CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
以你的名字呼喚我
I WAS REALLY happy that Call Me by Your Name won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar this year. I don’t think that a screenplay has to be filled with twists and turns to be good.
Call Me by Your Name doesn’t really have traditional movie plot turns. This story of two people gradually falling in love over the course of a summer in Italy unfolds naturally. To me, that’s really difficult to write. If you throw in a plot turn like a car crash, a death or someone getting amnesia, it would’ve ruined the film. But this is the problem with Hong Kong cinema today; people in the industry have something against plots being simple and not special enough. It’s so easy to film two people kissing and having sex, but how do you film two people in that early phase of mutual exploration before the relationship blooms? It’s amazing that the script conveyed that.
My favourite scene is the one where Elio and Oliver lie on the grass. It’s so genuine and natural. Their mutual affection feels real. There’s nothing convoluted or artificial about it.
Too many Asian filmmakers think they have to do corny, maudlin stuff to make a film dramatic. That’s completely wrong. Even two people sitting there in silence can be dramatic. That’s what a good script and a good director can do. 《以你的名字呼喚我》榮獲本年度奧斯卡金像獎最佳改編劇本，令我感到很高興，因為我從來都不認為一個劇本必須借助曲折離奇的情節，或是套用所有劇本教材內的公式，才算是好劇本。
《以你的名字呼喚我》沒有我們行內人所謂的「硬橋」（一個明顯的橋段），而是以非常自然的手法來呈現兩個人在意大利度假時墜入愛河的故事。對我而言，這種劇本反而很難寫得好。但要是硬生生加入一些橋段，例如無緣無故發生一場車禍、有人死亡，或是某個角色突然失憶，反而將電影糟蹋了，這是很可惜的。可是現在香港電影圈卻經常抱怨電影的情節過分簡單，橋段不夠特別。利用接吻和床上戲來拍愛情片實在很容易，但如何才能表達出兩人初相識時彼此試探那分曖昧的感情？《以你的名字呼喚我》卻做到了這一點，完美表達了兩人互相試探、表現曖昧這種最難處理的內心戲。這部電影的劇本捕捉到愛情那種虛無縹緲的感覺，而這正是本片最令我欣賞的地方。
我最喜歡片中Elio和 Oliver躺在草地上的那場戲。整段戲流露出真摯自然的感情，兩人互相撫摸，感覺非常真實，一點也不矯揉造作，編劇可以想到這樣的情節和動作，十分難得。
有人說本片的故事平平無奇，要靠兩位英俊的主角作賣點，我不敢苟同。現在很多電影人，尤其是亞洲的電影人都認為，電影的劇情要極盡誇張，才算精采，這其實大錯特錯。在優秀的編劇和導演的處理下，即使兩個角色沉默對坐，也同樣能夠營造出劇力萬鈞的場面。