How come nobody's talking about the poop scene that got cut from 'Call Me By Your Name'?!
The 2018 Oscars are over and Call Me By Your Name walked away from the ceremony winning one of the Academy's coveted Oscar statuettes for Best Adapted Screenplay.
It's an award well earned — a lot HAS been expertly adapted from André Aciman's beautiful book to make up the moving film that is Call Me By Your Name. The forbidden romance of Elio and Oliver (superbly acted by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer) is of course there, as is the hazy ambiance of an Italian summer, Oliver's arrogant-yet-charming "later," and of course, the peach scene (which infamously cut short the explicit plotting as outlined in the book).
But there is one part of the book that didn't make the movie, and nobody's talking about it: The poop scene.
In the book, Elio and Oliver go to Rome, embarking on one last adventure together before Oliver has to leave to go back to America. Detailing their journey, André Aciman writes:
We had never taken a shower together. We had never even been in the same bathroom together. "Don't flush," I'd said, "I want to look." What I saw brought out strains of compassion for him, for his body, for his life, which suddenly seemed so frail and vulnerable. "Our bodies won't have secrets now," I said as I took my turn and sat down. He hopped into the bathtub and was just about to turn on the shower. "I want you to see mine, I said. He did more. He stepped out, kissed me on the mouth, and, pressing and massaging my tummy with the flat of his palm, watched the whole thing happen.
Uuumm... WUT?!
It's a testament to André Aciman's beautiful writing that this moment reads like poetry — intimate, contemplative, tender. But let's be clear about what's happening here: Elio sees Oliver taking a poop, says I want to look at it, sneaks a peek, then Elio himself poops on top of Oliver's poop, while Oliver kisses him AND LITERALLY MASSAGES THE POOP OUT OF ELIO'S BODY.
And yet the only thing people want to talk about is the peach scene?! Y'all! Get ya minds right!
The only thing people want to talk about is the peach scene?!
When the poop scene does come up, it's often as an aside. Jezebel mentioned it very briefly in a post about the art of compromise and Vulture gives the poop scene a shout out in an explainer about the peach scene.
If you have watched this movie, (which I have twice, and read the book, because I'm obsessed with everything about Call Me By Your Name) you know that this scene is nowhere to be found.
Instead, we see an abbreviated version of the Rome trip where Elio and Oliver drunkenly dance in front of a cathedral, Elio gets sick in a water fountain, and they spend one last night together making out under the Italian stars.
Of course, that's not the only part of the book that gets cut from the movie adaptation of Call Me By Your Name. In the book, there's a whole character, 10-year-old Vimini, who becomes Oliver's friend but dies of leukemia, and then there is the saga of the poet that Elio meets, who delivers a parable about San Clemente.
But the fact that the poop scene is left out of our conversation is kinda shitty. (Whatever, this pun is great. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Don't @ me.)
Who knows. There's always Call Me By Your Name 2.
