criterionforum.org

A loving snapshot of a vanished New York, director Ira Sachs’s captivating cultural time capsule is a warm, witty, graceful re-creation of a real-life conversation that took place between photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) in 1974. Peter Hujar’s Day eavesdrops on the two friends’ leisurely, affectionate hangout as Hujar recounts his previous day’s activities, offering insights into both his art and his everyday life. What emerges is a touching celebration of creativity, connection, and simply being present, made exceptionally vivid by Sachs’s cinematic flourishes and wonderfully tender performances from Whishaw and Hall, whose chemistry gives the film its heart and soul.

INCLUDES

• Meet the Filmmakers: Ira Sachs, a Criterion Channel original interview
• Images: Making “Peter Hujar’s Day,” a new documentary by Shuli Huang
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Notes by author and film curator Michael Koresky

Even though I didn't love it, there's something very admirable about a genuine single-location two-hander shot on 16mm film. Actually, to call it a two-hander is inaccurate because this is very much Ben Whishaw's film, though Rebecca Hall provides grounding for the film in her quiet, mostly physical performance. The real star might be the NYC apartment this was filmed in, either untouched since the 1970s or perfectly art-directed to look like it. Or maybe the lighting, which gives the impression of a single day passing with the movement of the sun through the windows, sometimes just little beams of light falling on Whishaw's face. Sachs avoids the pitfalls of a single-location shoot by breaking the conversation into little scenes—in the kitchen, on the balcony, in the bedroom—and then inserting little wordless vignettes between them, one a gorgeous shot framed perhaps to resemble a Peter Hujar portrait with Whishaw in profile and Hall looking into the camera. It's kind of a little Warhol screen test kind of moment that might be the highlight of the film for me. These little vignettes use snippets from Mozart's Requiem effectively.

I enjoyed reading the book, but the film was a lesser experience for me.