The last time James Bond star Ben Whishaw worked with Love is Strange director Ira Sachs, his sweet-natured printer Martin was stuck in a hot mess tug-of-war with Franz Rogowski’s savagely self-centred filmmaker and his new lover (Adèle Exarchopoulos) in Passages. It was a lot – in the best way.
In the lilting, graceful Peter Hujar’s Day the vibe is more laidback but no less scintillating. Whishaw is the eponymous, gifted New York photographer, who mixed with the likes of Susan Sontag and Andy Warhol when New York was at its most indulgent and the groovy ’70s were morphing into the big hair and brash fashion of the ’80s. One of far too many artistic lights snuffed out by the HIV/AIDS crisis, Hujar deserves broader recognition than he got during his short life. Sachs, a true believer in the necessity of honouring queer artists, hopes to correct that with this miracle of a film.
It’s adapted from a 1974 interview conducted by Hujar’s friend, non-fiction writer Linda Rosenkrantz of Talk fame (played by Rebecca Hall). We learn that she intended to write a book detailing a day in the life of several creative friends. Only the book never eventuated, and the recording was lost. Then, many moons later, a transcript was discovered in Hujar’s archive. It’s this miraculous document and its unguarded insights into the life of a remarkable artist in into which Sachs breathes cinematic magic.
Whishaw is always a wonder – and he’s especially good here
Shooting in an apartment in Westbeth, the still-thriving artistic community in the West Village, cinematographer Alex Ashe makes the most of the wintry light coursing through its period-appropriate contours. The gorgeously careworn graininess of 16mm film adds to the warm hug feeling we get from sitting in on Linda and Peter’s chat. It shouldn’t be this compelling, observing him blather on about his exasperation with chasing freelance invoices – hard same, Peter – or dealing with the outsized ego of an exasperating Allen Ginsberg, who he photographed for The New York Times and who basically tried to pimp him out to William S Burroughs. Yet, it is.
Whishaw is always a wonder, and he’s especially good here. Whether Peter is cheekily mimicking Sontag’s unique way of speaking, gazing misty-eyed into the distance or taking it on the chin as a mothering Linda urges him to eat more and smoke less, he gleams. As does Hall in the tender intimacy of a loved one who knows when to listen.
We want to be there with them in the fading light, and that’s the might of Sach’s quiet little ode to friendship.
Peter Hujar’s Day premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.