Call Me by Your Name Ending Explained: Is the Ending of the Film Similar to the Novel?

By Sirjan Chetri Last updated Dec 4, 2022

Here, we’ll give you a thorough explanation of the Call Me By Your Name ending. James Ivory wrote the film’s screenplay and served as a co-producer.

It is based on the same-titled book by André Aciman, published in 2007. The film completes Guadagnino’s “Desire” trilogy, which began with I Am Love (2009) and ended with A Bigger Splash (2012). (2015).

The 1983 northern Italian drama Call Me by Your Name centres on the romantic relationship between 17-year-old Elio Perlman and Oliver, a 24-year-old doctoral student who works as Samuel’s (Michael Stuhlbarg), an archaeological professor, assistant.

The film’s cast includes Victoire Du Bois, Esther Garrel, and Amira Casar. We will discuss Conversation Me By Your Name’s much-discussed epilogue in this article. The Call Me By Your Name ending is shown below.

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Explained Call Me By Your Name Ending

In the film’s climactic scene, Elio can be seen struggling with his emotions in front of a roaring fire after learning, through a heartbreaking phone call, that Oliver will be getting married soon.

The story of the film takes place over a period of about six months, with the majority of the running time focused on the summer Elio and Oliver spend together and the final ten minutes or so beginning in the winter following his visit.

The movie leaves a lot more open-ended questions than the novel does, despite having a tragic ending. Elio’s parents, who appear to be aware of their son and daughter’s connection as Oliver’s visit comes to an end, recommend that they travel to Bergamo together before Oliver departs for the United States.

They spend three wonderful days together. Elio, who is upset about Oliver leaving, calls his mother and begs her to pick him up from the train station and take him home.

Marzia expresses her desire to maintain their friendship as well as her empathy for Elio’s feelings. Elio’s father acknowledges that he was aware of his relationship with Oliver and that he had a similar relationship when he was younger after noticing Elio’s intense sadness. Instead of abandoning Elio too soon, he encourages him to grow and learn from his loss.

At the conclusion of the film Call Me By Your Name, Oliver returns to the country and finally proposes to a woman there. Timothée Chalamet’s three-minute sobbing session into the camera while Elio was inconsolable was a gift to the world.

Is the Ending of the Film Similar to the Novel?

The novel adaptation of Call Me By Your Name states that after Oliver leaves at the end of the summer, Elio and Oliver never rekindle their passion, which ends 20 years after they first met.

Following his marriage and the births of his two sons, Elio had minimal contact with Oliver over the subsequent years. After their first summer together, he sees him again the following winter when Oliver pays him a visit.

During this visit, he is distant and evasive, but ultimately reveals his intention to marry to Elio. He spends a brief amount of time in Elio’s bed and gives him a peck on the lips, but nothing else transpires, and by the next morning, things are “officially cool.”

The “blank years” that follow are a lengthy period in which Elio and Oliver do not communicate with one another. Oliver visits Elio’s parents, and they have a phone conversation approximately nine to ten years after first meeting.

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Oliver does not respond when Elio attempts to revive an old joke by calling him by his actual name. Twenty years after their brief relationship ends, Oliver travels back to Italy to visit the old house.

Elio has shown Oliver the locations where his father’s ashes were scattered after his passing. When they decide to travel to San Giacomo, Elio inquires of Oliver whether he remembers the route. Oliver says he does in response. Thus the book concludes.