Fragment of Seeking (1946) User Reviews

Actually Quite Funny

[boblipton · 6/10 · 3 July 2021]

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.

experimental film

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 3 July 2021]

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.

Early film

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 17 January 2022]

"A climactic fragment from the existence of an adolescent Narcissus" and an "examination of youthful narcissism" are words that director Curtis Harrington used to describe this early sixteen-minute long movie.

A man catches a glimpse of a woman, becomes obsessed by her and then alternatively horrified by her when he sees her in a much more frightening way the closer he gets to her.

But under the surface, this film looks like Lynch before Lynch. Influenced by Maya Deren and somehow brave enough to confront being queer on film in 1946, Harrington explores the links between sex and fear and death and worry and angst and alienation.

As you can tell by this week of his movies I'm fascinated by Harrington, a man whose career goes from occult leanings to an appearance in Kenneth Anger's Invocation of the Pleasure Dome, rescuing James Whales' The Old Dark House, making psychobiddy films and finally finding something of a home making TV movies and episodes of mass population pleasing culture like Charlie's Angels and Dynasty. He's definitely all over the place and isn't that how we like our creative people?

Surreal Nightmare

[Michael_Elliott · 18 August 2015]

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.

DULL AND LUDICROUS

[theonekaz-44391 · 1/10 · 3 July 2021]

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!

Brilliant

[gbill-74877 · 9/10 · 1 August 2021]

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.

This seminal work emits autobiographical vibes . . .

[oscaralbert · 8/10 · 9 January 2021]

. . . by documenting that sometimes Nurture might outweigh the influence of Nature. What would happen, FRAGMENT OF SEEKING asks its viewers, if an innocent young lad ventured into the outside world for the first time, and found himself only being able to afford rent within a seedy flophouse which he soon discovers is infested with seductive blonde bimbos? FRAGMENTS pictures one of these wicked wenches cruelly teasing the amorous neophyte, only to remain elusive when push comes to shove. Then late one night, apparently feeling frisky, this vile vixen knocks on Sir Percival's door, and leads him down five hallways until he finds her splayed across a mattress ready to rut. At this critical juncture Nature asserts herself, and the upshot opens a can of worms. Forever more the bamboozled boy will picture any dame NOT as an embracing Mom, but instead see the cold, skeletal arms of Doom grasping out for him. To paraphrase Col. Brando, "Oh, the Horror! The Horror!!"