The Very Eye of Night

Inverted images of dancers with fixed outlines move across a starry sky. From the contemporary point of view, The Very Eye of Night, Maya Deren's last finished short, looks like a special effects computer application's tutorial; an innocent use of the "latest" technology comes to look cheap eventually. Probably it is an exercise piece whose experiment would have been developed if she had not passed away three years later.

Too many people short shrift the works of Maya Deren after her "trance" period, when she made films with her first husband Alexander Hammid. Because she changed her filming style entirely does not make her "wrong" for doing so. This, and MEDITATION ON VIOLENCE, are absorbing studies of movement and ritual. The premise of this delicate dream piece is simply a study of ballet movements shot from overhead, as a starry sky is superimposed over their actions. With sparse music by Deren's second husband Teiji Ito, this is a movie which defies filmic space. It is an entrancing piece which transcends the human body into a cosmic form of being. Thoughts to consider: was Teiji Ito the first "ambient" musician?

"The Very Eye of Night" is the final completed film of Maya Deren, the Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker, (underrated) film theorist, dancer, choreographer, and voodoo priestess whose life and work is the very embodiment of the "independent" ethic and who has consequently exerted a tremendous influence on both mainstream and avant-garde American cinema. A word of warning: Deren is best known for her debut film "Meshes in the Afternoon" (1943), a dream-logic feminist nightmare which owes a lot to surrealism (although she actively disputed the categorization) which these days finds a sympathetic interpretation among attendees of art-house cinemas and/or feminist university courses. And rightly so, as the film is incredible and easily sits among the best the avant-garde has to offer…however, as "The Very Eye of Night" comes some fifteen years later, after Deren has incorporated her love of dance into her films and explored the exotic rites of voodoo, those expecting anything along the lines of "Meshes…" are going to be sorely disappointed. Instead, we have a total absence of narrative and, like her earlier "Meditation on Violence" (1948), a film totally given over to dance – in this case ballet. However, while not exactly a fan of ballet, I nevertheless enjoyed the film due to the creative use of the negative print of the ballet dancers who seem to float through a starry sky giving the impression, less of a dream, and more of a transcendent out-of-body experience among the stars and watching ancient gods at play.

A key characteristic of Deren's films has always been the creative use of simple camera tricks to spectacular effect: and this film is no different. Indeed, whereas her other films were resolutely earthy and material (albeit invariably with a dream-like ambiance) the totally other-worldly realm she creates in "The Very Eye of Night" with the double exposure and negative print is truly magical and could be seen as the culmination of her work. This said, like many, I find her earlier work (especially "At land" (1944) and "Ritual in Transfigured Time" (1946)) much more satisfying and "The Very Eye of Night", despite both the magical ambiance and the enchanting score from her third husband Teiji Ito, seemed to me to just fall a little bit on the side of boring after about the 10 minute mark. Yet, this aside, Deren's artistic vision cannot be doubted and the film stands as an appropriate final bow in the oeuvre of a true pioneer which should be seen by anyone interested in the work of this amazing woman.

The Very Eye of Night is according to some critics Maya Deren's weakest work something that enraged Maya. I do understand why someone would not like this film as much as her first films but I still think it's quite good. The use of a balet that dances with a starry sky in the background (a very surreal picture) wouldn't interest me that much if it wasn't for Teiji Ito's music which is what really makes this film for me.

"The Very Eye of Night" was Maya Deren's last complete film and it is also one of her weakest films as director due to lots of repetitiveness and an overlong run-time. Deren had first started out with symbolic avant-garde shorts of symbolic narrative, but over the course of the forties changed gradually to dance studies, something which made her work much more lackluster compared to how she started out. Being made quite late in her career, this short is one of these and is more meant as an art film than a symbolic narrative tale. Like the other reviewer, I would say that Teiji Ito's music was excellent (possibly better than his score for "Meshes of the Afternoon") and kept the fifteen minute short from losing steam.

While I will admit that in the past I've called her "Meditation on Violence" boring, part of me wants to say that was better. Believe it or not, Deren did make a shorter version of this film earlier in 1951, in the form of a little known six minute movie entitled "Ensemble for Somnambulists". Apparently left off by her, this earlier project features the exact same idea of filming dancers in negative and superimposing them onto a backdrop, differing only in more chaotic, unedited camerawork. The idea still appealing to her, she probably decided by this point it was time to make a better film and get it released. The results, unfortunately, are dull for anyone who isn't a Maya Deren or dance fanatic.

That said, I still find this to be somewhat interesting. Unlike "Ensemble for Somnambulists" the images here are sharper, brighter, and look gorgeous in the ghostly look of the dancers. As with "Meditation on Violence", the director didn't really seem to know when enough was enough, but this movie still manages to be artistic and visually appealing within its short (yet overlong) run-time.