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Kseniia Cherniakova

Professor John Pruitt

Film and Modernism

14 March 2014

‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ is surreal?

In the history of experimental film Maya Deren came as the author of the film

'Meshes of the Afternoon' (1943). This film is still included in the prestigious anthology of

avant-garde cinema and it is demonstrated in different Film schools. A lot of people

invariably call that film the female version of 'Andalusian dog' (1929) by Luis Buñuel and

this is an inevitable price to pay for following the ideas of French Surrealism. 'Meshes of

the Afternoon' makes to think about surrealism, and especially about the legacy of Jean

Cocteau, whose films were wandering on the other side of the plot, in a maze of poetic

welter. However, Maya Deren did not like being called a follower of surrealism in cinema.

I will argue that despite the many similarities with surrealist cinema 'Meshes of the

Afternoon' cannot be called the surreal film and interpreted in the context of surrealist

ideas; it is experimental cinema, which reflects the persona vision of Deren.

Surrealism is one of the directions of avant-garde cinema. Surrealists turned to

cinema because the specific nature of cinema perfectly could realize one of the most

important goals of the surrealists, namely to make an unreal real, combine dream and

reality. Photographic of cinema was perfect for surrealists-painters, who sought to the

maximum lifelikeness of the individual images in their paintings. And montage made it

possible to line up a story according to the absurd logic of dreams. Surrealist cinema

existed shortly, almost immediately after his heyday followed slump and interest in such
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kind of art was exhausted, but some of its principles have been reinterpreted in later works

such representatives of the avant-garde as Luis Bunuel, Jean Cocteau, and the poetics of

surrealism as a whole has had a significant influence on the work of different filmmakers,

including Maya Deren.

Deren believed that the film have to remind a poem. "My film is to other films as

poetry is to other forms of literature"(Deren, 207). Movie was not a narrative art form for

her; it was hidden, deeply felt images that create a certain mood, revealing mysterious in

the everyday things. Usually movies of Deren virtually do not have literary and narrative

element, their abstractness remind music and they continue the tradition of surrealistic

cinema. But it seems that film 'Meshes of the Afternoon' is constructed a little bit

differently. If in the Surrealist cinema basically was no plot, and at first glance it may

seem that this is a surreal and plotless dream movie; but in the first movie of Deren there

is a plot.

Narrative of the 'Meshes of the Afternoon' explains why there’s a dream and what’s

going in the real world. The film starts with the woman who returned to her house and

then dozing off in a chair in the living room and ends when man finds the dead woman in

her chair. We have quite a story with the beginning and the end. The dream starts with the

woman who is chasing a black figure with a flower, the woman running up and down the

stairs and then looking out the window at the black figure being chased by copy of herself.

This actions repeats itself till the moment when three copies of the woman meet each other

in the house and each aware of each other’s presence. The fact of repetition of the same

motions with small variations, imitates how people can have the same dream repeatedly,

which helps create a surreal effect in the film.

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The film is built on the repetition of the plot, consisting in the fact that, heroine

follows for a figure in a black cape with a mirror instead of a face then returns to his

house, sits on a chair, close her eyes and see how she goes to the house for the figure with

a flower in her hand, sits in a chair, etc. This multi-layered repetition coupled with a

bifurcation and mutation allows considering 'Meshes of the Afternoon' as a dream film.

This is another detail that unites this film with surreal cinema, because the creative

energy, according to the Surrealists, comes from the unconscious, so the brightest

moments of its manifestation considered dreams, trance or hypnosis, etc. (Sadul, 57).

"'Meshes of the Afternoon' is contains elements of surrealist cinema, but they do not

make this movie surreal. 'Meshes of the Afternoon' is not just a dream movie, where reality

is masterfully combined with a dream; this is study of unconscious mind. "This film is

concerned with the interior experiences of an individual. It does not record an event which

could be witnessed by other persons. Rather, it reproduces the way in which the

subconscious of an individual will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple

and casual incident into a critical emotional experience." —Maya Deren on Meshes of the

Afternoon, from DVD release Maya Deren: Experimental Films 1943–58. In other words,

this film is about how our subconscious is trying to reach us. Such a conclusion obliges

interpret this film in the context of Freud's ideas.

Attaching great importance to dreams, Freud proceeded from the fact that they

have a meaning and interpretation contributes to understanding the person's spiritual life.

For Freud, a dream is implementation of forbidden, suppressed, repressed unconscious

desires. As previously mentioned, in the 'Meshes of the Afternoon' there is an endless,

repetitive dream. Repetition in this case, this is persistent work of the subconscious, which

is trying to reach out to the heroine. The heroine cannot catch up a black figure with a
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mirror instead of face and because of it this dream repeated. Obviously, the figure in black

is a repressed desire of heroine. In the context of Freud's ideas, it is logical to assume that

the figure in black is a death; chase heroine for this figure is a metaphor for her aspiration

to death. The heroine is not aware of this desire, and, therefore, she cannot catch figure.

But I think there is something else.

It is already known that Derain in his film explored the unconscious man at the

moment of a critical emotional experience , thus, I can suggests that the character is trying

to find a way out of this emotional crisis. The key is a symbol of solving her problem, way

out. Since the figure with a mirror instead of a face is the heroine herself, and she gets the

key from her mouth, I think that she is a solution of problem. The key turns into a knife

and I think it symbolizes that the output of her problems is suicide. Especially considering

that at the end of the film heroine killed herself by cutting her throat.

The Surrealists were also passionate about Freud's ideas; they proclaimed the

primacy of the subconscious over consciousness. Also, surrealists were followers of

Freud's ideas of sexuality, but rather the dominance of men over women.

