Nonureva Really Surprised!

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

MartinHafer Like many of the art films, Maya Deren's "Meshes in the Afternoon" defies description as well as a numerical rating. After all, how can you rate or adequately describe something that deliberately avoids being cinematic and is meant to confuse and provoke the viewer?!This film consists of a lot of bizarre camera-work--and Deren is the subject in most of the shots. But, it isn't until later in the film that you actually see her face--up until then, it's feet, hands and an eye that the camera shows the viewer. There also is an angel of death- like being with a mirror for a face and lots of strange camera tricks. So what does all this mean? You have to decide for yourself, though I think it's pretty clearly about alienation and death. But what do I know?!The bottom line is that like art films, this one is strange and probably won't appeal to the average person. But, it is impressively strange and unusual--and it's worth a viewing if your are the right sort of person who appreciates avant garde films.

ackstasis The most striking image of 'Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)' is that of Maya Deren trapped behind glass, staring mournfully outside, her hands pressed up against the reflection of trees outside her window. The sensation of being "trapped" within one's own household must have been common for many wives during the 1940s, particularly given that most husbands were abroad fighting for their country. This film, co-directed by Deren and her then-husband Alexander Hammid, to me seems to depict a woman confined within an apathetic marriage. Arriving home, Deren's initially-faceless woman collects a solitary flower from the footpath, grasping for a hint of romance in her otherwise dreary existence. A phone hangs off its hook, implying the disconnection between husband and wife. A key transforms into a kitchen knife, and vice versa. Trapped within this loveless marriage, Deren contemplates two courses of action to free herself from these martial bonds: kill her husband, or kill herself. When she attempts the former act, Hammid's face fragments like a mirror image, as though (in the male-dominated 1940s) to destroy her husband would leave Deren without an identity of her own. While contemplating her own suicide, Deren dreams of a mirror-faced Grim Reaper whom she chases, to no avail, down the path, before attempting to stab herself as she sleeps (alternatively, the Reaper-like figure resembles the sombre attire of a widow, perhaps reiterating the former action).The directors' manipulation of space and orientation is masterfully orchestrated, with ordinary rooms photographed to feel intensely claustrophobic; even a simple staircase suddenly seems an insurmountable foothill as Deren claws her way up. There's no doubt that Deren and Hammid were influenced by the cinema of Georges Méliès, whose filmed "magic shows" similarly used jump cuts to create a disjointed sense of reality. Particularly fascinating about 'Meshes of the Afternoon' is how it seamlessly integrates dreams and reality, each plane of existence inescapably influencing and merging with the other. Though the film was originally released silent, in 1959 Deren's third husband Teiji Ito scored a Japanese-inspired soundtrack, which, like the film, is cyclical and repetitive.

