Call me by Monet

The raging Mediterranean, a tree with heavy fruit branches, a

green garden where a stone pool is nestled... The sets of the film Call

Me By Your Name are breathtaking. They could almost be considered

as works of art: that’s what Mika Labrague, 22-year-old artist, founder

of the Instagram account Call Me By Monet thinks. Call Me by Monet

places scenes from the film in the works of the famous French painter,

making romanticism its primary theme.

While Luca Guadagnino’s film is already considered by some to

be a masterpiece, the young Filipino-born artist has been trying to

convince the latest skeptics. Replacing the backgrounds of major Call

Me by Your Name scenes with Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings,

Mika Labrague plunges art into art and emphasizes the aesthetics of

the Oscar-winning feature film.

“THEY TREATED LOVE AS LOVE AND

NOTHING ELSE”

When asked during an interview for NSS magazine why she

chose Call Me by Your Name? What is special compared to other films

that talk about young love - crazy but at the same time carefree? Mika

Labrague responded : “I chose Call Me By Your Name because I was swept

away by the story. When I finished reading the novel, I had this urge to read it again and

again. And every time I read it, I felt so much and so deeply with Elio and

Oliver’s love for each other. I would feel the bliss and the pain of first love all over again. Then when I got to watch the film I was knocked on my feet again for seeing the story right in front of my eyes. It is just so beautiful. I guess what made it special is the way they were so open about their feelings for each other regardless of their gender. Unlike any other films about young love of homosexuals, this film/story never made it an issue. They treated love as love and nothing else. For me, it meant that everyone deserves to love and be loved regardless of who you are.”

The artist Claude Monet, with his quick and colorful brushstrokes, is

connected to Elio and Oliver’s story. Since the book had the chapter called

“Monet’s Berm” which was the place where the painter used to paint and

Elio’s favourite place. Mika Labrague has always imagined it to be

surrounded by “lush green trees that can be seen in some of Monet’s

paintings”. Then when she saw the film, she realized how similar the

setting of the film from the paintings so that’s when she started

experimenting with the film stills and paintings.

Using painting like : in Alice Hoschede au Jardin by Claude Monet

(1881), ‘in Luncheon Under the Canopy’ (1883) or ’in Arriving at Montegeron’

(1876) and my personal favourite ‘in Branch of Seine near Giverny’

(1897)

ANDRÉ ACIMAN AND THE ITALIAN COUNTRYSIDE

An ode to the sumptuous Italian setting that welcomes the romance of Elio and

Oliver, but also a return to symbolic sources. Indeed, the author of the book André

Aciman himself found inspiration by putting his eyes on a painting of Monet, representing a villa surrounded by nature on the Italian coast.

André Aciman on the resemblance with Monet’s painting “It was Monet’s painting

villa, the vision I had of the house, I loved it and wanted people to live in it, even

though I still had no idea what was going on ‘unwind’.

An artistic reminder that we find even in the film, where the two young men exchange

their first kiss on a hill at the top of which the famous French painter would have

signed several of his paintings. Find some of the photos below on the Call Me by Monet

account.

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Written by Clémence Serisé