Maya Deren was one of the first women to make films, a pioneer of dance film and the mother of experimental cinema. She created several black-and-white films, sometimes starring herself, without dialogue, and in a splendid surrealist style. Being able to work on her own cinematic pieces was something that deeply fulfilled her, since she was originally a poet but felt the need and attraction to express her poetry not verbally, but visually. In this way she was able to develop her body of work, for which it is especially fitting to say that a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” is clearly surrealist, a kind of genuinely dreamlike surrealism, as if the protagonist were trapped in the spiral of a nightmare in which the same events repeat themselves over and over again, each repetition introducing new elements as well as different characters that could be seen as doppelgangers, as though we were simultaneously witnessing different versions of her depending on space, time, her attitude, or the actions she carries out…
As for its meaning, the film is rich in symbolism. It may deal with the possible actions or decisions one might take in response to a situation; with morbid fascination, embodied by that unsettling figure in black, sinister yet attractive; or with death, murder, or suicide. The different versions of herself could also relate to impulses of the ego, while what the film presents may represent the subconscious or the unconscious mind. I consider this to be the work of Deren most influenced by Galka Scheyer’s teachings on Carl Jung’s doctrine, psychoanalysis, and Freudian thought.
Maya Deren was one of the first women to make films, a pioneer of dance film and the mother of experimental cinema. She created several black-and-white films, sometimes starring herself, without dialogue, and in a splendid surrealist style. Being able to work on her own cinematic pieces was something that deeply fulfilled her, since she was originally a poet but felt the need and attraction to express her poetry not verbally, but visually. In this way she was able to develop her body of work, for which it is especially fitting to say that a picture is worth more than a thousand words.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” is clearly surrealist, a kind of genuinely dreamlike surrealism, as if the protagonist were trapped in the spiral of a nightmare in which the same events repeat themselves over and over again, each repetition introducing new elements as well as different characters that could be seen as doppelgangers, as though we were simultaneously witnessing different versions of her depending on space, time, her attitude, or the actions she carries out…
As for its meaning, the film is rich in symbolism. It may deal with the possible actions or decisions one might take in response to a situation; with morbid fascination, embodied by that unsettling figure in black, sinister yet attractive; or with death, murder, or suicide. The different versions of herself could also relate to impulses of the ego, while what the film presents may represent the subconscious or the unconscious mind. I consider this to be the work of Deren most influenced by Galka Scheyer’s teachings on Carl Jung’s doctrine, psychoanalysis, and Freudian thought.
