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.

A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.The film was the product of Deren's and Hammid's desire to create an avant garde personal film that dealt with devastating psychological problems, like the French surrealist films of the 1920s such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930).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", going into the registry in the second year of voting. In 2015 the BBC named the film the 40th greatest American movie ever made.The dreamlike (or nightmarish) atmosphere of Meshes has influenced many subsequent films, notably David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997). Jim Emerson has also noted the influence of Meshes within David Lynch's film, Inland Empire. Meshes also had a clear influence on Lynch's film Mulholland Drive with dual roles, a mysterious figure, winding Hollywood road, a dream within a dream, a woman viewing her own body in a dream, and iconic objects such as a key and a telephone.This film is incredible, and it shocks me that it and its creators are not better known. They deserve to be on the same level as Bunuel and Lynch, but yet do not seem to be known outside of those who really have a passion for avant-garde or surreal film.

I had the pleasure of watching Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon just minutes after watching Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou. And although Buñuel's movie is the most famous and most influential of the two, I not only enjoyed Deren's more but I also found it more intelligent and better made.Although Buñuel's movie rejects any narrative and interpretation, Deren's movie is a little narrative of a nightmare, plunging the viewer deep into a dark, intimate world full of symbols, scary figures and elliptic storytelling. All in all, it's much more dreamlike than Un Chien Andalou.A hand leaves a flower on a pathway. A woman picks it up. Enters a house. Objects are out of place. She falls asleep. The narrative begins anew, with small differences. Then it starts again, each time oddly familiar but always with differences. At one point the viewer asks himself if the woman isn't just dreaming about herself in an endless loop? Maybe she is, maybe she's not. The movie doesn't explain anything, it merely presents a situation and invites the viewer to think about what it means. The tone of the movie is depressing and austere, and was originally made without sound. I enjoy weird movies, and I can say I've seldom seen one that so easily captured the nature of a nightmare, by being terrifying without really showing anything terrifying. Like a painting by Escher or a short-story by Jorge Luis Borges, Meshes of the Afternoon is a work of art that transcends reality and touches the viewer on a level above language and reason.

I saw Meshes of the Afternoon with Teiji Ito's music composition for the film, and therefore had a different experience with it than those who watched it as the original silent of 1943. The music was composed for the movie, therefore followed its rhythms and breath carefully, accentuating the drama and suspense. The picture and music is an interesting marriage between western surrealist sensibility and traditional Japanese sounds.Maya Deren's background as a dancer lends a wonderful sense of rhythm and movement to the movie. The narrative works like a patchwork quilt or collage, surprisingly modern for the 43s. The wonderful thing is that it is coherent yet free of predictable forms and structures. The use of the mirror and looping action is fascinating. Much as I am a Jonas Mekas fan, I have to say Maya Deren is the true founder of avant-garde films.