Meshes of the Afternoon

Laden with symbolic imagery, this short film focuses on the struggle of a woman to find her identity independent of men, emotional baggage and societal expectations. Constantly chased by a doppelganger, Maya is confronted with the many aspects of herself at the dinner table. One of her personalities must commit murder to free her. Is she saved from the flower of womanhood or die without expectations?

I suggest watching the movie a few times through to catch all of the imagery and keeping Freud in mind when distilling the symbolism. This film is very interesting and beautiful independent of theme. Definitely worth a look!

A woman enters her domicile with lots of shots of her nice manicured feet as she witnesses a knife, vertigo, a shrouded phantom with a face of glass, a strange man, the sea, falling asleep in her couch, sensual arousal, etc., as dream and reality blur into a finale of tragedy and summation. Shot in black and white this is one of the better and successful shorts from the wartime period that touches on Freudian immersions with a storytelling flair for drama and enigma. Maya Deren's most noted artistic effort the film assured her place among experimental female directors and is an interesting historical artifact in avant-garde cinema.

While the opening sequence of a woman following a faceless figure with a flower is persistently repeated, images of key and knife intensify their vividness, and then dream and reality permeate into each other's realms. Maya Deren's first and probably best film, Meshes of the Afternoon, is an amalgam of traditional narrative and European-imported surrealism. It is also one of many triumphs in the film history that fearlessness and youthfulness conquer the lack of expenses and experiences.

The networks of a mind, who really knows when it reclined, started to consume and dine, before untangling what's been; a head of conjuring confusion, a state of light refract diffusion, with a knife to cut illusion, and a key to lock fate in; as it gazes into cycles, that deceive the daylight vitals, and revisits past disciples, replicas queue to begin; like a self-devouring snake, you can't be sure who is awake, if they want to pull the brake, and find a way to stop the spin.

Those moments of drift, that consume and confuse, as the world wraps around, and the visions all infuse, take you to abstract illusions, to unsettled taut contusions, are they dreams or just intrusions, that play out throughout a snooze.

Maya Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" is an amazing 15 minute journey into the subconscious. It's like "Un Chien Andalou" seen through the eyes of a woman. In the film it's hard to tell when Maya's character is awake or dreaming. This film is chock full of bizarre and creepy surrealist images. The protagonist drops her key and it bounces like a ball. A knife moves from a loaf of bread, then the key turns into a knife. She carries a flower with her, which she holds upside down. She sees death, who where's a black hood and has a mirror for a face. She see's herself dreaming. In her dream she seems to foresee her own death. Deren seems to have a subconscious fear of knives, or being killed by a knife. This is one crazy little short film that almost puts you in a hypnotic trance with it's creepy Avant-Gard sounds and images. It's very poetic and disturbing, as nothing is what it seems. This is a must see for fans of David Lynch and Bunuel.