[HN Gopher] On Maya Deren (2011)
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       On Maya Deren (2011)
        
       Author : benbreen
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2021-05-28 05:41 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (firstchoiceforlastplace.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (firstchoiceforlastplace.com)
        
       | pmoriarty wrote:
       | For those who haven't seen it, here's Maya Deren's _Meshes of the
       | Afternoon_ : [1]
       | 
       | Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a version of this film with
       | the original Teiji Ito soundtrack, so the one I linked to has a
       | soundtrack by another artist, which I don't find to be as good as
       | the Ito version, but it's better than watching the film without
       | any soundtrack at all.
       | 
       | Also regretable is that I haven't seen many films that seem to be
       | influenced by Maya Deren. The closest are probably some of the
       | films of David Lynch (such as _Mulholland Dr_ ), which also show
       | a fascination with dreams and dream symbolism.
       | 
       | I would have loved to hear Lynch speak on Maya Deren, if he could
       | somehow be persuaded to give a straight answer without veering
       | off on a tangent like Transcendental Meditation.
       | 
       | [1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSY0TA-ttMA
        
         | telesilla wrote:
         | Maja Deren's influences may not be seen in mainstream Hollywood
         | directly (though auteurs such as Nolan come to mind) however
         | absolutely she inspired a generation of film makers and artists
         | that reality is not one that needs to be reproduced exactly as
         | it is filmed or photographed. She's beloved and studied still
         | today in film schools and art schools.
        
           | pmoriarty wrote:
           | _" she inspired a generation of film makers and artists that
           | reality is not one that needs to be reproduced exactly as it
           | is filmed or photographed"_
           | 
           | I'm not sure what you mean by that, but there were plenty of
           | films before the 1943 _Meshes of the Afternoon_ which showed
           | reality in fantastic, even dreamlike ways.
           | 
           | From the 1902 _A Trip to the Moon_ to the 1920 's _The
           | Cabinet of Dr Caligari_ to 1922 's _Nosferatu_ to 1927 's
           | _Metropolis_ , and other German Expressionist films, to name
           | just a few.
           | 
           | For me the new thing that _Meshes of the Afternoon_ brought
           | to the cinema was an explicit interest in dream symbolism..
           | though even that may not be that new, if you count Bunel 's
           | 1930 film _L 'Age d'Or_ and other films of the surrealist
           | era.
           | 
           | Deren has often been described as being in the surrealist
           | tradition, and I think that's accurate in as much as she was
           | interested in artistic use of dreams and dream symbolism, and
           | the borderline between dream and waking life.
        
             | rurban wrote:
             | But their best film was about their cat. It's on Youtube.
             | https://youtu.be/_6e1O_NtK24
        
           | two2two wrote:
           | This is true. We were shown Meshes of the Afternoon in our
           | foundational filmmaking courses at AAU. Her use of
           | choreography in combination of camera placement created a
           | truly remarkable effect on the viewer. An example is her
           | running up the stairs swaying back and forth with a slight
           | tilt of the camera which made it seem as though the abode was
           | moving like a ship on the open sea. Techniques like this she
           | poetically used continue to inspire film makers today.
        
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