Episode 63: Luca Guadagnino On The Music Of 'Call Me By Your Name', 'A Bigger Splash', Sufjan Stevens, Ryuichi Sakamoto & More

If you like your movies lavish, dreamy and dripping in nostalgia, you could do a lot worse than turn to the work of Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Luca is a filmmaker with a sensitive touch - capable of making the very specific set of circumstances in the stories he tells seem personal and relevant to us all. Music, of course, has proved most useful in achieving this recurring tone - not least in A Bigger Splash, which starred Tilda Swinton as a world-fmaous rockstar and Ralph Feinnes as a larger-than-life record producer. His latest offering is Call Me By Your Name. Set in Italy, the film chronicles the relationship between 17-year-old Elio Perlman and his father's American student, Oliver, who spends a heady summer living with the family in 1983. Suffice to say Edith is not alone in loving it, with critics already bigging-up its chances come awards season. Luca tends not to use conventional composers in his work - though Sufjan Stevens has written two original cues for Call Me By Your Name. Instead, for the most part, he relies on source music. And given that the character of Elio is a pianist, Luca sprinkled the narrative with piano compositions by the likes of John Adams and Ryuichi Sakamoto. You'll also hear music from The Psychedelic Furs, Rolling Stones, Captain Beefheart and Goblin throughout the course of the conversation.