Call Me by Your Name (2017)

Michael Stuhlbarg: Mr. Perlman

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Quotes 

• Mr. Perlman : We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty and have less to offer each time we start with someone new, but to make yourself feel nothing so as not to feel anything - what a waste.

• Mr. Perlman : Have I spoken out of turn? Then I'll say one more thing. It'll clear the air. I may have come close, but I never had what you two have. Something always held me back or stood in the way. How you live your life is your business. Just remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once, and before you know it your heart's worn out; and, as for your body, there comes a point when no one looks at it, much less wants to come near it. Right now, there's sorrow, pain. Don't kill it and with it the joy you've felt.

  Elio : Does Mom know?

  [long pause] 

  Mr. Perlman : I don't think she does.

• Mr. Perlman : When you least expect it, nature has cunning ways of finding our weakest spot.

• Mr. Perlman : You two had a nice friendship.

  Elio : Yeah...

  Mr. Perlman : You're too smart not to know how rare, how special what you two had was.

  Elio : Oliver was Oliver.

  Mr. Perlman : Parce-que c'etait lui, parce-que c'etait moi.

  Elio : Oliver may be very intelligent but...

  Mr. Perlman : Oh no, no, no. He was more than intelligent. What you two had, had everything and nothing to do with intelligence. He was good. You were both lucky to have found each other, because you too are good.

  Elio : I think he was better than me. I think he was better than me.

  Mr. Perlman : I'm sure he'd say the same thing about you. It flatters you both.

• Annella Perlman : [Reading from The Heptaméron]  A handsome young knight is madly in love with a princess, and she too is in love with him, though she seems not to be entirely aware of it. Despite the friendship that blossoms between them, or perhaps because of that very friendship, the young knight finds himself so humbled and speechless that he is totally unable to bring up the subject of his love - until one day he asks the princess point-blank: Is it better to speak or to die?

  Elio : I'll never have the courage to ask a question like that.

  Mr. Perlman : I doubt that. Hey, Elly-Belly. You do know that you can always talk to us?

• Mr. Perlman : You're too old not to accept people for who they are. What's wrong with them? What's wrong with them? You call them Sonny and Cher behind their backs...

  Elio : That's what mom calls them.

  Mr. Perlman : ... then accept gifts from them.

  Elio : That's what mom calls them!

  Mr. Perlman : The only person that reflects badly on is you. Is it because they're gay or because they're ridiculous?

• Mr. Perlman : Right now you may not want to feel anything. Maybe you never wanted to feel anything. And maybe it's not to me you'll want to speak about these things, but, uh, feel something you obviously did.

• Mr. Perlman : In my place, most parents would hope the whole thing goes away, pray their sons land on their feet, but... I am not such a parent.

• Mr. Perlman : Look, you had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you.

• Elio : Just watch, this is how he'll say goodbye to us when the time comes, with his... "Later."

  Annella Perlman : Meanwhile we'll have to put up with him for six long weeks, won't we, darling?

  Mr. Perlman : I think he's shy. You'll grow to like him.

  Elio : What if I grow to hate him?

• Mr. Perlman : There are four known sets, after the Praxiteles originals. This fellow's at number three. The Emperor Hadrian had a pair, dug up at Tivoli, but one of the more philistine of the Farnese Popes melted them down and had them recast as a particularly voluptuous Venus.

• Oliver : Is there a bank in town? I'd love to start an account while I'm here.

  [accidentally breaks his soft boiled egg] 

  Mafalda : [in Italian]  Let me do it.

  Oliver : [in English]  Sorry.

  [Mafalda cracks open another egg for Oliver] 

  Mr. Perlman : It happens to the best of us.

  Oliver : Yeah, well...

  Mr. Perlman : [chuckling]  None of our residents has ever had a local bank account.

  Oliver : Really?

  Mr. Perlman : Mm.

  Elio : Should I take him to Montodine?

  Mr. Perlman : I think they're closed for summer vacation. You try, uh... Crema.

  Elio : Crema?