★★★★: Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren & Alexander Hammid

 

The female form is perceived first and foremost in faceless fragments; only in fantasy can she achieve an autonomous personhood. 

In Maya Deren's world, it would be a sin to assume that reality only occurs when the eyes are open. The line between awake and asleep, sanity and mania, desire and reality, are not simply blurred but entirely discarded, insignificant to the inner workings of the subconscious.

An array of terrains are transgressed, multiple selves are manifested, and the laws which govern our waking hours disappear like flower petals in the wind. Without the aid of score nor dialogue, Deren & Hackenschmied succeed in spinning elements of story with non-narrative expression until they are interwoven into a tapestry of pure, raw tension. The moment of realization dawns upon woman once she discovers that the grim reaper of her vilest nightmares is in fact no more than a mirror reflection of the self— the horror peaks, and we, as voyeurs into the dual privacy of home and psyche, are burdened with the weight of unnerving implications.