Hello Sweetie

(Why does this sound like a BuzzFeed title?)

I watched Call Me By Your Name with a friend from the US, and she brought to my attention that I was always picking up on a lot of small details that non-Italian viewers like her inevitably miss out on.

CMBYN is not your usual postcard-of-Italy movie. I’ve seen tons of foreign movies or shows set in Italy that look more like a Hollywood-made advertisement for my country rather than a true portrayal of it (remember Eat, Pray, Love?). CMBYN instead felt real. It felt like everyday reality in northern Italy, despite being set more than 30 years ago. The director and the production being Italian is probably the reason behind it.

So here’s a list of small details in CMBYN that you can only pick up if you’re familiar with Italy and Italian culture (with Wikipedia links if you want more information):

Damen and Laurent’s union spread quickly across the two nations. “This is a unification of an empire!” Their wedding becomes a renowned and widely celebrated holiday. The story of Damianos and Laurent spread rapidly across the kingdoms. Lovers start gifting their lovers golden cuffs in hopes their marriage will be as blessed as the Kings. 

When they were staying at Chastillon (the place the Regent loves to go to hunt, remember?), this happened [CW: Spoilers for the Captive Prince trilogy, talk of sexual/child abuse]:

[Long description of the bedchamber Damen is lead to (and he’s supposed to sleep in Laurent’s room/tent), ending in:]  

“There was no sign of the blue and gold starburst.  The draperies were blood red.  

Damen said, ‘These are the Regent’s chambers.’  There was something uneasily transgressive about the idea of sleeping in the place meant for Laurent’s uncle.  ‘The Prince stays here often?’

The castellan mistook him to meant the keep, not the rooms.  ‘Not often.  He and his uncle came here a great deal together, in the year or two after Marlas.  As he grew older, the Prince lost his taste for the runs here.  He now comes only rarely to Chastillon.’”  (Prince’s Gambit, p. 13-14)

I don’t know how I didn’t notice this the first time I read the book but the second time, I did, and so many alarm bells were going off in my head because this place and this room, specifically (evidence below), are clearly places that Laurent was abused.  (Possibly a place where a large percentage of his abuse took place, because abusers like to isolate their victims, which might be why there were frequent trips to Chastillon.)  The timing (”in the year or two after Marlas”) and the fact that it stopped as Laurent got older and the fact that Laurent rarely goes there anymore–  The evidence is overwhelming and I can’t believe I missed it the first time around.  (I’m saying this as someone who knew from the moment Laurent said “Ancel is too old to interest my uncle” that Laurent must have been abused by the Regent.)

I didn’t remember exactly how the beginning of Prince’s Gambit went down and so I was freaking out like, “Laurent, you can’t sleep in there, isn’t there another room–didn’t Auguste have a room there? Go find Auguste’s room, don’t do this to yourself, honey–” (because I legit talk out loud to book characters like that, I kid you not).  

AND THEN eventually Laurent comes to join Damen in the room and they talk strategy over a map for the first time and: 

“Laurent hadn’t seemed to show any inclination to sleep.  He had never once glanced at the bed.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)

and 

“About an hour before dawn, Laurent had risen.  ‘We’re done for tonight,’ he had said briefly.  And then, to Damen’s surprise, he had left to begin preparations for the morning.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)

and

“The next time he had seen Laurent had been in the courtyard, changed and armoured and coolly ready to ride.  If Laurent had slept at all, he hadn’t done so in the Regent’s bed.” (Prince’s Gambit, p. 21)

So at least he didn’t have to sleep in the place where he was abused.  But still.  The pain of the realization of what must have happened at Chastillon…… [internal screaming]

And I read this thinking Laurent leaving the room was just him avoiding sleeping near Damen–which is the obvious answer, the overt answer, the answer CS Pacat placed there to throw Damen us off the scent–but we know Laurent doesn’t fear Damen because of the thing with the knife early in the scene, when Laurent proved Damen couldn’t hurt him.  

That the point.

If their relationship was romanticized, at this point, you would at least feel like you are supposed to want to see them together. But you don’t. You don’t, because the book is from Damen’s point of view, and Damen doesn’t have Stockholm syndrom. He hates Laurent because of what Laurent is doing to him. There is no romantization. There is no romance until way later, after the whole situation and power dynamic dratistically changed.

Captive Prince series, written by C. S. Pacat

“The Ice Prince is dead,” Nikandros said, his voice stunned. 

Damen snorted, looking over at his friend. “Is this being followed by ‘long live the Ice King’?”

Nikandros gestured towards Laurent. “Damianos. You can’t be serious. Look at that! I’ll never be able to be afraid of him again!”

Damen followed his friend’s hand to where Laurent was sitting on the ground, covered in no fewer than six kittens. One had its tiny claws hooked into the fabric of his shirt and was hanging there limply. Another was balanced on his shoulder and was licking his chin. Still another was butting its head into his hand and mewing pitifully, demanding his attention. If Laurent noticed the presence of his audience, he didn’t care. 

Damen smirked. “I’m sure he’ll find a way to remind you of his ruthless side.”

“Nope. Never going to happen. I am never going to be able to look at him and see anything other than kittens. No one is scary after being covered in kittens. No one.”

“People can be scary with cats,” Laurent said, his tone making it clear he’d been aware of them since the beginning. “They won’t be kittens forever.”

Damen raised an eyebrow. “We are not owning six cats.”