Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Art of the Moving Image: Critical Commentary

Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon [1943]1
Extract: 04.16- 06.58
Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S03Aw5HULU
During the 1940s, film can be seen to reflect the volatility of the prevailing wartime
period. Expressing elemental fear and anxiety 2 of a society imbued with the threat
of conflict; the film noir melodrama of Hollywood mainstream cinema, and the
psychodrama3 of experimental film practises of the emerging American AvantGarde, can be seen to pictorially engage with these tensions. Yet despite their
cinematographic similarities, many differences exist. 4 The experimental filmmakers
of the psychodrama, were beginning to use film exclusively as an art form, to reflect
personal vision;5 rejecting the industrial mode of film production and conventions of
mainstream cinema, in favour of independent, film- based artistic practises.6
In order to discuss key themes of the psychodrama, this critical commentary focuses
on Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) by American migrs, Maya Deren and husband,
Alexander Hammid.7 Particular attention is drawn to a short extract of the film to
1

For the purpose of this commentary, Meshes, has been taken in its original silent format. A soundtrack
by Derens third husband Tijei Ito, was later added to Meshes of the Afternoon, in 1959 and can be
found on most examples of the film online.
2
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to
Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 57
3
Psychodrama, is a term used by A.L. Rees, but also sited much earlier by Sitney in Visionary
Film; also known as trance film, due to the trance-like, hypnotic aesthetic and rhythmic effect that
these films projected.
4
Both types of films manifested an undulating unease and paranoia; by featuring heightened cinematic
styles, starkly contrasted aesthetics and harsh lighting, yet created visually dark, sinister atmospheres.
However, the commercial interests, big budgets, well- known actors, and Hollywood sets of the noir
pictures, did not apply to the psychodrama.
5
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to
Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 57
6
Sitney, Adams P.; Visionary film: the American avant-garde, 1943-2000, Oxford University Press Inc.
New York, 2002
7
This is considered to be one of the first examples of the psychodrama, and was a dynamic
collaboration between critic, activist and filmmaker, Deren and her filmmaker husband, Hammid, both
of whom shot, acted, and edited the film in their bungalow in the LA hills. [Rees: 2010, 58] The film
was the first of only a small portfolio of work for the tragically short-lived Deren, who died in 1961
aged just forty- four; and was a radical departure from the usual film that Hammid was used to
producing- [Comer: 2009, 48]. Hammid was a Czechoslovakian refugee, and a filmmaker working on
documentaries in Hollywood. Hammid had great photographic technical ability and skill, due to his
background in documentaries in Hollywood, and was exposed to early avant-garde cinema. For more
information on Alexander Hammid see- Thomas E. Valasek, Alexander Hammid: A Survey of His
Filmmaking Career, Film Culture 67- 69 (1979) p 250- 322.

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

explore the unusual features of the mise- en- scene, such as the disjointed domestic
setting and hypersignification8 of domestic objects; and to analyse the
cinematography and techniques of montage editing.
The psychodrama, modelled on dream, lyric and contemporary dance; 9 typically
subverted conventional narrative and spatiotemporal qualities of commercial film, to
explore themes such as desire, loss, obsession and death. The pseudo- narrative
shaped by the depiction of dream or a dream- state, typically focused on the inner
conflicts of consciousness and states of mind of the central protagonist.10

As

suggested by Freud,
The threshold between life and death becomes a space of uncertainty in
which boundaries blur between rational and the supernatural, the
animate and the inanimate.11
This threshold between life and death- the subconscious, often depicted as dream; as
a key feature of the psychodrama, exposes the notion of indeterminate reality,
whereby disparate objects often take on symbolic and metonymic resonance. 12 This is
especially prevalent in Meshes of the Afternoon. (1943)
Typical of the psychodrama, Meshes draws from a strongly subjective narrative
fiction; traversing the boundary between reality and unreality, animate and the
inanimate, to expose personal, inner- conflict or crisis of the central protagonist, a
woman, played by Deren.

