"Visions of Gideon" by Sufjan Stevens, Thursday, February 7, 2024 (updated repost)

Director Luca Guadagnino approached   Sufjan Stevens to provide narration to Guadagnino's 2018 film Call Me By Your Name and Stevens refused. Guadagnino reached out to Stevens again, but this time asking him only to provide music for the movie. Stevens accepted and provided three songs to the critically acclaimed film. He reworked a track from his 2010 album Age of Adz, "Futile Desires," and wrote two new tracks, "Mystery of Love" and "Visions of Gideon." The songs were used throughout the film along with classical, jazz, and early '80s music as a backdrop to the setting of Northern Italy in the early '80s. 

FLEW UP TO YOUR ARMS. I often think of Elaine Benes stuck in the theater with her boss J. Peterman, forced to watch The English Patient, a movie that received so much praise in the '90s. Seinfeld's Elaine can't stand the long, pretentious movie, despite everyone in her circle loving it. And yet twenty-one years later, a few of us in the LGBTQ+ community were scratching our heads about the movie that was supposed to be for us. Despite all of its accolades, some of us had a hard time getting into Call Me By Your Name. The film is visually stunning. The music is breathtaking. The acting was good. It provided LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream media. The story was sexy--a teenage boy's fantasy. I personally have no problem with the film--my problem is with the baroque source material. The 2007 novel of the same name droned on and on about classical music, Italian art, literature, and food. The story reads as if Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus were a novel, showing Venus and the others at their best at all times. 

Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus

I HAVE KISSED YOU FOR THE LAST TIME. I might give the book another shot someday, but I felt that the film captured the characters and setting in a far better way than the book. The film techniques bring to life dormant emotions as Guadagnino tells the story of the romance between a 17-year-old Italian boy, Elio (Timothée Chalamet), and an American grad-school student, Oliver (Armie Hammer). While the book's sequel, Find Me, has been scheduled to be filmed, the allegations against star Armie Hammer may have put the project on indefinite hiatus. While the love between a late teenager and a late twenty-something has been subject to criticism, the film portrays a realistic end for a time when same-sex love was taboo. The closing scene features Sufjan Stevens' "Visions of Gideon." A whispered final phone call between Elio and Oliver marking the end of their relationship, the crackling of the fireplace, the table being set, the snow in the background, and Timothée Chalamet fighting back tears before being called to dinner will have anyone who has ever experienced heartbreak feeling something. 

Read “Visions of Gideon” by Sufjan Stevens on Genius.