERLMAN VILLA -DAY 60

Lunch. A middle-aged ART HISTORIAN COUPLE have been invited

to lunch. The man is pompous, his wife no less so, dropping

Italian expressions constantly into her conversation. Both

are English. ELIO and OLIVER can hardly keep from laughing.

PERLMAN shoots his son a warning glance.

44.

Before dessert, as MAFALDA is clearing away the plates, and

as the others are pre-occupied with a conversation about

Antonello da Messina, ELIO feels a warm, bare foot casually

brush his. ELIO, thrilled, waits a few moments before

withdrawing his foot, so as not to give Oliver the impression

he is recoiling in panic.

ELIO’s foot, after a few seconds, begins to seek the other

out. His toe suddenly bumps Oliver’s foot, which had not

moved away.

Without warning, Oliver’s foot at once moves onto Elio’s.

Softly, gently, it begins a caressing motion, never holding

still, but rubbing the arch of Elio’s foot with the smooth

round ball of Oliver’s heel, holding Elio’s foot in place.

The caresses are sometimes tied to the lady art historian’s

more ludicrous comments in Italian, Oliver’s way ofcommenting on the pair. But it also is telling Elio that this

is strictly between the two of them, and is a return to the

intimacy of their secret kisses on the grass.

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