Focusing upon a single guiding consciousness,13 as

reflected in the use of eyeline- matching shots, and participatory camera

Rabinovitz, Lauren; Points of resistance: woman, power & politics in the New York Avant- Garde..
Maya Deren and American Avant- Garde: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943- 1971) as Womens
Discourse, University of Illinois Press, 2003, p 56
9
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to
Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 58
10
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to
Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 58
11
Mulvey, Laura; Death 24x a Second: Stillness and the Moving Image, Reaktion Books, Cromwell
Press Group, 2006, p 38
12
John Pruitt, Stan Brakhage and the Long Reach of Maya Derens Poetics of Film. in Steinhoff,
Eirik (ed) Chicago Review: Stan Brakhage : Correspondences 47:4/ 48: 1, p 166-132
13
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to
Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 58

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

movements,14 the viewer enters the insular reality of the woman caught in a perpetual
cycle of her own actions. The viewer is presented with a repeated sequence of a
scene; which reworks an initial vision of a woman chasing and never catching, a
cloaked figure; the woman then enters a domestic setting, encountering a series of
domestic objects around her home. As Pruitt suggests,
[the] progressive continuity comprised of repetitions of symbolic
eventscan be superimposed, one on another, to provide, in effect,
variations of a single narrative moment or dilemma.15
With every repeated cycle of this event, the narrative develops and accentuates the
uncanny feeling of a foreboding, lingering presence.

This presence is not only

resonant of the unexplained cloaked figure, but is suggested by the placement and
treatment16 of inanimate, domestic objects, which appear to take on their own
malevolent vitality.17
Maureen Turim associates the films images with domestic disorder- a telephone off
the hook, a record player turntable spinning relentlessly, a knife stuck in a loaf of
bread;18 but this seems too literal. An abandoned newspaper, the empty chair, a key,
the knife, each emanates an intangible, sinister quality, which disturb the scene of
domesticity further than disorder. These elements appear to conspire to disrupt the
protagonists intentions,19 and have been recognised as:
.. a distinctly feminine form of psychosis, whereby melodramatic
conventions .. metamorphose into lethal weapons or objects or

14

The subjective, fluid camera is more of a participant in the action rather than a neutral recording
agent, this encourages the viewer to share the sight of the protagonist. Rees, A. L.; A History of
Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical Avant- Garde to Contemporary British Practice,
BFI book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p 58
15
Perry, Ted; Masterpieces of modernist cinema, Indiana University Press, 2006, p 138
16
By treatment, I mean to suggest the cinematographic and editing techniques employed by the
filmmakers to depict the objects in order to suggest an alterior motive by their presense.
17
Schatz, Thomas; Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s; Volume 6 of the History of
American cinema, University of California Press, 1999, p 453
18
Schatz, Thomas; Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s; Volume 6 of the History of
American cinema, University of California Press, 1999, p 451
19
Butler, Cornelia, Esther Adler, Alexandra Schwartz, Paola (CON) Antonelli, Carol (INT) Armstrong;
Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art, 2010, p 302

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

disgust domestic bliss thus turns into horrible nightmares.with
insanity the assumed or intended cause.20
The domestic objects take on a metaphorical and symbolic value, 21 and appear to
embody a larger mysterious force;22 yet this is largely owing to the editing and
cinematographic techniques of framing, isolations, seen in Figure 1, and cross cutting,
to transform tranquil images of domesticity into threatening portents of
destruction.23 Yet the domestic setting in itself plays a part in this threatening
atmosphere and sense of impending violence.
Similar to the mainstream melodrama, the suburban home in the psychodrama is seen
as oppressive,24 and Schatz has argued that this setting is used to
signify..containment.25

Meshes, is largely ichnographically fixed by the

claustrophobic atmosphere of the bourgeois home, 26 which could suggest a feeling of

entrapment physically, but could also represent entrapment within the narrative and
within the mind of the central protagonist, (See Figure 2.) The uncanny use of this
environment creates alienation and disorientation, as familiar territory becomes
unsettlingly unfamiliar, thus indicating a visual and metaphorical depiction of the
womans mental disintegration. Julian Wolfreys writes:
It is a domestic world of dream logic where objects turn into other
objects, where speed of motions does not correspond to physical laws,
and where geography is neither constant nor consistent. Time and
space are so fractured that such everyday occurrence as walking up the
20

