This Call Me By Your Name edit gives it the happy ending you really wanted
Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet. (Getty)
Call Me By Your Name fans, you can stop moping in the corner now.
The acclaimed gay film, which is nominated for several Oscars this year, introduced audiences to the endearing romance between Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) – before shattering their collective hearts into a million pieces at the end of the film when they separate and grow apart.
Tragic endings in queer cinema are nothing new – from Moonlight to Blue is the Warmest Colour to Brokeback Mountain, nearly all the great gay romances conclude with the lead characters living (or dying) unhappily ever after.
It might be more artistic and awards-friendly to make your characters miserable – but really, as in life, sometimes we just want things to work out.
And that’s exactly what YouTube cinema fan spaceyume has delivered.
The channel posted a clever Call Me By Your Name edit this month, which blends footage from the film with other clips to give audiences the happy ending they want.
Call Me By Your Name
In the revised ending, Oliver is shown proposing to Elio – with the pair opting to stay together against the odds.
The clip then flashes forward to 60 years later, showing the two characters had grown old together, never spending a day apart.
The narrator says: “Good day or bad, whether we agree or disagree, we never miss lunch or dinner together.
“He was, and would for ever remain, my brother, my friend, my husband, my lover, myself. We have always known we had found the stars, you and I, and this is given once only.”
The edit utilises footage of Hammer from Dustin Lance Black film ‘J. Edgar’, as well as narration from the Call Me By Your Name audiobook, to make the ending convincing.
Fans were happy to see the clip that their hearts had wanted – with no long scene of Chalamet crying in front of a fireplace in sight.
One wrote: “Hope there is no sequel for this beautiful perfect film, because it will never be as good as this. For me Elio and Oliver will Always be together.”
Another added: “I’m happy now. I’ve been so heartbroken for the past four days after watching the film, and thinking about this warmed my heart again.”
Fans who wish for Elio and Oliver to be reunited may not have to settle for YouTube edits for long, however.
Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino has hinted that work for an official sequel is underway that will bring the characters back together in some way.
The first film was set in 1983 – shortly before the AIDS crisis began – with some critics complaining that it failed to reflect the frank reality of gay life in the 1980s.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, director Luca Guadagnino appeared to confirm plans for a follow-up, before suggesting that it would finally tackle the issue.
Guadagnino said: “I think [the AIDS crisis] going to be a very relevant part of the story.
“I think Elio will be a cinephile, and I’d like him to be in a movie theater watching Paul Vecchiali’s Once More [a 1988 film about the AIDS crisis].
“That could be the first scene [in the sequel].”
He added: “The novel has 40 pages at the end that goes through the next 20 years of the lives of Elio and Oliver, so there is some sort of indication through the intention of author Andre Aciman that the story can continue.
“In my opinion, ‘Call Me’ can be the first chapter of the chronicles of the life of these people that we met in this movie, and if the first one is a story of coming of age and becoming a young man, maybe the next chapter will be, what is the position of the young man in the world, what does he want — and what is left a few years later of such an emotional punch that made him who he is?”
Call Me By Your Name is up for four Oscars this year, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Timothée Chalamet, Best Origianl Song, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
