Still aus Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943. Mit Genehmigung von Re:Voir
I started out by thinking in terms of a subjective camera, one that would show only what I could see by myself without the aid of mirrors and which would move through the house as if it were a pair of eyes, pausing with interest here and there, opening doors, and so on. This beginning developed into a film about a girl who fell asleep and saw herself in her dream, and it soon became obvious that I could not both photograph and act myself, so I waited until my husband was free to develop further the concept of the film and to execute it with me.
Meshes of the Afternoon does start with a subjective camera sequence in which only the feet and shadow of the girl are visible. For the rest the film is the result of one of those perfect collaboratios in which an idea advanced by either person is spontaneously accepted by the other or immediately reconsidered and rejected by both. It was a far cry from story conferences in which the sensitive and delicate intuitions which give real vitality and meaning are somehow lost under the welter of arguments, justifications and analyses. Meshes of the Afternoon is concerned with the inner realities of an individual and the way in which the subconscious will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently silmple and casual occurance into a critical emotional experience. It is culminated by a double ending, in which it would seem that the imagined achieved, for the protagonist, such force that it became reality. Using cinematic techniques to achieve dislocations of inanimate objects, unexpected simultaneities etcerta, this film establishes a reality which, although based somewhat on dramatic logic, can exist only on film.
Maya Deren: Magic is New, Mademoiselle, January 1946
- #Title: Meshes of the Afternoon
- #Director: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
- #Year of Production: 1943
- #Duration: 00:14:00