Yes, this mixture between Mediterranean summer and the 80s combined with the slowness and depth of only having books, paper (to write on) and music. No internet, no smartphones, nothing but ones own senses. Reading, listening, seeing, touching, tasting.
I am usually not personally moved by gay male narratives in movies. I can enjoy watching them, I can see quality (or not), but it's usually always from a "viewers point", from an interested distance and I don't gravitate towards it.
Not so in this movie. The sensuality between Elio and Oliver reverberated with me, the casual touching, the embraces, the way they talk to and with each other, the drunken silliness, the caring. I couldn't get enough of it.
And I think I can put that down to the dynamic between Elio and Oliver. When I asked about it being related to ttwd, I actually didn't mean explicit spanking, I meant the power dynamic between the two and as you said the mentor nature of the relationship. In the link I posted in my PS, it's very visible in the scene where Oliver massages Elios feet or in the way Oliver talks to Elio when they are both swimming and the way Elio answers a bit bratily. Throughout the movie there are scenes where they are silly or sensual or vulnerable, sometimes the one and sometimes the other and yet the power dynamic feels like ttwd.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you?