A charismatic star of classic elegance, forced to live hidden in a lie. He was one of the first names in Hollywood to change the conversation about HIV.
Many stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood led secret lives, and Rock Hudson’s is one of the most paradigmatic stories. His classic beauty and rugged masculinity, combined with a cool and carefree style, catapulted him into the best cinema of the time: Howard Hawks, Douglas Sirk, George Stevens, John Frankenheimer. His sexuality was an open secret among the readers of impertinent sensationalist magazines, but his true identity remained inaccessible. The documentary reflects on a contradictory life, a heterodox and camp filmography, and a historical epilogue: his illness finally put HIV on the table in conservative Reagan-era America.