Lord, Susan and Annette Burfoot; Killing women: the visual culture of gender and violence; Volume
6 of Cultural studies series, Wilfrid Laurier Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006 p 243
21
Meshes, despite the absolute negation of Deren to the approach, can be seen to permeate Surrealist
and Freudian elements. The objects can be recognised as maintaining distinct Freudian characteristics,
yet Deren was adamant to oppose this. Butler, Alison; Women's cinema: the contested screen,
Wallflower Press, 2002, p 96
22
Rich, Ruby B.; Chick flicks: theories and memories of the feminist film movement, Duke University
Press, 1998, p 53
23
Pramaggiore, Maria and Tom Wallis; Film: a critical introduction, Laurence Kind Publishing, 2005,
p 198
24
Lord, Susan and Annette Burfoot; Killing women: the visual culture of gender and violence; Volume
6 of Cultural studies series, Wilfrid Laurier Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006 p 243
25
, Susan and Annette Burfoot; Killing women: the visual culture of gender and violence; Volume 6 of
Cultural studies series, Wilfrid Laurier Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2006 p 184
26
Gledhill, C. (ed) (1987) Home is Where the Heart is, London BFI, , in Gibbs, John; Mise- en- Scene:
Film Style and Interpretation, Wallflower, London and New York, 2002, p 67

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

stairs, entering a bedroom, or answering the telephone become
traumatising experiences.27
This is illustrated in Figure 3, 4 and 5, whereby the mundane task of walking up the
stairs is exaggerated and made unfamiliar. A combination of cuts, cut- in shots and
framing techniques, alongside the use of slow motion; labours the protagonists
movements, making the action, an event. By extending the temporal duration into
one of abnormality, what should be an insignificant moment becomes a crucial part of
the narrative, and creates a sense of tension and suspense. This twenty- two second
sequence, exaggerates the dynamism of movement, and simultaneously illuminates
the dialectical tensions between reality and unreality, crucial to the narrative of the
psychodrama, and reminds the viewer of the spectacle of film as a medium. 28 The
dialogue between reality and unreality is again reflected in Figure 5 and 6; a scene in
which the unique privilege29 of the camera subverts actual possibility.30
The juxtaposition of montage sequences, interruptive jump-cuts and disorientating
camera positions, combined with the uncanny domestic setting; creates a sense of
hysteria and latent menace and changes, what should be understood as a banal
journey of a woman navigating her home, into a narrative infused with imminent
threat and impending violence.31
The film cameras material potential to create a [p]rojected image as a mirror, a
weapon, an analytical tool, and a mise en abyme in which the virtual and the real
unfold into one another with increasing complexity. 32 As Rush explains,
27

Schatz, Thomas; Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s; Volume 6 of the History of
American cinema, University of California Press, 1999, p 455
28
Rabinovitz, Lauren; Points of resistance: woman, power & politics in the New York Avant- Garde..
Maya Deren and American Avant- Garde: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943- 1971) as Womens
Discourse, University of Illinois Press, 2003, p 57
29
This is an idea of Derens as seen in the John Pruitt text- [Pruitt:47:4, 116] In her writings, Deren
suggests that the camera has the capacity to represent a given reality in its own terms, so that it is
accepted as a substitute proper for that realty.
30
A cut has been employed to create discontinuity between the shot of Deren appearing in front of the
curtain, when initially she had been photographed as behind it. This editing strategy overcomes a
physical impossibility, simultaneously undermining the surface realism of the medium and the
narrative.
31
Butler, Alison; Women's cinema: the contested screen, Wallflower Press, 2002, p 68
32
Schatz, Thomas; Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s; Volume 6 of the History of
American cinema, University of California Press, 1999, p 455

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

the originating tactics of the technology of photography, to represent
motion and duration is particularly suited to express extraordinary
psychological states.33
This observation suggests that the medium of film and its ability to be manipulated,
both in methods of editing and cinematographic strategies, enabled Deren to fuse the
virtual and the real, to represent the extraordinary psychological state.
Therefore, the unique material potential of film combined with subjective pictorial
camera work, and the carefully composed mise- en- scene, enabled inanimate objects
to appear malevolent; the domestic setting, uncanny and claustrophobic; and revealed
the ambiguity of reality. Meshes may have reflected deterioration of the protagonists
mind, but as a psychodrama, perhaps resonates with the undulating tension and
distrust of society experiencing the madness of war.34

33

- Rush, Michael, New Media in Art, Thames and Hudson world of art, Thames and Hudson Ltd,
London, 2005, p 27
34
Meshes is said to have been created out of Derens impulse to portray the inner realities of an
individual and to explore the ways in which the subconscious will develop, interpret and elaborate an
apparently simple and casual incident into a critical emotional experience. Butler, Cornelia, Esther
Adler, Alexandra Schwartz, Paola (CON) Antonelli, Carol (INT) Armstrong; Modern Women: Women
Artists at the Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Modern Art, 2010, p302 - 303

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Illustrations:

Figure 1. 04.29 : The isolation of the knife gives it a sinister vitality. It is the focal
point of the shot, emphasising a sense of suspicion, infusing the narrative with tension
and unsettling emotion. This could be described as a Macguffin.