Chris_Docker Meshes Of The Afternoon Meshes, according to Deren, is "concerned with the inner realities of an individual and the way in which the subconscious will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual occurrence into a critical emotional experience."Have you ever stopped to wonder, when you see and touch a flower, what happens inside? Unless you are in purely botanical mode, it may very likely spark off something in your subconscious. The breath of spring. The beauty and harmony of nature. Perhaps something given with affection and gentleness. Maybe even a token of romance?Maya Deren's wildly seminal work, Meshes Of The Afternoon, begins when a rather artificial looking hand places a flower on a pathway. The hand (and attached arm) pop out of existence, immediately alerting us to the fact that this is not a work of literal storytelling. The symbols of the next 14 minutes drill holes into our subconscious, where images speak louder than words, creating one of the most famous short films of all time.A woman picks up the flower on her way home. At her doorstep, she drops her key. Once inside, she falls asleep in an armchair. Her dream-self sees her former self approaching the house. But the flower is being carried by a hooded figure whose only face is a mirror. Giving chase brings her no closer to the hooded figure – it just brings her to her doorstep. This time, when she ascends the stairs, we see her expression. No longer carefree, she is watchful, slightly suspicious.A breadknife, previously cutting bread, lies on the steps. A phone off the hook, and the knife hidden in the bed. She sees her sleeping form and a gramophone playing endlessly with no sound. Through the cracked window she sees herself giving chase to the hooded figure and takes the key from her mouth. We look again. It become a knife with which she confronts two other images of herself. Eventually a man enters the picture.The sight or touch of a flower reminds us that the subconscious mind works in symbols. Like images from a dream, the flower can bring certain feelings to the surface. Similarly a knife may be just an implement, or an implement with which we can feed ourselves, or hurt ourselves. Meshes Of The Afternoon soon evokes Freudian implications. Is the man coming home from work the fulfillment of her romantic dreams or their frustration? As an outside force, he can be a blessing or a threat, just as a mirror can show oneself or a reveal a hidden person. But Deren hotly denied it was surrealist. Whereas the surrealist is parodic, Deren is deadly serious. To her, their work was like doodling with symbols. Her polemics castigated surrealists for 'abnegating the agency of consciousness.' The role of the artist, she said, had degenerated. "His achievement, if any, consists in a titillating reproduction of reality which can be enjoyed in air-conditioned comfort by an audience too comatose to take the exercise of a direct experience of life."The music (by Deren's third husband, and added 16 years later) adds to the sense of rising paranoia and dread. Its ritualistic feel has persuaded some commentators to suggest that the double characters and constantly changing identities stem from Deren's interest in Voodoo (her writings on the subject are still a leading authority - she was later initiated as a Voodoo priestess). Yet it wasn't until 1947, four years later, that Deren received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship that enabled her to begin visiting Haiti to study Voodoo. More likely they are indicative of an early grasp of psychology, a deep interest of hers and one which she shared with her father.To signify the hooded figure as the Grim Reaper is also to trivialize and pigeon hole a symbol capable of many equally valid interpretations. Some feminist readings centre on the frustration of a woman left at home all day. Yet we can also look at it in the sense of someone coming to know themselves and risking their sanity in the process.On a technical level, Meshes Of The Afternoon, shot on a miniscule budget, has almost non-existent production values and may fail easily to engage modern audiences. It has total disregard for Hollywood convention (the word 'Hollywood' in the opening titles could even be read as frustration with the barrenness of the industry there). There is an superficial similarity with works by Shirley Clarke or the early surrealism of Bunuel. Structurally, we can see its influence in Lynch's Lost Highway, where no explanation is given or needed for one thing (or person) turning into another (though some of the explicit symbols are explored more thoroughly in Lynch's later works, Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire). By understanding Meshes Of The Afternoon, such 'populist' surrealism becomes child's play. As a journey of self-discovery with deep overtones, it follows a similar (though less tragic) theme to Nina Menkes' Phantom Love.Some commentators have cast doubt over whether Deren was the primary artistic force in the film, saying it is largely the work of her husband Alexander Hammid. Deren's biographers disagree. Certainly it is her most famous, complex and mature piece of cinema, although her next film, At Land, maintained some of the enigmatic structure of Meshes Of The Afternoon. Later, her works would focus more on dance-film (except, perhaps, for her documentary on Voodoo, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti). But whoever was behind Meshes, there are few segments of 14 minutes that remain so disturbing, so infinitely re-watchable, and so influential to this day.

Asa_Nisi_Masa2 Have American filmmakers ever been as experimental as Deren since this short was made? If so, my guess is not very often - not as far as I know anyway. It really is astonishing to think that this was made in 1943, in the midst of WWII! A fellow IMDb user had first recommended I watch this when a while back, I had started a thread about movies that should be taken in non-rationally on one of the boards. I can now completely see why he urged me to watch this: whatever side of the brain it is that we use when our rationality is switched off, is the side one must use to make the most of Deren's film. Symbols aplenty - symbols I wasn't especially trying to interpret, but just trying to take in with everything else that was going on - Maya Deren's own very striking, very beautiful physical presence, a Death-like figure bearing a fake flower (but they're not the only one to carry it during the course of the movie), a key popping out of Deren's mouth which reminded me of the cover of Kate Bush's The Dreaming album, shadows, light, repetitions, interiors, exteriors... just soak it in, and don't try and explain it.