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Meshes of the Afternoon

1943 18m Fantasy List
100% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 85% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Every time a woman falls asleep, she sees a masked man leaving flowers.

Critics Reviews

View All (6) Critics Reviews
Richard Brody New Yorker Deren is one of the great screen presences; with her billowing hair and lugubrious gaze, she incarnates the eternal bohemian, rendering morbidity alluring and turning the air of idealistic purpose into a dance of seduction. Apr 22, 2013 Full Review Dennis Harvey 48 Hills Often her own visually arresting, dramatically intense onscreen protagonist, Deren conveys a sense of entrapment as a quintessentially female condition... Jun 20, 2023 Full Review Josh Larsen LarsenOnFilm Deren took the dreamlike, intellectual surrealism of Un Chien Andalou and made it intimate. Rated: 4/4 Aug 15, 2020 Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Whether or not it's an exercise in pointed symbolism or abstract surrealism or a manifestation of suicidal thoughts, it's utterly mesmerizing. Rated: 8/10 Aug 13, 2020 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Decades later, this avant-garde, experimental film holds up extremely well Rated: A- Aug 19, 2011 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Maya Deren from 1943 until her death in 1961 led the avant-garde movement in cinema. Rated: A May 12, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member I went into this thinking it was gonna be a bunch of nonsense shots put together and boy was I wrong. This film is like a strange nightmare, I call it this because one it feels like one, and two it can be interpreted in a lot of ways. The correct way though, is quite interesting and I think it’s worth a watch. Go into it blind, interpret it for yourself, and search it up for the best experience honestly. Strange, scary, and intriguing. 5/5 stars. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/26/24 Full Review Christian K Definitely interesting, thought it was cool and showcased some influential and modern flare surely for its time. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/25/24 Full Review Datboy 1 This movie was the best movie of all time. The full 18 minutes are enough to make me feel high. I have two friends who are ungrateful and can't appreciate a masterpiece of that consists of only two people producing the entire thing. I want to marry this movie. (I was held at gunpoint by the director to right this) Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/23/23 Full Review justin t Surrealism sucks. There is nothing more to it than it sucks. It just goes on and on with nothing happening. They do this with a phone then the mirror man cometh and then you sit having a cup of tea set to a screeching banshee and one item of percussion. Maybe I just don't get it and funnily enough I don't want to. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie captures the true essence of a dream Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review William L A young David Lynch saw this film and thought to himself, "YES. I too shall make bizarre movies with an endless stream of interpretations that are oftentimes barely comprehensible." Strange, surrealist, and thematically obtuse, Meshes of the Afternoon has convinced generations of would-be auteurs that they too can get on the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die with a home movie camera and a sense of randomness. Regardless of the what the perceived significance of the film is to each individual, there is undoubtedly a profound creative vision at play here, with intense symbolism and emotional depth. I'll be quick to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of experimental film as a rule; they're often unbearably pretentious and carry no meaning. However, Meshes is not that; the film is a crisis of identity, an exploration of domestic fallout, and internal repression told with a palpable intensity. There is a clear cleverness in the camerawork and editing techniques. Taken together, it's well worth the experience. If you're going to watch a representative work of early American experimental short film, this is a great one. (4/5) Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/23/21 Full Review Read all reviews
Meshes of the Afternoon

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis Every time a woman falls asleep, she sees a masked man leaving flowers.
Director
Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Screenwriter
Maya Deren
Genre
Fantasy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 17, 2020
Runtime
18m