I think a similar idea can be found in 'Meshes of the Afternoon'. Moment in which

the heroine Derain, lying on a bed, hit a man with a knife makes me think that she was

trying to escape from the power of her man. In her dream, she tries to kill him, but realizes

that the only way to break out of his control it is kill yourself.

Of course, such interpretations have the right to life and, certainly, Freudian motifs

in the Deren's film can be the evidence of surrealism of that movie. But the problem is that

Derain did not believe in Freudian theory, and, therefore, she could not consciously place

similar ideas in her movie. It would be more logical to interpret this film in terms of

feminism.
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Feminists called her the benchmark of self-expression in terms of total public

ritual. Derain criticized such Freudian interpretation of this movie and her work as a

whole, because she believed that Freudian theories, which support surrealism, purely

rationally invade into the sphere of irrational. The feminist views of Deren did not allow

admitting advantage male over the female, she rejected the "castration complex," which,

according to Freud, awakens in women "penis envy", paralyzes superego and does not

allow gaining strength and achieving independence1.

In the context of feminist ideas, the dream film by Derain is the movie about a

woman who rebels against her place in a "man's world"; she is trying to find herself. The

pursuit of a black figure is the attempt to find her own personal identity, that's why this

black figure has mirror instead of a face; the heroine is actually running for her own

shadow.

Before the moment audience sees her they see her shadow. I think, the

symbolization of the shadow represents the other side of heroine. This unknown side of

her is trying to get out; encourages her to fight with herself, which we can see in the scene

with the doppelgangers.

Obviously, the heroine of this film is in a relationship with a man with whom she

goes in the bedroom later. She is unhappy because that man dominates in their

relationship, he suppresses her feminine personality. I think, the moment when the key

dropped from her hand and fell down to the stairs can be interpreted as a loss of control. In

the scene where the heroine gets the key from her mouth, the key is a symbol of her fate.

1
Geller, Theresa; The Personal Cinema of Maya Deren: Meshes of the Afternoon and Its Critical Reception
in the History of the Avant-Gard; Biography, Volume 29, Number 1, University of Hawai'i Press, 2006,
pp.140-158.
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In that context, the dropping of the key seemed almost purposeful, as if she is giving up

and gave control of her destiny to the hands of the man.

The flower is almost always used to symbolize the feminine. In 'Meshes of the

Afternoon' can be said that the actions of the man towards the flower are symbolized the

relationship between man and woman. The man in the film even holds it in such a way

that would signify control over the feminine.

Moreover, when the male character is holding a flower in the hand, the heroine of

Deren is fully obey him. He helps her up from the chair, this action symbolizes his

dominance over her; she literally cannot rise from the chair without his help. Then, when

he holds the flower at the bottom of the stairs while looking at her blankly and then

proceeds up the stairs without looking back, she follows him without questions; woman

follows the man.

Also, in this scene there is an interesting detail; before he does any of this he hangs

up the phone. I suppose that the phone which is off the hook symbolizes a cry for help.

The phone is always off the hook until the man hangs it up. When he hangs up the phone,

he interrupts her metaphorical cry for help. This film is kind of scream of the woman who

tired of being under the yoke of men.

One more thing, in her dream, she was trying to find herself and get out from under

the power of men, but when her boyfriend wakes her from the nightmare she feels safe.

That is the literal interpretation of the prince on a white horse who rescues a helpless girl.

In society it is assumed that it is the man's duty to save the woman. And woman’s role in

society it is to play the helpless female who needs the man to protect her and shield her

from the terrible world.

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“Deren thus becomes one of the women artists who were “female pioneers in their

‘masculine’ fields of endeavor” yet “remained prisoners of an ideology that even

constructed their positions of resistance within traditional roles” (Geller,153).

I would say that this film is a statement to the world that a woman is able to cope

everything myself. Woman does not need a man to identify herself.

Of course, both of these interpretations have the right to exist. But my Freudian

interpretation of the movie is based on the fact that a surreal movie does not have a

rational explanation for all events. Surreal cinema is built irrational and cannot interpreted

in one rational way. This unconscious work of art and it does not have the meaning, it only

shows the operation of the human unconscious. That is why the Surrealists turned to

Freud's ideas and why such an interpretation cannot be correct. According Deren, the most

crucial in the work was conscious control and it is the opponent of the irrationality of the

Surrealists.

In other words, 'Meshes of the Afternoon' is a film which can be explained

rationally, it is not just a meaningless dream, we can see how this reality affects the dream

and interpret it on the basis of reality. It is plays important role that Derain plays the main

character in the film, it allows to think of it as an autobiographical that already implies the

existence of a reasonable, rational interpretation. That is why I believe that 'Meshes of the

Afternoon' is not surreal movie; it is a movie with elements of surrealism. Given a certain

attitude Derain to the ideas of Freudianism and feminism, and given that the film contains

elements autobiographical elements. I think the interpretation in the context of feminist

ideas is more accurate, although it is not only one.

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Works Cited

1. Deren, M. Essential Deren. Documentext of Kingston, New York, 2004.

2. Breton, A. Manifestoes of Surrealism. University of Michigan, 1969.

3. Geller, T. The Personal Cinema of Maya Deren: Meshes of the Afternoonand

Its Critical Reception in the History of the Avant-Gard. University of Hawai'i

Press, 2006.

4. Matthews, J. H. Surrealism in Film. University of Michigan Press, 1971

5. Sadul, J. Istoriya kinoiskusstva. Moscow, 1957.