Call Me by Your Name Page #48

snuff it out. Don’t be brutal with

it. We rip out so much of ourselves

to be cured of things faster, that

we go bankrupt by the age of thirty

and have less to offer each time we

start with someone new. But to make

yourself feel nothing so as not to

feel anything -what a waste!

ELIO is dumbstruck as he tries to take all this in.

PERLMAN (CONT’D)

Have I spoken out of turn?

ELIO shakes his head.

PERLMAN (CONT’D)

Then let me say one more thing. It

will clear the air. I may have come

close, but I never had what you two

had. Something always held me back

or stood in the way. How you live

your life is your business.

Remember, our hearts and our bodies

are given to us only once. And

before you know it, your heart is

worn out, and, as for your body,

there comes a point when no one

looks at it, much less wants tocome near it. Right now there’s

sorrow. Pain. Don’t kill it and

with it the joy you’ve felt.

PERLMAN takes a breath.

PERLMAN (CONT’D)

We may never speak about thisagain. But I hope you’ll never hold

it against me that we did. I will

have been a terrible father if, one

day, you’d want to speak to me and

felt that the door was shut, or not

sufficiently open.

ELIO:

Does mother know?

Revision91.

PERLMAN:

I don’t think she does.

(but his voice means “Even

if she did, I am sure her

attitude would be no

different than mine”)

142 EXT. CAMPAGNA -PERLMAN VILLA -WINTER DAY 142

The Perlman villa in Winter. A foggy day. Six months later,

ELIO walks in the countryside that surrounds the villa.

NARRATORE:

They had become each other that

summer. And long after every

forked road in life had done its

work this would always be true.

Their lives scarcely touched in

those weeks together, but they had

crossed to the other side, where

time stops and heaven reaches down

to earth and gives us that ration

of what is from birth divinelyours. They could look the other way

and speak of everything but, they

would always know. They had found

the stars, Elio and Oliver. Andthis is given once only.

He crosses the gate and comes back in the garden. He enters

the house.

143 INT. KITCHEN/STAIRCASE/BOCCHIRALE -PERLMAN VILLA -AFTERN1O4O3N *

ELIO walks through the kitchen and up the stairs. The

telephone rings and ELIO runs down the stairs to answer it,

an expression of excited expectancy on his face. It is

OLIVER, calling from New York.

OLIVER (V.O.)

Elio? Are you there?

ELIO:

I’m here, I’m here. How are you?

OLIVER (V.O.)

Fine. How are your parents?

ELIO:

Fine, too... I miss you.

OLIVER (V.O.)

I miss you too. Very much. (long

beat) I have some news.

92.

ELIO:

What news? You’re getting married,

I suppose.

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