Sunday, 7 June 2009

Simply put: just a mild case of cartesian anxiety! part 2

Browsing through P. Adams Sitney`s Visionary Film, I came across the title of a 40s American avant-garde movie: Maya Deren`s Meshes of the Afternoon. The author drew several parallels with Dali and Bunuel`s Un chien andalou, and the description of the imagery employed seemed interesting enough to gave it a go. Heil YouTube again!



Using Teiji Ito`s music was a surprising addition, as the review in the book didn`t say much about the sound used. After a quick, it seems that Ito has written the scores of several other productions of Maya Deren, the producer of Meshes of the Afternoon. Seeing that there is a definite theme of repetition and accelaration that leads to the build-up of the dramatic sense, using this sort of music seems just perfect, as the drums seem to express the angst and all the ambivalence of feelings that are not revealed to us through the characters (who often seem expressionless, bedazzled and slightly hypnotic). In terms of visual metaphors, the mirror replacing the face of the nun is really inspiring...for think of all the things you can do with or about a mirror (break, distort, reflect, attract, trick).

No comments: