CCS: WORD AND IMAGE ASSESSMENT - GRACE DOLAN - MAYA DEREN
My chosen image maker is Maya Deren. Born Eleonora Derenkowska in Kiev, she was a UkrainianAmerican experimental lm maker, choreographer, writer, photographer and lm theorist1. She is seen to be one of the most in uential people in American avant-garde cinema as well as writing two books.2
FIGURE 1: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON - 1943
Meshes of the Afternoon is the work Deren is most commonly associated with. The image shows a woman (played by Deren) gazing out a window as the re ection of the trees outside shows on the glass. As the studium of the image, the woman creates a sense of interest in the viewer as there is an intimate nature about the shot. There is a connotation that the image represents a detachment from reality and the world around oneself. This distorted and “outside looking in” signi cation is evident as the short lms central theme is dreamscapes and delayed forward movement3. Some believe that Meshes connotes an artistic and eccentric snapshot of her relationship with her newlywed husband Alexander Hammid, also a talented lmmaker. He was the one who taught her the mechanics of lmmaking so she could render her vision, thus creating a visionary psychodrama4.
FIGURE 2: AT LAND - 1944
Fig 2 shows three women, including Deren, kneeling and standing to form a triangular formation in front of the ocean and its horizon. At rst glance, this image could de nitely signify a feminist studium since Derens work is widely recognised by and has had a profound in uence on feminist art- lm makers5. However, as well as this shot; At Land features a myriad of settings in which Deren and her fellow actors are climbing, crawling and standing amongst speci c 1"Maya
Deren - Wikipedia". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren.
"Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https:// www2.b .org.uk/news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon. 2
“Done and Undone: Meshes of the Afternoon and Witch’s Cradle.” Maya Deren: Incomplete Control, by Sarah Keller, Columbia University Press, NEW YORK, 2015, pp. 31–80. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/kell16220.5. Accessed 23 Mar. 2021. 3
"Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https:// www2.b .org.uk/news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon. 4
"AMERICANA: "The World Of Maya Deren" By Zsanett Varga". Americanaejournal.Hu, 2021, http://americanaejournal.hu/vol11no2/varga.
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supposed to denote an intimate study of the human body’s place in nature and natural surroundings. This is also aided by the powerful jump cuts and juxtaposition of spaces6 connoting another one of Derens signature surreal environments. Alternatively (and similarly to meshes) At Land is an overview of the relationship between the protagonists redemption and escape and the obstacles preventing her from doing so. In Derens own words: the lm is “almost a mythological statement in a sense that folktales are mythological archetypal statements“.7
FIGURE 3: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON1943
Figure three derives from the end of Meshes as Derens character defends further into the surreal nature of her dream sequence. The screenshot in question shows the woman from a below angle; holding a glinting knife with Christmas ornaments covering her eyes. O the bat this image connotes a sense of danger and malice as knives in popular culture most of the time signify an attack or something fatal. This, of course, was the intention in Meshes of the afternoon. As Derens character sinks deeper into her dream world; she repeats her journey multiple times8, each time becoming more and more sinister. The knife we see in the image used to be a key, which the woman would ght over with multiple versions of herself9. This could signify how layers of her dream are peeling away to reveal the real world* and the house key turning into a knife could represent Derens tricky relationship with what she calls home; being a refugee at a young age and not going by her birth name.
"Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https:// www2.b .org.uk/news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon. 6
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"At Land - Maya Deren - The Film-Makers' Cooperative". Film-Makerscoop.Com, 2021, https:// lm-makerscoop.com/catalogue/maya-deren-at-land.
"Moma | Maya Deren. Meshes Of The Afternoon. 1943". Moma.Org, 2021, https:// www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon-1943/. 8
Marin, Diana. "Analysis: Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943): A Spiralling Lucid Nightmare, Maya Deren, & A Dialogue With The Unconscious". Diana Marin, 2021, https://dianamarin.com/ 2019/12/19/meshes-of-the-afternoon-1943-spiralling-nightmare-maya-deren-dialogue-with-theunconscious/.
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things such as dead trees, dinner parties and, shown in the photo, the sea shore. Overall, the short lm is
FIGURE 4: 1917 - 2019 - DIR. SAM MENDES
This lm still, displaying Roger Deakins’s academy award winning cinematography, sees the silhouette of a young man with a ri e approaching a church in ames and a disused fountain. We, as the audience, are immediately drawn to the vibrancy of the blaze as re often connotes danger, chaos and ruin. A church being the destructed building symbolises a loss of humanity and devastation as they are associated with religion and sanctuary. This is only one example of the movie’s many war torn environments. Deakins describes this scene in particular to be hallucinatory and a ‘surreal nightmare’ as we aren’t supposed to know if the main character; Will (played by George Mackay), is awake or not after being horribly concussed. The beautiful discord of this particular sequence de nitely earned Deakins and Mendes their awards because, as production designer Dennis Gassner rightfully puts it, the movie isn’t about the war; it’s about the human condition*10. And this haunting still shows just how much of it relied on strong visual narratives.
Marchant, Beth. "Behind The Scenes On The 'Surreal Nightmare' Within '1917’". Los Angeles Times, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-16/rogerdeakins-sam-mendes-1917-key-scene.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY "Maya Deren: Seven Films That Guarantee Her Legend". British Film Institute, 2021, https://www2.b .org.uk/ news-opinion/news-b /features/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon "At Land - Maya Deren - The Film-Makers' Cooperative". Film-Makerscoop.Com, 2021, https:// lmmakerscoop.com/catalogue/maya-deren-at-land Marchant, Beth. "Behind The Scenes On The 'Surreal Nightmare' Within '1917’". Los Angeles Times, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-01-16/roger-deakins-sam-mendes-1917-keyscene Marin, Diana. "Analysis: Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943): A Spiralling Lucid Nightmare, Maya Deren, & A Dialogue With The Unconscious". Diana Marin, 2021, https://dianamarin.com/2019/12/19/meshes-of-theafternoon-1943-spiralling-nightmare-maya-deren-dialogue-with-the-unconscious/ "Maya Deren’S Legacy | Moma". The Museum Of Modern Art, 2021, https://www.moma.org/calendar/ exhibitions/1096 "Moma | Maya Deren. Meshes Of The Afternoon. 1943". Moma.Org, 2021, https://www.moma.org/learn/ moma_learning/maya-deren-meshes-of-the-afternoon-1943/ "Maya Deren - Wikipedia". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren
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Varga, Zsanett. "AMERICANA: "The World Of Maya Deren" Americanaejournal.Hu, 2021, http:// americanaejournal.hu/vol11no2/varga