The concept of using cinema to reflect dreams isn't very new; the concept of cinema as "dream-vision" is a little less well known, but still has a strong impact upon critical writings involving film; many avant-garde and cult filmmakers from Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali to David Lynch and Robert Altman have attempted to create dreamscapes in one or most of their films; still, one thing filmmakers have been mostly unable to do is to provide the sense of motion that occurs during dreams.
Except Maya Deren. Maya Deren's experience with dance combines with a rich visual sense in all of her films, but it gets no better than in Meshes of the Afternoon, a movie that literally moves with the same form of surreal contemplation as a body moves through dream space. The visual/symbolic elements of the flower, the mirror-faced figure, the blade, the key, the windows, and the door themselves are all aspects of association which have been highly regarded in Deren's film, but even things as simple as the slightly slow-motion shot of Deren walking up the stairs has a strongly dreamlike impact.
Editing is another aspect of Deren's film-making which has rightly received praise. She literally takes the rhetoric of "Un Chien Andalou" one STEP further by changing the surreal transitions from cuts between different rooms to cuts between footsteps. The land and space traveled both outdoors and indoors in "Meshes of the Afternoon" can be felt the same way dream-motion can be felt in an oddly extrasensory way.
Many films have been based off of the filmmaker's dreams, but Maya Deren actualizes her dreams like no other. "Meshes of the Afternoon" stands as one of the most successful avant-garde films of all time, and is a must for anyone interested in cinematic topics or form.
--PolarisDiB
Except Maya Deren. Maya Deren's experience with dance combines with a rich visual sense in all of her films, but it gets no better than in Meshes of the Afternoon, a movie that literally moves with the same form of surreal contemplation as a body moves through dream space. The visual/symbolic elements of the flower, the mirror-faced figure, the blade, the key, the windows, and the door themselves are all aspects of association which have been highly regarded in Deren's film, but even things as simple as the slightly slow-motion shot of Deren walking up the stairs has a strongly dreamlike impact.
Editing is another aspect of Deren's film-making which has rightly received praise. She literally takes the rhetoric of "Un Chien Andalou" one STEP further by changing the surreal transitions from cuts between different rooms to cuts between footsteps. The land and space traveled both outdoors and indoors in "Meshes of the Afternoon" can be felt the same way dream-motion can be felt in an oddly extrasensory way.
Many films have been based off of the filmmaker's dreams, but Maya Deren actualizes her dreams like no other. "Meshes of the Afternoon" stands as one of the most successful avant-garde films of all time, and is a must for anyone interested in cinematic topics or form.
--PolarisDiB