Thoughts on Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon

I think there are two avenues of cinematic presentation: one— strictly thoughtless, where everything about the story is given to viewers; or two— thought provoking, which propels viewers to take attention to details amidst sometimes massive confusion. As I watched Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, it became apparent that her experimental film was one down the second avenue.

Continuously, images were repeated—the knife, the mirror, the headset left off the phone, the flower—and it was nearly impossible to watch and not search for some kind of symbolic undertone for each one. Thinking of these images, one after another, made me think back to Deren’s essay we read in class—Anagram. I remember Deren talking about humans and animals, and the basic difference between us is that we do not do most things by instinct, but how grow through experience; and that our basic natural faculty of rationale is something that is both a useful tactic, as well as something that drives us batty.

We want reasons, excuses, and logic as to why things happen. When Deren noted that we hold a natural faculty of rationale, I realized it is quite possible that her films, such as Meshes of the Afternoon, were created to make viewers think: why is there a knife? What does the mirror mean? Why do the scenes repeat? Personally, I feel Deren’s film is meant to play with our minds and that same natural faculty of rationale. I think we are not meant to find an answer, but rather, to spend limitless time trying to make something out of nothing. But then again, that’s simply my interpretation.