Research Page.

Meshes of the Afternoon : Maya Deren 

What is the narrative story of the film? A woman enters her home, she seems to pay close attention to random things in the house including a knife in a loaf of bread. The knife drops and the suspenseful music in the background cause the viewers to take notice. She then see's a hooded figure with a mirror for  a face she goes after the figure but never actually reaches it. She re enter the home several times with great emphasis placed on the key. The woman follows the hooded figure to her bedroom again where she sees the figure hide the knife under a pillow. Throughout the story, she sees multiple versions of herself, The events are ones that have occurred already, like deja- vu. The woman tries to kill her sleeping body with a knife but is awakened by a man. The man leads her to the bedroom and caresses her as she lays down.  She attempts to injure him and fails after she notices the knife is nearby her implying that the guy could have been the mystery figure from earlier. Towards the end, the man walks into the house and sees a broken mirror being dropped onto wet ground. He then sees the woman in the chair, who was previously sleeping, but is now dead.

Does the film use any shots that fetishize women? Although the film was created by a well known feminist there were some scenes that did fetishize women. The scene in which the woman removed the key from her mouth could be viewed as erotic, Also the scene in which she lays in bed, the camera zooms onto her lips then the male figure caresses her back. fetish are usually signs that has a stimulating effect on fantasies but do not at all trigger the fear of male castration. In these subtle images they appear to be slightly erotic while no threat to the male viewers. 

From what you've researched and viewed, does the story punish or find the women in the film guilty.?
The film is all based on one character as she seemingly pictures things in her head through a dream or daydream. Whether or not the film punishes the women or find hr guilty is uncertain. There is a complexity in the film that nearly confuses the viewer. Even after the conclusion of this extremely shor film the viewer is left with question of who has killed the lead actress and for what reason? I therefore conclude the the women was neither punished or found guilty. 

How does the film represent a alternative response to typical Hollywood films? Besides the fact that the film was under 20 minutes long it was unlike any film I have ever watched. There was no dialect in the film, most emotions were derived from the instrumental during the scene. When the term avant garde is used you can expect something to be unique and the film truly was.  It was a film that relied simply on the most common images and objects to tell a story. It is said that viewers are decoders of films, however in films today the producers and writers seem to hold our hands as they guide as through the collection of images and thoughts in a way that doesn't shove their ideas upon us but allows us to see things from their perspective, with room to add our own input. In this particular film the viewer had no guide, the viewer was in a sense left to float about and to figure out the meaning of the film on their on. The summary of the film by each viewer is subject to so much discrepancy that one must simply watch the film themselves to understand it or to a least think they understand it.