Music video homages to Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon"

The influence of Deren's "Meshes of the Afternoon" cannot be estimated. These music videos borrow explicitly from the imagery of that pioneering film.

The original video for Milla Jovovich's "Gentleman Who Fell" (1994) is quite obscure, since the second, more conventional, video is better known.



Not sure what it was about 1994 that made everyone watching Deren films! But here's Kristin Hersh with "Your Ghost" (1994). 



The mirror-faced spectres seem to have a life of their own, making guest appearances in some unlikely places.

Yeasayer: "Ambling Alp" (2009)



Janelle Monáe: "Tightrope" (2010)

"At Land" (1945) by Maya Deren

Please turn off the sound and listen to this silently, as intended. Maya Deren, in particular, seems to attract people who wish to re-imagine her films.

The first characteristic of a true work of art is that is creates a reality and itself constitutes an experience. It does not merely describe something of which we are already fully aware. This new reality consists of elements selected from natural reality and is achieved through the establishment of a new, imaginative relationship between these elements of the natural world.

The creation of this new relationship constitutes the form of the work of art, and thus the form incorporates the intention of the artist. That is, the artist assigns meaning, value and weight to the selected natural elements by giving them a certain position in the work as a whole, and thus their natural values—that is, the value which these elements have in a natural reality—are transformed into new values which are assigned them by the artist according to the function he gives them in the context which he creates.

-- Maya Deren, "Introduction to the films" (1945)

"Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943) by Deren and Hammid

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is the inestimably influential film by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. It was reputably made on a budget of $275 -- enough for film and development -- with a used 16mm camera Deren bought with a small inheritance. Such constraints produced what many consider to be the first avant-garde American narrative film.

Deren drew on a rich European tradition, especially the work of Jean Cocteau. His Blood of a Poet (1930) is mirrored (ahem) throughout. The film has also drawn comparisons to early surrealist works, though Deren repeatedly denied such connections.

Originally silent, Teiji Ito, Deren's third husband, added an excellent music track in 1952. That version is not online at present. (Note that many online versions have artificial soundtracks added by others.)

The setting is entirely constrained to the couple's house in Hollywood, yet seems to address everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Such is the poetry of places, which Deren explored with an explicit interest in magic and ritual.