With two people in one apartment, “Peter Hujar’s Day” is a film entirely dedicated to the microscopic examination of the intricacies of the everyday. The film follows Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) as he describes, in detail, his previous day to writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall).
The dialogue comes from a transcribed conversation between Hujar and Rosenkrantz for an unrealized project by the writer in 1974. In 2019, the transcript of the conversation was found and later published in 2022. “It almost got lost again and now it’s preserved,” said director Ira Sachs, a Sundance veteran, in the premiere’s Q&A.
Sachs first approached Rosenkrantz about the film concept over Instagram DMs. “I immediately thought he was the right person to do it,” said Rosenkrantz in the premiere’s Q&A.
Despite its roots in reality, “Peter Hujar’s Day” quickly makes itself clear — this is not a biopic. The film opens on the clack of the camera slate and behind-the-scenes chatter. Audiences are quickly made aware of its narrative nature and the possibility of creative liberties.
In an era that is so focused on mindfulness, presence and gratitude as new health fads, “Peter Hujar’s Day” shows it in its most raw form. It’s an examination of the importance of the everyday. It finds meaning in the ordinary.
“But in a sense, taking these, what appears to both of them in that moment, almost everyday, average moments, and then framing them with a camera lens…It suddenly starts to see how important is that passage of time, and the ephemera of things like details that you can’t hold on to,” said Hall in an interview with Annenberg Media. “Whether they’re famous people or not, it’s sort of, it’s about all of us.”
Throughout the film, Rosenkrantz is the most attentive of listeners. Never once does she gaze off to another thought. “There’s something inherently loving in observation for a long duration of time,” said Hall.
Hujar’s candor is refreshing, almost to the point that you aren’t sure if you should be listening. The audience becomes increasingly aware of their voyeuristic window into a private conversation. It wasn’t just the level of intimacy between these two characters, but the honest vocalization of his thoughts.
As Hujar lists his day of tasks in a stream-of-consciousness, Whishaw’s hardest task was the appearance of spontaneity of thought. “This is like training to learn someone else’s improvisations,” said Whishaw in the premiere’s Q&A. Whishaw explained that Sachs doesn’t hold rehearsals prior to filming.
“It was hard because, yeah, Ira’s demanding in a brilliant way. But he’s demanding, and he really doesn’t want anything to feel like a performance, actually,” said Whishaw in an interview with Annenberg Media. “Somebody actually once said these things, and I’m not American, and we’re not in the ‘70s, and there are all these things that separate us from the material. We had to find something that felt very now in it if that makes any sense, something that was real between me and Rebecca and that was real in the room.”
As Hujar lists off his little white lies or grievances with other artists, one could wonder, “Doesn’t he know this is on the record?” Well yes, he did. He actually explicitly says, “If this ever gets printed. I hope it’s printed with his name,” referencing Ed Baynard.
Perhaps this was before the age of virality and internet documentation, where authenticity felt more allowed. Although the modern day isn’t in the film, its looming contrast is felt.
At its core, “Peter Hujar’s Day” is also a story of connection. In an interview with Variety, Sachs said, “There was this tremendous sense of community, and that’s been lost today when we have all these virtual relationships.”
Hall and Whishaw both note the stark contrast that an artist of today, like Hujar who was at the time nearly penniless from his work, couldn’t afford to live on the lower east side. “I think there’s something about the single mindedness of Peter and Linda, and their devotion to art and you have to kind of just be in a way, belligerent, determined, just keep going. I think there’s something in that that’s maybe inspiring,” said Whishaw.
In the film, Hujar describes being visited by multiple friends that day who decided just to stop by or have hour-long calls. There isn’t community in the same way, because we’re all sort of living quite individual lives. I mean, nobody calls up and talks to their friends on the phone for hours and hours like they did in the 70s,” said Hall. And there’s something really interesting about what that does to a group of creatives to be in community with each other.”
Sachs and Alex Ashe, the Director of Photography, uniquely utilized the camera to capture this in what could be described more as portraiture. The long period of dialogue would be interrupted by close-ups of the character’s as they stare down the barrel of the camera to the sounds of a dramatic score.
“I really started to think of the film as an exploration of portraitures. How do you look at images? How do you look at figures in different times, in different spaces,” said Sachs. Sachs also describes this film to be like an art project, where they had the freedom to make what they wanted to make.
“I think the film ends up being about photography, because how Ira shoots is like portraiture,” said Hall. “It takes [the viewer] out of reality and instead, it’s about how light and shadow play on our faces. And I think that is his genius, and that’s really what makes the film art.”
Being that it is 76 minutes of dialogue between two characters in a single apartment, “Peter Hujar’s Day” might not be an audience-pleasing, popcorn popping film, nor do I think it set out to be. However, its innovative format that uniquely contrasts the movie-pumping machine we are used to is exactly why it will likely be a Sundance favorite and discussed in film classes for years to come.