Deliberately Queer Journal
Abstract
Tension in the reception of the American-Italian film Call Me by Your Name (dir. Guadagnino, 2017)—as a beautiful film that implicitly condones a problematic narrative—is shaped in part by its compilation soundtrack. Already lauded as a timeless masterpiece in cinematography, sensuality, and music, the film also receives steadfast criticism regarding its portrayal of homosexuality and alleged condoning of interage desire between Elio, a 17-year-old Italian-French boy, and Oliver, a 24-year-old American man. In this paper, I analyze five musical episodes from the film, including The Psychedelic Furs’ “Love My Way,” Ravel’s Une barque sur l’océan, and Sufjan Stevens’s “Mystery of Love” and “Visions of Gideon.” In each scene, I find that an aesthetic prioritization, an appeal to emotional universality, and/or a false portrayal of Elio as the primary initiator of intimacy all function to dismiss the problematic narrative and Oliver’s irresponsibility. In analyzing each work’s lyrics and/or narrative placement, I find that these instances enable for some viewers a harmful misunderstanding of modern queerness as pedophilic and indoctrinatory. Acknowledging recent homo/transphobic fearmongering in the guise of “child safety,” I remove the film’s rose-tinted glasses and reframe these scenes as tangible inspirations for real-life problems. Finally, I incite the reparative work of musicologist William Cheng to better interpret the film’s dilemma of the “pretty and problematic.” The film’s soundtrack simultaneously beautifies queerness and succumbs to weaponization against queerness; I argue that the film and soundtrack alike can be appreciated for their achievements and guide the work ahead of us.
Recommended Citation
Foskett, Brandon L.
(2025)
"Pretty and Problematic: The Use of Music in Guadagnino's 'Call Me by Your Name',"
Deliberately Queer Journal: Vol. 1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dqj/vol1/iss1/6
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Figure 9, Chronology of Soundtrack Events
Table 1.docx (13 kB)
Table 1: The Psychedelic Furs, "Love My Way" - lyrics
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Table 2: "Mystery of Love" scene - visual & aural events
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Table 3: Sufjan Stevens, "Mystery of Love" - lyrics
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Table 4: Sufjan Stevens, "Visions of Gideon" - lyrics
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Captions for all Figures and Tables
Article (without media).docx (86 kB)
Alternative form of article submission, without Figures and Tables
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