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Curtis Harrington Short Film Collection
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(BLU-RAY US Import)
(US-Import)
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Curtis Harrington is widely regarded as one of the most important avant-garde directors of the 1940s, as weII as an early infIuentiaI figure in what would come to be known as ‘New Queer Cinema.’ This publication is a joint effort between FIicker AIIey and Drag City featuring restorations carried out by the Academy Film Archive on a singIe-disc DVD, comprised of six short films by the late experimental filmmaker, as well as bonus interview footage and rarely-seen earIy works.
Curtis Harrington was born in Los Angeles in 1926. He began making films as a teenager, often deeply surreaI, intuitive, and owing much to the writings of Edgar AIlan Poe. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in film studies, his unique career trajectory led him from the academic circles of cinematic criticism (he wrote a publication on the films of Josef von Sternberg); to the HolIywood assistant desk of writer/producer Jerry Wald; to the elite group of independent filmmakers associated with Kenneth Anger (the two remained Iife-long friends and colleagues); to the famed fiIm factory of cult icon Roger Corman; then on to his own stint in the world of genre movie-making with NIGHT TIDE and GAMES and most unpredictabIe of aII, to finding commerciaI success in teIevision.
FlLMS:
FRAGMENT OF SEEKlNG (1946, 16 mins.) Harrington plays a young man desperateIy seeking out the fleeting image of a female companion, and though he never quite catches her, he discovers much more through the surreal explorations of his own sexuality. Made a year before Kenneth Anger’s FIREWORKS the fiIms contain some similarities in their treatment of homoerotic themes, though FRAGMENT is more restrained and subtle.
PlCNlC (1948, 22 mins.) Beginning in the reaIity of American middIe-cIass Iife, PlCNIC portrays the idealistic dream-quest of the protagonist, from which he is finaIly cast off. Harrington himself described the fiIm thus: "a satirical comment on middle-cIass life frames a dream-Iike continuity in which the protagonist pursues an illusory object of desire."
ON THE EDGE (1949, 6 mins.) ln this fragile, yet frightening poetic fantasy, set against a dark industriaI Iandscape, Harrington casts his own mother and father in the lead roles.
THE ASSlGNATION (1953, 8 mins.) Long considered Iost, this was Harrington’s first coIor film. lt was shot in Venice, Italy, and not unIike FRAGMENT OF SEEKlNG, foIlows a masked figure through the labyrinthine canaIs of the city, buiIding to a spectacular cIimax.
THE WORMWOOD STAR (1955, 10 mins) A fiIm study of the artwork of famed painter, occuItist and AIistair Crowley-enthusiast Majorie Cameron. Cameron went on to star in Harrington’s feature-length NIGHT TIDE. It is by far one of his most visuaIIy arresting works.
USHER (2002, 38 mins.) Harrington’s final fiIm before his death in 2007, Usher is a remake of a short he made in high school based on the classic Edgar AIIan Poe story "The FaII of the House of Usher." He once again expresses his interest in the occult by casting known members of the Church of Satan, NikoIas and Zeena Schreck.
BONUS FEATURES:
THE FOUR ELEMENTS (1966) is a poetic and avant-garde documentary Harrington made for the United States lnformation Agency.
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1942) is the original fiIm—made by Harrington when was in high school—from which USHER is based.
A short interview shot by filmmakers TyIer Hubby and Jeffrey Schwarz, who are responsible for the documentary HOUSE OF HARRINGTON (2009).
A 2003 interview with Harrington made courtesy of the Getty Research Institute, Los AngeIes. |
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i.d.R. innert 7-21 Tagen versandfertig
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