Maya Deren

Unlike while watching Chris Marker’s La Jetée, in Deren’s film Meshes in the Afternoon I was entirely focused on the plot – possibly as we had been prefaced beforehand that Deren has created a narrative in the film – although again, I did not catch on to this narrative as quickly as I would’ve hoped. While in the video on Maya Deren’s philosophy emphasises how Deren was obsessed with reality and using it as a stepping-stone to abstraction, I definitely feel like this film also incorporated a highly surrealist approach to storytelling. 

In my opinion, Meshes in the Afternoon was thoroughly cerebral, and from the beginning, it establishes a sense of psychological tension through Deren’s heavy use of symbols and motifs that repeat through the rest of the film. For example, in the opening scenes itself, the audience only sees Deren’s shadow and her extremities, however we also witness the symbols of the flower and the key. This immediately establishes a sense of intrigue and anticipation. However as the film moves along, and the audience begins to see more aspects of Deren’s character, it doesn’t take long for the plot to once again become convoluted. The protagonist multiplies and manifests herself in several different forms, and there is also the introduction of a hooded character (who at first I thought was a nun and was surprised that this horror trope had existed for so long, but then later realised that it was just a hood) with a mirror for a face. This combination of uncanny, puzzling elements (especially when she is depicted looking at another version of herself in the same frame as in Fig 1) led me to develop the interpretation that the film was about the protagonist’s mind and the perturbed thoughts that she has. The characters or personas depicted in the film all serve to represent the multiple facets of the protagonist’s psyche and create a visual that seems highly surrealist to the audience, yet still grounds them in reality through the use of the setting. The home that a lot of the story takes place in is highly prosaic and the external environment, with its plants and wind only changes as much as would realistically be expected by an audience (reflecting Deren’s idea that the elements of reality that give life to a film are the “uncontrolled, spontaneous elements which are the property of actuality itself”). Therefore it is only the characters and the action that suggest that there is something more subconscious being depicted.

In the video on Deren’s film philosophy, the narrator also notes that she was interested in medium specificity and highlighting how film is different from other forms of art-making, highlighting how Deren especially noted that other films of her time incorporated too many elements of literature and theatre. In exploring this notion of medium specificity, Deren aimed to underscore how film could enable us to craft a reality that can only exist on screen through movement and manipulation of time. In playing with these concepts one of Deren’s techniques that is present both in Meshes in the Afternoon and in At Land, is when her character skips through time by walking from one scene into the next. In At Land, a moment when this occurs that really intrigued me was at the beginning of the film, when Deren seems to be climbing up the bark of a tree, but then eventually ends up at the head of a long table, and then continues to crawl through shrubbery (Fig 2 shows Deren emerging at the table). I think in doing so, Deren successfully experiments with time, while also staying true to her desire to use reality as a foundation in her films. This technique of hers may have symbolic implications and definitely provokes the audience to contemplate the significance of these swift changes in setting (and also implicitly of time), yet any meaning that comes from them is generated through effective use of the “available reality”.

Apart from these prolific manipulations of time and space, Deren also aimed at conveying the usefulness of amateurism through her work. A quote that really stuck with me as she notes how amateurism means freedom to create without the confines of commercialism, was when she stated that “I am firmly convinced that a prerequisite of really original and creative work is that a production be scaled modestly enough to ‘afford’ failure.” I found this so interesting as from the perspective of an art student it raised questions for me, like “can one ever afford failure?,” “is art ever free from commercialism?” and “is it always possible to create with limited materials?”; but apart from these questions, Deren’s philosophy as she demonstrated in her work was really testament to her capability to manipulate the body, and to amplify the impact of limited resources to really have an effect on her audience. For example, for the most part the props she used in Meshes in the Afternoon were very minimalist, like they key, a flower, a knife, and possibly  few other small things one might find around, but Deren really effectively turned these mundane objects into motifs that have a much deeper meaning than one might perceive at first glance. This multifaceted nature of her work where she uses symbols and motifs to craft a deeper level of meaning, reminds me of Camille Norment’s quote that I think is quite applicable to Deren’s practice, wherein the audience is unable to leave with only a single set of conclusions (as we saw in our class discussion where each of us had varying interpretations of what Meshes in the Afternoon was about).

Overall, I think Deren’s filmmaking and especially her texts that she wrote on her practice are all material that I would definitely like to reference again. I believe both the subject matter as well as the aesthetic of her films are highly provocative and make the audience desire to see more. Additionally, medium specificity and the benefits of amateurism are both concepts that I would like to explore and apply even in my own practice, as they add a layer of meaning which although they may be invisible initially, really aid in shaping the meaning of a work, as Deren has proven.

Provided References:
Maya Deren
Maya Deren’s Film Philosophy
Maya Deren At Land

Work from:
9th Nov 2020 – Daily Vitamins Assignment
Time with Professor Mike Rader