Cinema
Meshes of the Afternoon
Synopsis
A woman returns home one afternoon. She sees a flower on the path, drops her key on the stairs, finds a knife stuck in a loaf of bread and a telephone off the hook, then falls asleep in an armchair. In her dream, she pursues, without ever catching up with it, a hooded figure whose face is a mirror. The same course begins again, each time a little different and more menacing, and her doubles multiply until there are three of them around the table.
Context
The film cost about 275 dollars, according to Maya Deren's record of expenses, and was shot with a second-hand 16 mm Bolex camera. It remained silent until 1959, when Teiji Ito, who would become her third husband, added a score influenced by classical Japanese music. In 1946, the filmmaker rented the Provincetown Playhouse to screen this film and two others, before a full house, and distributed her films herself. In 1947 the film received at Cannes the international grand prize for amateur film, in the avant-garde category.
Who it is for
A fourteen-minute short film, silent in its first version, given a soundtrack in 1959. There is no dialogue and no continuous story: the same journey comes back several times, each time differently.
Prizes and reception
Inscribed in 1990 in the National Film Registry, and sixteenth in the Sight and Sound poll in 2022.
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