Meshes of the Afternoon

For her influential short avant-garde film Meshes of the Afternoon, the prominent experimental filmmaker Maya Deren collaborated with her then-husband, Alexander Hammid. The film is silent except for added sound effects, such as the ticking of a clock.

The action centers on a woman, played by Deren herself. She returns home, falls asleep, and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. She repeatedly follows another woman, who is dressed in black, holds a flower, and has a mirror for a face. Each time this mysterious presence disappears around the corner, Deren enters a house. 

Through repetitive images and a complete mismatch with the objective view of time and space, the woman’s dark inner desires play out on-screen. The camera follows her from striking angles while the lighting produces sharp, diagonal shadows in this black-and-white film. A knife, a telephone, and a key return time and again as visual motifs and sometimes abruptly merge. Subsequently, a man (played by Hammid) enters this menacing, circular fantasy world.

In 1957, the Japanese composer Teiji Ito, Deren’s second husband, added an ambient, dreamy soundtrack to the film.