A Fragment of Seeking + Geography of the Body + The Case of Mr. Lynn
An Early Clue to the New Direction: Queer Cinema Before Stonewall
April 22 - May 1, 2016
In this program, two avant-garde works—Curtis Harrington’s A Fragment of Seeking and Willard Maas’s Geography of the Body—set the stage for one of the truly deep cuts of the pre-Stonewall series: The Case of Mr. Lynn, a fascinating document of the carnal at odds with the inner life. The reel is an actual filmed therapy session with a troubled young homophile, made in 1955 under the auspices of Penn State’s Psychological Cinema Register.
An early film by Curtis Harrington, made while he was still a student and long before he would go on to direct horror movies with AIP, A Fragment of Seeking is a study of adolescent narcissism that articulates the labyrinth of the psyche through an experimental design reminiscent of Maya Deren and Jean Cocteau. Geography of the Body, by contrast, takes as its subject not the mind but flesh itself, abstracting the human form through a montage of extreme close-ups. These avant-garde works set the stage for one of the truly deep cuts of the pre-Stonewall series, The Case of Mr. Lynn, a fascinating document of the carnal at odds with the inner life. The reel is an actual filmed therapy session with a troubled young homophile, made in 1955 under the auspices of Penn State’s Psychological Cinema Register. “When you say that you’re queer,” Lynn explains, “it automatically sets you apart.”
A Fragment of Seeking
Curtis Harrington, USA, 1946, 16mm, 14m
Geography of the Body
Willard Maas, USA, 1943, 16mm, 7m
The Case of Mr. Lynn
Reuben Siegel, USA, 1955, 16mm, 55m
Read More
Cannes Best Actress Winner Nadia Melliti on The Little Sister
This week we’re excited to present a conversation with The Little Sister lead actress Nadia Melliti from this year’s edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.
Ildikó Enyedi and Tony Leung on Their Venice Award-Winning Silent Friend
This week we’re excited to present a conversation with Silent Friend director Ildikó Enyedi and lead actor Tony Leung, moderated by TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek.
FLC Presents “Elaine May,” June 26–July 2, with May in Person to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Mikey and Nicky
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the release of Elaine May’s emotionally potent Mikey and Nicky, May and producer Julian Schlossberg will be in person at FLC to present a 4K restoration of the film, which May supervised herself.
