Maya Deren - Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by wife and husband team, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. The film's narrative is circular, and repeats a number of psychologically symbolic images, including a flower on a long driveway, a key falling, a door unlocked, a knife in a loaf of bread, a mysterious Grim Reaper--like cloaked figure with a mirror for a face, a phone off the hook and an ocean. Through creative editing, distinct camera angles, and slow motion, the surrealist film depicts a world in which it is more and more difficult to catch reality.

• Category

  Film & Animation

[speechpatterns]

i guess its an acquired taste

so acquire some taste

[shatteredchromosomes]

Shit.

[DStud29]

That sounds like a cop-out. If throwing random things together without any real creative forethought will also create the effect of "asking" rather than "answering questions", I call into question the value of doing so on purpose.

[teagirl59]

i saw this film in college, and i love the symbolism, the contrast of the lighting, the mis-en-scene, the overall composition, and the musical score. this film is a classic, after sixty-one years.

[Mediumuncool]

Things I randomly associated with this film: The sharp light of Californian noontime; the quiteness under shady trees with a war raging both in the Pacific and the Atlantic; the geometric precision of Art Deco and Mission Style Architecture; special effects in early silent films; the photography of Man Ray; the immutability of keys; Catholicism in American Pop Culture; the female body hidden, stylised; the truth and innocence in the way a hand moves.

[MrWingsfan13]

I have no idea what the fuck just happened....But I liked it. Definitely a cool surrealist/ experimental film. 

[J. Dylan]

So scary!

[marc stevens]

You want answers? Here's your answer: Death drives a Volvo.

[InjectionLethal]

I already knew that, my friend. My response to Vaaman was a rhetorical one to offer my insight on interpretation versus artistic reasoning. In other words, we can interrupt the film as something much different than Deren intended because we don't think the same, era may affect us, and so many other factors. If we didn't know better this could be a film about about an actual mirror-faced apparition. I've done my homework, my friend, but I greatly thank you for taking the time to respond to me.