Michael_Elliott Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4)The IMDB summary of this film states that it's about "A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams..." Well, that might be one interpretation but I'm sure you could show this film to a hundred people and get a hundred different replies as to what it was about. This avant-garde film from Maya Deren and Alexander Hamid has become one of the most popular of its type and it's easy to see why.If you're a fan of Luis Bunuel's UN CHIEN ANDALOU then you'll certainly want to check this out as there are some very bizarre and surreal images on display. There's no doubt that the highlight for me was the women in black who creepily walks around and then when you see the face, well, I'm not going to ruin it but it's a powerful effect. The film works perfectly as a mix between reality and a dream world and there's no question that you never know which one that you're in.The film was certainly very well-made and the images are striking throughout. The cinematography is a major plus but so was the timing of the editing. MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON is a very beautiful little gem and one of the most surreal as well.

ironhorse_iv In the early 1940s, surrealist cinema films like this, wasn't as popular, as it was in the 1920s. Maybe, because many film studios & theaters chains didn't want, its audience, to question, their existence, during wartime. Yet, there was a few films with Freudian dream symbolism from that era, that continue to use shocking, irrational, absurd imagery to challenge the traditional function of art, in order to represent reality. Some of them, became classics like 1945's 'Lost Weekend', others like this Eleanora Derenkowskaia AKA Maya Deren's short film, have been forgotten by the sands of time. While, it's true that few movie goers are familiar with 'Meshes of the Afternoon'; it did leave an impact with a legion of film scholars in Hollywood for years to come. Names like David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, and David Fincher, often sighted, as filmmakers, whom embraced techniques that Deren help pioneered, such as jump cuts, superimposition, slow motion, and multiply exposures. Even the ominous mood & circular narrative of this short film are recycled in later films such as 2000's 'Memento' & 2001's 'Mulholland Drive'. It's sad, that the general public doesn't know, much about her, as I felt that she really does deserve more credit. She is one of the very few female directors at that time; when the majority were men. Her desire to make an avant-garde movie with her then-husband, Alexander Smahel AKA Alexander Hammid about one female's psychological problems at home, during wartime was also really bold, as the majority of the films were focus on uplifting the fighting spirits of the men fighting abroad. Not only that; but she have the film in completely silent in age of sound. Although, it was a big mistake for her part, as not a lot of people saw it & heard about it, literally. It still takes big ball to try that, in a world, full of 'talkie' comedies. Yet, later in 1959, Deren herself stated out, that having no sound was her biggest mistake of this film; thus, choosing to have an droning, percussive, unnerving soundtrack by her third-husband, Teiji Ito to add to the entire hallucinatory experience, even if the Japanese music doesn't really match, in what's happening on screen. Despite the movie having problems with the sound, I have to say, it really surprising that this movie was made in 1943. The visuals looks like some sort of LSD beatnik inspired film from the late 1950s or early 1960s. The array of potential repetitive symbolism bombards the viewer from the very start, leaving us with several repetitive motifs to think deep about, once the movie is done; such as the flowers in the driveway, a key falling, the knife & most of all, the shots of the grim reaper with the mirror. Since surrealism films like this, are based on theories of dreams and psychology, nothing is assured on what it truly means. Nevertheless, it didn't stop from some people from trying. Some film theorists see the movie as a metaphor attack of Hollywood, with the grim reaper representing the artistic, political and economic monopoly over the freedom of American cinema, with movie studios killing Deren's vision of the industry. Yet, others see the movie as a way for Deren to explore her struggles out of her long term dependence on amphetamines and sleeping pill that finally took her life in 1961. Then, there are those, who believe that the film has a feminist outlook, with its themes of gender identity and sexual politics. Who knows, the true reasons, why Deren made this bizarre hard to understand movie and follow it up with more disoriented & abstraction movies, like 1944's 'At Land'!? All, I know is that if seen today, 'Meshes of the Afternoon' will leave some viewers upset, and confused. So, in the end, while it's not a movie for everybody, but I do believe, those interested in filmmaking or storytelling does need to see it, to understand the movie's self-worth. After all, in 1990, 'Meshes of the Afternoon' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant for good reason. There has to be some value. So check it out, if you can. It's worth your time.

lhnrlmitz I got to know this film from IMDb's "Similar movies, movies you may like" link, and what I'd expected was beyond my expectation. Way ahead of times editing and effect including "slow mo effect", brilliant score, haunting imagery and a captivating story-line in just 13mins.The movie starts by introducing of the actress "Maya Deren" herself and the core elements of the story with an emphasized shot on each of them, and each item might symbolize something, we get flowers, a key, a knife in a loaf of bread, a telephone. After the introduction "Maya Deren" went up to a room, stopped the record player and the film went silent, leading me to believe that the film's previous source of music came from that record player. After switching off the record player Maya Deren seemingly took a nap and things get crazy when the record started playing again without manual assistance, or so i thought and Maya Deren meeting a cloak figure with a mirror for a face, like in a dream or an out of body experience, stuck in an endless loop as the story-progress, and ultimately leading to a brilliant conclusion.Don't miss this.

Asa_Nisi_Masa2 Have American filmmakers ever been as experimental as Deren since this short was made? If so, my guess is not very often - not as far as I know anyway. It really is astonishing to think that this was made in 1943, in the midst of WWII! A fellow IMDb user had first recommended I watch this when a while back, I had started a thread about movies that should be taken in non-rationally on one of the boards. I can now completely see why he urged me to watch this: whatever side of the brain it is that we use when our rationality is switched off, is the side one must use to make the most of Deren's film. Symbols aplenty - symbols I wasn't especially trying to interpret, but just trying to take in with everything else that was going on - Maya Deren's own very striking, very beautiful physical presence, a Death-like figure bearing a fake flower (but they're not the only one to carry it during the course of the movie), a key popping out of Deren's mouth which reminded me of the cover of Kate Bush's The Dreaming album, shadows, light, repetitions, interiors, exteriors... just soak it in, and don't try and explain it.