Tucci and Holm in the park.

Joe Gould's Secret is a hymn to the five boroughs of New York in what may be a lost era - the forties - but one which remains very much alive in the bones of the city. Both Mitchell - who hailed from North Carolina - and Gould, born a Boston Brahmin, are in love with their adopted home. And a third angle on the Big Apple is provided by Mitchell's wife, Therese (Hope Davies), a photographer who specialises in candid, Cartier-Bresson-style shots of the city.

"You need to think of the three characters as a triad experiencing New York," says Tucci, who was born in Katonah, some 10 miles north of the city limits, and studied at SUNY. "Therese's photos become a third character. Joseph Mitchell listens, Joe Gould speaks and Therese Mitchell sees. Combined, they embody the three senses."

Patricia Clarkson as gallery owner Vivian Marquie, a regular contributor to the 'Joe Gould Fund' which was Gould's only source of income.

The fact that the character he plays is essentially passive - an observer; a link between Gould and the audience - is what finally convinced Tucci he should both act and direct. "My first film, Big Night, I co-directed with Campbell Scott, who I've known for years, so we shared that responsibility," he says. "And on The Impostors I had a large ensemble cast. Fortunately, on this film, Joseph Mitchell was a listener and a watcher, and Ian has all the speeches, so this is a perfect project to direct and act in."

Tucci's motto throughout the film has been simplicity, despite the levels of fantasy that occasionally impinge, as when Gould - who claimed to be fluent in seagull - begins talking to the birds, a form of communication which is as much movement as sound, but which is punctuated by loud screeches. Tucci reckoned that to try and tamper with Holm's performance by means of camera tricks and other directorial interference would be a huge mistake.

"For the most part," he says, "the film is about the performance, and the performance comes from Ian who is a joy to watch and work with. Every take very often has a different nuance. It's him, and it's shot very simply."

"Joe Gould died in 1957," reads the end-caption to the movie. "Joseph Mitchell published 'Joe Gould's Secret' in 1964. For the next 32 years of his life, he came to his office every day... and never published another written word."

But perhaps the real epitaph for Joe Gould is to be found in a poem by e.e. cummings which is quoted in the film and which may well have been written about the 'real' Joe Gould:

PHOTOS: Abbot Genser