In partnership with Warner Bros. UK
Challengers, the latest film from visionary director Luca Guadagnino, centres on an intense love triangle between tennis coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) and rival racket-thrashers Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). It’s sweaty, energetic and packed with scenes that will make you gasp. Ahead of its release in cinemas on April 26, here’s a reminder of all the times the Italian maestro really made our jaws hit the floor.
1. The finger-biting scene in ‘Bones and All’
Guadagnino’s 2022 adaptation of Camille DeAngelis’ popular cannibal novel offers a deft blend of body horror, teen romance and road movie. The director sets out his stall in a meaty pre-title sequence that really made audiences gasp. During a seemingly typical teenage sleepover, nervous Maren (Taylor Russell) seems ready to make a pass at her classmate, but proceeds to chomp off her finger instead. It’s a gory harbinger of the flesh-eating chaos to come.
2. The climactic kiss in ‘We Are Who We Are’
Co-created and directed by Guadagnino, this excellent 2020 TV series is a mood-piece set on a fictional US military base in Italy. Against this ambiguous backdrop – quintessentially American, but also kind of not – teens Fraser (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Caitlin (Jordan Kristine Seamón) form a friendship that contains echoes of something more. When they finally lock lips in the final episode, it’s both surprising and supremely satisfying.
3. The ‘Call Me By Your Name’ peach scene
Released in 2017, Guadagnino’s stunning adaptation of André Aciman’s coming-of-age novel tracks a summer romance between 17-year-old Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and 24-year-old Oliver (Armie Hammer). As temperatures soar in northern Italy, so does Elio’s desire, leading to a fever pitch where he masturbates using a ripe peach. When Oliver puts his finger in the fruit afterwards, it’s a sensual and subversive moment that cements their bond. Film fans were absolutely gagged, and the peach emoji was never the same again.
4. The dance torture sequence in ‘Suspiria’
Released in 2018, Guadagnino’s supernatural horror movie follows an aspiring dancer (Dakota Johnson) who enrols in a ballet school run by witches. In its most wince-inducing scene, Johnson’s Susie performs a voodoo-fuelled dance routine that inflicts pain and mutilation on fellow dancer Olga (Elena Fokina). By the end of Olga’s literally back-breaking parallel dance, her mangled body is so hard to look at that you’ll be covering your eyes with your popcorn.
5. The final shot of ‘Call Me By Your Name’
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Guadagnino’s Oscar-winning film unfolds over a long, lazy summer but ends with a coda set that winter. Elio takes a call from Oliver, who informs him that he’s engaged to be married. Heartbroken, Elio walks into another room and sits by a fire that burns with the warm glow of August: a time when Oliver was still his. Guadagnino sustains a close-up on Chalamet’s face for three-and-a-half minutes; it’s a bold and beautiful denouement to his devastating movie, and a standout moment in Chalamet’s Oscar-nominated performance.
6. Maren’s family reunion in ‘Bones and All’
Maren’s quest to understand why she’s an “eater” leads her back to her mother, Janelle (Chloë Sevigny), who walked out when she was small. Maren learns from her grandmother that Janelle has checked herself into a psychiatric hospital, but doesn’t know until she gets there that her mum has self-cannibalised her own hands. It’s a horrifying image given extra power by a haunting performance from Sevigny, who described her scenes in the film as “visceral”.
7. Elio’s heart-to-heart with his father in ‘Call Me by Your Name’
Guadagnino can also make us gasp by flawlessly capturing moments of human tenderness. A case in point: the incredibly poignant scene in which Elio’s father (Michael Stuhlbarg) reveals that he knows his son has deep feelings for Oliver. “Right now, there’s sorrow, pain,” he tells Elio in a soothing tone. “Don’t kill it and with it the joy you’ve felt.” No, you have something in your eye.
8. The crunchy final twist in ‘Bones and All’
Maren and her lover Lee (Chalamet), who is also an “eater”, appear to have found peace. They’re living a relatively normal life in a genteel university town until the sudden arrival of Sully (Mark Rylance), a creepy eater who’s obsessed with Maren. When Sully attacks her at knifepoint, she and Lee manage to fend him off, but Lee is fatally wounded in the struggle. He leaves Maren with a unique deathbed request: for her to eat his body “bones and all”. It’s a grotesque but heartbreaking parting shot. You can expect more brilliantly cinematic thrills and spills when Guadagnino’s new film Challengers opens on April 26.
‘Challengers’ is in UK cinemas from April 26