CMBYN is a sensory experience

toooldtousetumbler:

“For me, watching the film was almost a tactile experience – I could physically feel every blade of grass, droplet of sweat, or brush of bed sheets on the characters. I could taste the apricot juice and salt water. The emphasis on this sensory experience, as well as the use of a 35mm lens and numerous long takes to mimic the perspective of a human observer, made it seem like we were not only really in Crema, but we had lived there our entire lives. Our lived experience in this utopia was one of incredible, intense aesthetic beauty, coupled with our own sense memory.

Along with that was the emotional layer of relating to Elio and Oliver. We’re living through their relationship in real time while calling back any experience we’ve had with grief or pain. Our past experiences intertwine with their current experience to make it difficult to distinguish their emotional journeys from our own, or either from reality.

The sensory and emotional worlds of the story and of reality collide. They’re portrayed with such beauty in the story that it carries over into our own lives and memories. We ache to go back and relive in Elio and Oliver’s world – but the thing is, we’ve never lived in it to begin with. So we start to look at our own life and try to make sense of it, try to map out and comprehend our past experiences through that lens. We start to notice the beauty or lack of in our present situation, because it was so palpable in the film that any difference in our real lives is stark.”