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3. Spoon: “I Turn My Camera On”
“Challengers” volleys back and forth from recent past to present so dizzyingly that sometimes the musical cues are the easiest way to remember if we’re in 2006 or 2019. This Spoon track, from the 2005 album “Gimme Fiction,” offers some temporal grounding and millennial nostalgia when it plays in the background of a scene at the 2006 U.S. Open Junior Championships. Guadagnino certainly loves himself a persistent bass line!
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4. The Psychedelic Furs: “Love My Way”
In “Call Me by Your Name,” another bit of diegetic pop-rock transports us to the early 1980s as this Psychedelic Furs hit fills the dance floor of an Italian club. Timothée Chalamet’s Elio at first takes in the scene from the sidelines, and his gaze zeroes in on the still-secret object of his affection, the older, awkwardly-but-passionately dancing graduate student, Oliver.
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5. Thom Yorke: “Suspirium”
The Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke created a brooding score — his first work as a film composer — for Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of the horror classic “Suspiria.” This haunting, hypnotic waltz plays over the film’s opening credits and effectively sets the mood.
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6. John Adams: “Century Rolls: I. First Movement (Excerpt)”
Guadagnino wrote the script of his 2009 romantic drama, “I Am Love,” which stars Tilda Swinton, with the music of the American minimalist composer John Adams in mind. Though Adams didn’t write any original music for the film, he allowed Guadagnino to use many of his most famous pieces as a soundtrack, lending “I Am Love” a distinct and poignant emotional atmosphere.
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7. Sufjan Stevens: “Mystery of Love”
One of two beautiful ballads that the singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens wrote for “Call Me by Your Name,” this hushed, mandolin-kissed track was nominated for a best original song Oscar. The other, “Visions of Gideon,” plays over the wrenching and unforgettable closing credits, which features a closely framed long take of Elio’s face as he moves through a series of emotions. (I’m still salty that Chalamet didn’t win the best actor Oscar for that performance.)
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8. Kiss: “Lick It Up”
When two young cannibals enter an abandoned house in “Bones and All,” Guadagnino’s gory 2022 flick, Lee, played by Chalamet, is excited to find a particular record in the homeowner’s collection: “He’s got ‘Lick It Up,’ by Kiss! That’s from when they stopped wearing makeup.” He puts it on the turntable and rocks out. Of course this would be a bloodthirsty people-eater’s favorite Kiss song!