Timothée Chalamet's West End Debut in '4,000 Miles' Canceled To Fantastic Man, the director called any complaints about “not literally showing sex” a “narrow way of looking at the movie.” While “Call Me By Your Name” was criticized for the way it panned to a tree during a sex scene between Elio and Oliver, Guadagnino has maintained that showcasing their lovemaking would have been an “unkind intrusion” to the characters. Guadagnino added, “It’s not a romantic movie or a vanilla version of gay love, and to read the movie in that way is a bit silly. The honesty of Elio (Chalamet) is crushed by the dishonesty of Oliver (Hammer), and when Elio cries, he cries over the fact he’s being stabbed to death by Oliver’s lies, which happens to us every day in relationships.” “People think it’s very romantic, but I think it’s tragic.
“The movie is very tragic,” Guadagnino told Fantastic Man. Director Luca Guadagnino argues that the Oscar-winning period piece starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer as star-crossed lovers is more tragedy than romance. Don’t call “ Call Me By Your Name” a romance film.