"Enigma Variations charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents’ cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he’ll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men―whether he’s on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York sidewalk in early spring. Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire. Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we’ve always known we were."
I actually weirdly can't remember if I read this book or not? My brain ain't what it used to be y'all. I don't think I did but if I did it would've been in 2019 and there was so much else going on right then who can remember shit. Anyway on top of this series starring JAW and coming from an Aciman novel it's being directed in full by Oliver Hermanus, the South African director who
caught my attention with the gay military drama Moffie in yes ye olde 2019 (I remember
Moffie!) and then further when he made
the gorgeous Living with Bill Nighy, and then again when he made the queer princeling story
Mary & George with Julianne Moore, and who's immediate next project -- a gay love story starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal called
The History of Sound that'll supposedly be out sometime this year -- has
been capturing my interest every second since I first heard about it ages back for obvious reasons.
Anyway Hermanus seems to smartly be following the Luca Guadagnino playbook in establishing his cinematic bonafides while remaining very very gay, and we love to see it. This project will obviously remain very much on our radar!
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