Sunday, May 22, 2011

Maya Deren 'Meshes of the Afternoon'

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.
"Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) uses a repetitive, loosely narrative structure and Freudian symbolism to examine female subjectivity in cinema." (Erin Foster)









                                            

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