The 1943 shortMeshes of the Afternoonmay not be a film the casual moviegoer is familiar with, but in terms of its impact on American cinema, it is right up there withD. W. Griffith’sThe Birth of a NationandOrson Welles’Citizen Kane.Maya DerenandAlexandr Hackenshmied’s unapologetic experimentalism and striking visuals marked it out as a pioneering piece of filmmaking long before it was added to the National Film Registry for having made a significant contribution to American cinema, and has been cited as a precursor to the experimentalism ofDavid Lynch’sInland Empire. But what makes it worth the watch?
‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ Wears Its Surrealist Influences on Its Sleeve
The work, which has a mere fourteen minutes of runtime and no dialogue, is considered a pioneering work of American surrealism, experimenting with non-linear narratives and innovative framing techniques. Deren and Hackenschmied were avant-gardists. The former, a Ukrainian immigrant who studied at Syracuse, immersed herself in the art scene of New York, and by 1944 had befriended composerJohn Cageand painterMarcel Duchamp. Hackenschmied, meanwhile, was born in Austro-Hungary and emigrated in 1938, having already begun his directorial career with the shortAimless Walk(1930).The pair were briefly marriedbefore separating in the late 1940s.
The influence of famous surrealist films such asfavorite of esteemed film critic Mark Kermode,Luis Buñuel’sUn Chien Andalou(1929) (which isdue to enter the public domainthis year), and the symbolism ofSalvador Dalí— including telephones and mirrors — is readily apparent inMeshes of the Afternoon. The work has been described asthe first “trance film"for its depiction of a dream state in which the lines between reality and the world of the subconscious are blurred. The protagonist (Deren) keeps seeing a mysterious hooded figure walking outside her home, but is always unable to reach them.
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The figure — who is revealed later to have a mirror for a face in one of the film’s most recognizable images — is seen at the end of an enormous tunnel, doing duty for the human eye. And, indeed, the prevalence of Deren’s eyes, either in extreme close-up or via the framing device of her gaze, is entirely in keeping with its centrality in earlier surrealist works. A knife, a loaf of bread, a mirror (subsequently shattered on a beach), and a flower fallen to the ground all loom large in Deren’s dream-turned-reality.
‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ Pushes the Technical Limits of Filmmaking on a Tiny Budget
But this agglomeration of surreal imagery would count for very little if it were not filmed effectively. Here, Deren and Hackenschmied come into their own, overcoming their shoestring budget (the film was shot with a single camera,bought with inheritance moneyby Deren,in their own Californian home for less than $275) by using innovative editing techniques and rudimentary yet highly effective special effects tocreate a visually compelling narrative. The pairedited splendidly, making liberal use of jump cuts, Dutch angles, the filming and tracking of the characters' shadows rather than the characters themselves, and inserting shots — such as the famous, repeated image of the door key in Deren’s hand — to focus the viewer’s attention.
Perhaps the most striking sequences are those in which Deren is inside her house. The staircase plays an important role; as she ascends it, her dreamlike state seems to settle, and so these sequences form the emotional crux of the film. Hackenschmied later appears in her bedroom — here in the same pose as the hooded figure, there neatly framed in a circular mirror, or looking on Deren’s sleeping form — as if to suggest his complicity in the figure’s sudden appearance.
Utterly unlike anything that had appeared in American cinema before,Meshes of the Afternoonsucceeds in transcending its brevity and technical innovations. Few filmmakers of the period crammed so much innovation into such a small space, and even fewer films have contributed quite so many unforgettable images to the annals of cinema. It is no wonder that it has gone down in history as a bewildering, brilliant glimpse into the workings of the subconscious mind.
Meshes of the Afternoon
