US 14m Dir: Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid
Original Screenplay
I found this piece of avant-garde experimental cinema starring and directed by wife and husband Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid to be an unsettling watch.
Meshes of the Afternoon essentially starts with a woman (Deren) asleep on a chair and she appears to be having some a circular dream with the same images repeatedly appearing. These include a key falling, a knife in a loaf of bread, a cloaked figure with a mirror where the face should be and a phone off the hook.
What does it all mean? Well helpfully Deren explained it saying Meshes "..is concerned with the interior experiences of an individual. It does not record an event which could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience."
Thanks Maya. OK, so this is the thoughts of the woman. Personally I'm struggling to come up with what exactly this interior experience is but I can pick out some possible elements. There are several moments when there is more than one version of the same woman in the room. I felt this represented the way she looked at herself and given that one version tries to stab another I'd take that view as negative.
I also think the film depicts the woman as feeling trapped in her house and her marriage- we see her constantly watching herself walk along but she always ends up back at the house. We also see her shatter her husband like he is made of glass which I think also represents how he feels. Given that Deren's actual husband Hammid both appeared in the film and did most of the camerawork you'd think he must have felt a bit weird about it- the marriage only lasted another four years before they split up too.
Intriguing if not really to my taste.
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