Now here's a movie that I simply didn't like very much, or at least I simply don't like very much so far. The Criterion Channel is currently premiering Ira Sachs's Peter Hujar's Day. It tells the story of Linda Rosenkrantz's interview with her friend, the photographer Peter Hujar. It was beautifully filmed, and Ben Whitshaw and Rebecca Hall are very good in it. I loved the audacity of the entire film being the two friends simply talking about, as Hujar walks her through his day. If the point was to put the viewer into that time and place, I simply don't know if it succeeded. I think that if you knew Peter Hujar or Linda Rosenkrantz or Susan Sontag or Fran Lebowitz (who are friends of his who come up in his story of his day) you'd say, "Wow, that brings me back," or "I could just see them saying that," but instead it simply left me cold, and felt more like name-dropping than a deeper reflection on the nature of art or the struggles of the artist. The inverse of even the more ordinary, non-famous person sometimes having the most extraordinary day would be the most talented talented, famous person having the most boring, uneventful days. I've talked before about the notion of liking the idea of some artist or some film more than liking it, and I think this definitely fits into the category. It could well be that I'll have a very different take the next time I watch it. Hopefully it lingers on the Criterion Channel so that I can revisit it in a few months.
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