Figure 2. 06.39 : As Deren gazes out of the window onto the scene of her multiplied
self chasing the cloaked figure, the viewer is at once reminded of the interior
claustrophobic setting of the domestic environment and of the interior conflict of the
protagonists mind.

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Figure 3. 04.37: This close up, frames the feet making them the main focus for the
viewer. The camera remains static as the feet slowly move out of shot. Within this
frame, its can still be understood as a staircase, although having omitted the entire
scale, enhances the feeling of endlessness which is projected by the use of slow
motion.

Figure 4. 04.42: The scene continues to follow the protagonist running up the stairs,
however from a close up, it has moved into an extreme close up, whereby the focus
has become increasingly abstract and the movement more unsettling and unusual.
The staircase has become an ambiguous, infinite object rather than a recognisable
domestic feature. The only thing which makes it clear that it is in fact a staircase is
the repetition of the cropped feet bounding laboriously, and the continuity of the
editing.

Figure 5. 04.53: The awkwardly placed, downward shot elongates the staircase in
which the protagonist has just ascended. By cropping out the bottom of the staircase,
again exaggerates the idea of endless steps. The frame is diagonally cut in half by
what appears to be the banister, which jarringly confronts the viewer, and
metaphorically breaks the previous sequence with the one that proceeds it.
8

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Figure 6. 05.01 : At first Deren is shown to be behind the curtain as it finally

completing her endless journey of scenes previously.

Figure 6. 05.04 : However, a cut is employed at this point so that there is no

continuity- we do not see Deren emerge from behind the curtain, instead she is simple
placed in front by way of a jump cut. This severs real-time duration, calling into
question spatiotemporal qualities of film. It makes the viewer aware of the presence
of discontinuity in both the narrative throughout and the unique material potential of
the photographic medium.

Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Art of the Moving Image: Critical Commentary
Bibliography
Butler, Alison; Women's cinema: the contested screen, Wallflower Press, 2002
Butler, Cornelia, Esther Adler, Alexandra Schwartz, Paola (CON) Antonelli, Carol
(INT) Armstrong; Modern Women: Women Artists at the Museum of Modern Art,
Museum of Modern Art, 2010
Comer, Stuart; Film and Video Art, Tate Publishing, London, 2009
Eagan, Daniel, National Film Preservation Board (U.S.); America's film legacy:
the authoritative guide to the landmark movies in the ... landmark movies in the
National Film Registry, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2010
Gibbs, John; Mise- en- Scene: Film Style and Interpretation, Wallflower, London
and New York, 2002
Hurd, Mary G.; Women directors and their films, Greenwood Publishing Group,
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violence; Volume 6 of Cultural studies series, Wilfrid Laurier Series, Wilfrid
Laurier University Press, 2006
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University of California Press Ltd, London 2001
Perry, Ted; Masterpieces of modernist cinema, Indiana University Press, 2006
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Publishing, 2005

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Charlotte Hopson- 4100231

Rabinovitz, Lauren, Points of resistance: women, power & politics in the New York
Avant-garde ...Maya Deren and an American Avant- Garde Cinema: Meshes of
the Afternoon (1943- 1971) as Womans Discourse, University of Illinois Press,
2003
Rees, A. L.; A History of Experimental Film and Video: From the Canonical
Avant- Garde to Contemporary British Practice, BFI book, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010
Rich, Ruby B.; Chick flicks: theories and memories of the feminist film movement,
Duke University Press, 1998
Rush, Michael; New Medias in Art, Thames and Hudson: world of art, Thames and
Hudson Ltd, London, 2005
Rush, Michael; Video Art, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 2007
Schatz, Thomas; Boom and bust: American cinema in the 1940s; Volume 6 of the
History of American cinema, University of California Press, 1999
Sitney, Adams P.; Visionary film: the American avant-garde, 1943-2000, Oxford
University Press Inc. New York, 2002
Wheeler W. Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Experimental cinema: the film
reader, In focus-Routledge film readers: In focus, Routledge, 2002

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