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Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

One of the most important and influential experimental films of the 20th century, Maya Deren's 18-minute feminist classic explores the interior images of a woman (played by Deren) whose daydreams rest... read more read more...ore mystery and danger to the ordinary objects of her everyday life. Deren veers away from plot to advance her view that a film should be like a poem: a deep tissue of images designed to examine a mood or startle us with the strangeness of the things around us. Using film as an artistic medium rather than as a vehicle for stars or story or action, Deren looks back toward the earlier European avant-garde of such filmmakers as Germaine Dulac, who believed that film most resembled the abstract yet emotional form of music. Deren's investigation of one woman's subconscious experience explicitly rejects the linear form of theater and literature in favor of the non-narrative models offered by painting, music, sculpture, or poetry. This alternative view of film as a non-narrative artform was incalculably influential on future filmmakers, and in 1990 Meshes was named to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry. ~ Leo Charney, Rovi

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3,269 ratings

Unrated, 18 min.

Directed by: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

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Flixster Reviews (263)

  • kenstachnik
    March 18, 2012
    kenstachnik
    If you're into David Lynch, this will be right up your alley.
  • ajv2688
    October 13, 2010
    ajv2688
    This is pretty good for an experimental film, but I still didn't like it.
  • rubystevens
    March 28, 2009
    rubystevens
    hypnotic, disturbing and beautiful. cool soundtrack
  • arashxak
    December 6, 2008
    arashxak
    A truly inspirational short film & pretty amazing for 1943 but about its somehow feminist subject matter...
  • jennifxu
    November 17, 2007
    jennifxu
    I'm not sure how much I like avant-garde as a whole, but there's a meticulous attention to composition that makes me want to take a blown-up screenshot of every scene and hang them all around my house. Meshes of the Afternoon was engrossing, creepy, beautiful, and weird!
  • Beefy
    July 31, 2007
    Beefy
    Fascinating, creepy.
  • Ivan6655321
    March 20, 2010
    Ivan6655321
    There was a time in cable television where I got to watch experimental films from Filipino filmmakers, it is called "Alternative Cinema". That was my elementary days, and I remember being frightened by some of the works, and watching "Meshes of the Afternoon", it again evoked tha... read moret kind of feeling. It was by no means a horror film, but it was countless times scarier than legitimate fright pictures, not because of boogeymen and killers, but because of the eerie aura of the whole film that does not just dare to scare physically, but mainly to touch the raw nerves of the subconscious. If the idea in "Paprika" will be true, then documented dreams of the disturbed will look something like this film, a brainchild by husband-wife Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid(Deren got the accolades more, but it was reported that the whole film was largely Hammid's idea).
  • jimbotender
    September 1, 2008
    jimbotender
    Felicity and terror,a free-roaming experience,where Lynch's symbols are clearly inspired by this eclectic treat.Majestic,the ritualistic linear is a significant innovation,Deren and Hammid created a short destined as classic.
  • littlecharmer1959
    March 14, 2008
    littlecharmer1959
    A landmark in Avant-Garde filmmaking. Surreal, creepy, and unnerving, this is a must see for anyone interested in cinema.
  • kenscheck
    September 21, 2011
    kenscheck
    Famous experimental film, that I have seen far too many times in film school. Every class for two and half years. I'm done with it.

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Critic Reviews

Emanuel Levy
August 19, 2011
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Decades later, this avant-garde, experimental film holds up extremely well Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
May 12, 2011
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Maya Deren from 1943 until her death in 1961 led the avant-garde movement in cinema. Full Review

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