Fragment of Seeking

I watched this boring short twice and it was still ridiculously nonsensical. The existentialism is so overplayed as to be laughable. What a waste of my time!

A young man observes a couple dating. He approaches a beautiful woman. He goes home alone. This is a black and white experimental film. It has no dialogue. The actors are amateurs. Curtis Harrington is the star and the director. He's a long-time Hollywood veteran mostly directing B-movies and TV shows. I initially thought that this may be a way-early gay coming out experimental film. It's not. It turns apocalyptic and I'm not sure about the final scene. He's linking sexuality with death. What does the ending mean? Does he fear sex? It's a lot of unanswered questions. It's experimental and it's fine to have a head-scratcher.

Curtis Harrington's experimental short, written and produced when he was 20 -- although not released anywhere for almost two decades -- is about a young man who has a sexual non-encounter with a pretty girl. The images are about the linkages of sex and death, there is no dialogue, and the overwrought music that makes up the soundtrack convinces me this is intended to mock the overwrought ideation of adolescents. I thought it was funny, and deliberately so.

Harrington would go on to have a career as a director, mostly in horror movies.

Fragment of Seeking (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Curtis Harrington wrote, directed and stars in this surreal short. As with most avant-garde films each viewer could possibly take away something different from the story. Harrington plays a man who sees a couple enjoying time together and then he notices a woman standing at a window. For the rest of the film the man tries to track down this woman by following her but something always prevents it.

FRAGMENT OF SEEKING isn't a masterpiece but it's certainly weird and surreal enough to where it's easy to recommend to people. I think the film works nicely as a dream that turns into a nightmare. The first portion of the film deals with the man playfully seeking out the woman but then it grows much darker when he seems to go through various dark mazes trying to get her. I'm not going to spoil what happens during the third act but it's quite good. Harrington certainly makes for a good movie thanks in large part to the way he shows all of this happening. He perfectly captures a dream-like state and manages to build up an atmosphere without any words.

This is a surreal short film that may be a little rough around the edges, but I love how it was made by a college kid at age 20 in 1946, and what it represents. Dressed in a large overcoat, fedora, and glasses, Harrington plays a somber character who seems like a voyeur pursuing sex after seeing a woman with her lover. Instead, he finds illusion, mortality, and aspects of his own identity, the symbolism for which is fascinating.

What comes across to me is a man in disguise of himself at the outset, someone who walks down the dark corridors of his mind while thinking about his sexuality, looks himself in the mirror, and begins shedding the artifice of conformity to reveal his true self. The moment of truth with a woman is a kind of spiritual death because it's counter to his sexuality, as the smiles from her handsome lover have served as a catalyst for him. In pursuing love he eventually come to a place where he finds himself, and it's no longer in a traditional heterosexual male role. It's subtle, daring, and artistic - well worth 14 minutes, and one I won't forget.