You could be forgiven for thinking that maybe there is ‘something’ going on between filmmaker Ira Sachs and actor Ben Wishaw. The two of them are currently promoting the release of the biographical Peter Hujar’s Day, which centers on an extended conversation between Hujar (Ben Whishaw), a brilliant but struggling photographer, and his close friend, writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), who recorded their talk for an art project. Hujar, who died of AIDS in 1987, was only celebrated as an artist posthumously, and during the 1974 chat with Rosenkrantz that Sachs dramatizes, he’s very much living on the economic margins. Queerguru’s Ris Fatah was amongst the host of film critics who were bowled over when they saw the movie recently at the BFI London Film Festival.
Plus it was only two years ago that Sachs released his last film before this: it was Passages, also starring Wishaw, and also greeted with critical acclaim, and some of Wishaw’s best reviews to date. It was a sexy, intense drama that co-starred Franz Rogowski and was a chaotic and often brutal study of a modern relationship.
The seeming inseperable pair announced their latest project togther The Man I Love which is set in the late 80’s in New York City which is just being filmed now, but at last minute, Wishaw had to withdraw and was replaced by Academy Award winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody). Described as ‘a “musical fantasia of a city under duress” it is based on a screenplay by Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias, and Malek will play Jimmy George, a downtown artist navigating “an extraordinary moment between great illness and death when, still, all beauty and love is possible.” The cast will also includes Tom Sturridge, Luther Ford, BAFTA nominee (and Sachs favorite) Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
