Call him by his name — it’s one to remember
Swoon.
The centre of TIFF gravity moved decidedly to Yorkville Thursday, when the stars of the film Call Me By Your Name shuffled to STK following their premiere. Directed by sensory maximalist Luca Guadagnino, and easily one of the best movies ever made about the intoxication of love (and summer love, in particular), it spurred a party high on a very particular filmfest drug: the opiate that is Oscar conjecture!
Mark down this name: Timothée Chalemet. Now, do it again.
Not only does it sound, possibly, like a new bespoke fragrance, but it belongs to the fella in the movie who’s on the precipice of some serious stardom. Chalemet. Chalemet. Chalemet. Like “fly away.”
Known for his Season 2 arc on TV’s Homeland, and in Toronto now with smaller roles in two other ensembles — Lady Bird and Hostiles — it’s his role in CMBYN ( it’s so good it’s an acronym!) that’s being called one of the most subtle performances by a younger actor in a long time.
He’s all that, plus more, playing a man-boy beanpole in this movie that has everything: the lure of Italy, the yin-yang of hope and shame, the very excavation that is discovering one’s own capacity to feel.
The 21-year-old New Yorker was still clearly riding high from its Toronto premiere — where it received a standing O — when I made his introduction at the celebration, as an acrobatic team of waiters came us at with plates of tuna-this and filet-that.
“The response has been amazing,” he said, filling me in on a key scene in the Sony Classics movie that is just one long, mesmerizing take of his face in which Chalemet moves through the entire spice rack of emotions.
He told me there wasn’t any particular direction in the script itself, but he did use one secret weapon: he had the stunning Sufjan Stevens song “Mystery of Love” (which centres the movie) in his ear to get him into that “place.”
Oh, and pssst: did you know that Chalemet was the boyhood beau of Madonna’s daughter, Lourdes? I didn’t really quite know how to work that into conversation . . . but I thought about it! Really, though: he was swell. And with his mom at the party! And in terms of the game of fame, this was akin possibly to running into Lupita Nyong’o in 2013 — before the awards-march of 12 Years a Slave!
(Next up for Chalemet: he begins shooting the new Woody Allen movie next week — with Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez!) Making the rounds at STK — which is hosting a slew of castparties this week — was, of course, Chalemet’s co-star Armie Hammer, as well. Looking like a cool drink of water, as ever — this night, in a double-breasted suede number from Ralph Lauren — he’s clearly enjoying a prestige project like this after a career that began with him being primarily cast in things as “‘Jock #4’ or ‘Abercrombie Boy,’ ” as he once noted.
I buttonholed the director of the film, too. Known best for his two films I Am Love and A Bigger Splash — both Tilda Swinton vehicles — Guadagnino told me he was thrilled, in particular, to nab the legendary James Ivory to write the screenplay for his latest.
“I loved Maurice,” he told me, referring to both the E.M. Forster novel, and the Hugh Grant-starring ’80s adaptation of it, which was made by Ivory, and with which Call Me By Your Name clearly shares some creative DNA.
So, how many Oscars are in the movie’s future? Guadagnino looked for wood to knock on when I brought it up. Meanwhile Anyone who was on the rooftop of the all-new Broadview Hotel on Friday at, say, 2 a.m. has bragging rights that may be very difficult to top at this festival: it’s around that time the after-party for the documentary Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami broke out into a full-on dancefest, with the pop icon herself busting out moves to the likes of Barry White and Donna Summer! The carpe diem late-night bash was hosted by the designers of Greta Constantine, together with local social duo Michael Cooper and Krystal Koo.
Oh, and by the way: at one point in the night, when asked about her leathered-up fingers, Grace was heard to say, “A lady always wears gloves.” Noted. I see, I hear Hurricane Irma has claimed at least one party at TIFF. An event set for Soho House on Saturday eve here — one hosted by the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau together with Film Florida and the Miami Film Festival — was just expressly cancelled, with the organizers of the do sending out an email that read, in part, “the destructive Hurricane Irma is predicted to make a direct hit on Miami tomorrow night during the exact hours of when our party would be taking place.” Party Watch Could the inevitable joint photo-op featuring Justin Trudeau and Angelina Jolie be happening sooner than we think? Both are on the panel schedule for Tina Brown’s Women in the World summit, coinciding with TIFF on Monday. It all goes down at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Shinan Govani’s transportation for the Toronto International Film Festival provided by Lincoln Canada and its 2017 Continental.