The Assignation

A hooded, masked man takes a gondola through the canals of Venice. He carries a single rose.

Curtis Harrington certainly had a taste for bizarre images. That's almost certainly why he eventually carved out of decent career int he horror movie genre. He did some location shooting in Venice for this, his first color film, showing the crumbling facades of the buildings alongside the lesser canals.

Several of the images here remind me of Edward Gorey's macabre, humorous images. Was he familiar with these shorts, or did they draw from a common source?

For such a concise film, with the barest sketch of a plot and coming in at just 8 minutes, most of which is a gondola ride in Venice, the feeling this produced in me was lasting. Ostensibly it's quite simple: a man(?) dressed for carnival with black cape and white mask carries a single red rose to an (unmasked, uncostumed) woman who seems to expect him.

Taking somewhat literally, is the giving of oneself in a relationship inherently unequal, with one person always more guarded/cloaked, and the other annihilating themself at least a little bit more to be involved? Or has timeless Death traveled slowly but surely through the canals of a timeless and beautiful city to make the most ancient of assignations, the one we all ultimately will face? Is this meeting a deflowering that may lead to birth, or the dissolving of oneself into the eternal? Or does it relate to Harrington's sexuality, with petals falling and the costume signifying a kind of death when involved with women?

As with his other films it's ambiguous and subject to interpretation, but there's no debating that final shot - it's simply fantastic.

"The Assignation" essentially looks like a home movie. And, as such, I have no idea why it was aired on Turner Classic Movies nor why most folks would want to watch it. It says 'cheap art film' clearly throughout.

The story is short and there are no words. A man wearing a mask goes aboard a gondola and is taken to a rendezvous with his red-haired sweetie. That's really it.

The music is nice as is the color. The cinematography is shaky as are the opening credits. I can't honestly see what anyone sees in this one.

The Assignation (1953)

*** (out of 4) I'm not going to call this early film from Curtis Harrington a masterpiece but it's extremely effective in its own quiet way. We see a man wearing a mask and a black cloak going through the canals of Venice but at first we don't know what his plan is. There's not a single word spoken in this eight minute short but you really don't need any words. I say this because the first seven minutes of the film work as a mystery because you're not quite sure what's going on or the point of the film. It's when the ending happens that the power really hits you but of course I'm not going to ruin that. Let's just say that you'll be quite happy and it makes you appreciate the film a lot more. Being shot in Venice really helped the film and it really plays out like the horror movies that would follow the next decade.