you guys, i finally got to see cmbyn on the big screen yesterday and it was so so good!!! ❤
convinced hubby to see it in the original version with subtitles (which was kind of funny everytime they translated the french/italian stuff into english too, so the screen would be full of subtitles ;P). the audience (mostly couples, old and young, gay and hetero, a lovely mix of people) was behaving well and stayed to the very end (told hubby i was going to throw rocks at anyone who dared to leave before elio was done crying ;).) i was excited for their reaction to the peach scene (as expected, they went from laughter to complete silence in a heartbeat when elio broke down) and mr. perlman’s speech (also dead silence with choked sobbing thrown in every now and then (mostly from me). hubby liked the film a lot,too, which i wasn’t sure he would as he’s usually into political thrillers and such but he said he esp. loved the slow pace of cmbyn and the scenery. in short: i had a good night. 😀
@professionalwhistler and I saw André Aciman speak at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, NY! For those wondering, Yes, I am legally deceased. Have some respect and mourn me. Here are some of my personal highlights:
-I did pluck up enough courage to ask him a question (but sadly did not get it on video)! It was something along the lines of:
In his speech about pain, Mr. Perlman tells Elio, “but to feel nothing so as to not feel anything, what a waste!” and then 15 years on, when Oliver asks Elio to come back to meet his family, Elio responds that he can’t go and not “feel anything”, and if he must go, he’d rather, “feel nothing”. And my heart caught in my throat because now I don’t know if Elio ever took his father’s advice, if he suffered deeply because of it, if he simply forgot in a moment of weakness or what. What were we meant to understand?
Aciman laughed and joked that, yes! Elio forgot that one thing his father told him not to forget! But then he answered (paraphrased):
In that moment we are meant to recall Mr. Perlman’s words in order to understand, more than anything, that Elio is certainly not over Oliver. And Oliver, by inevitable extension, is not over Elio either. And even though Oliver is willing to reintroduce Elio to his life, Elio is not ready to change the memory of Oliver from then because he’s still in love with him the way he remembers him. (I really hope I remembered that right because the only thing I’m sure of was that I was nodding like an idiot).
-When Aciman was done, he asked me, “Does that answer your question?”
-I picked the mic back up and just said, “Ouch.” :’)
Below are the links to 4 other the meaty questions from the Q & A!
