meshes in the afternoon

Task 2- Analysis 

Comment on the film by filling in the following grid and copying/linking it to your blog.

 

Analysis:

 

Narrative Feature	Example	Your own example
Establishing protagonist - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	Unusually, we don’t see the protagonist’s face until the dream section… and then we aren’t sure if this is her, as we’ve only seen her shadow and fragmented body parts: hands, sandalled feet and eye. Creates mystery from the start.	What can we tell about her from the first 5 mins?
Establishing other characters - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	The cloaked, mirror-faced figure is dressed similarly to the protagonist. Is this a dream reflection of her? There are also doubles of the protagonist - or are they the same person? The only other character is the male lover that awakens (or does he?). His behaviour is tender, suggesting intimacy.	Are all of the characters actually fragmented reflections of just one? I think that the characters are doppleganger figures which are concepts of the self – the other versions may represent dissociation or depersonalization and her dual inner/outer life.
Establishing location (time and place) - what information do we find out? How is it conveyed?	Time and place are deliberately ambiguous, but it appears to be a warm climate, and mid-20th century (the newspaper, telephone and record player). The sandals, cloak of the mysterious figure and beach suggest Mediterranean.	What evidence is there that the whole film is set within a dream? She is chasing a strange mirror-faced figure, which is nightmarish Also continuity is absent and the timing is disjointed so we assume it’s a dream narrative There is a transformation of the familiar environment into something mystifying, and everything becomes more ambiguous
Creating Enigmas - what are they? How are they created?	The film is intensely enigmatic from the start - who is the protagonist? Who is the figure? Why does the key turn into a knife? What is a waking experience and what is a dream?	What other questions are created by the narrative as it continues? Is she in a dream within a dream? Why did she commit suicide?
Narrative binary oppositions	Waking vs dream life. However, simple oppositions are deliberately elided with ‘doubles’, reflections and repeats.	Danger
Crisis - how was this conveyed?	Again, the plot is ambiguous. The dream seems a reflection or development of the ‘waking’ section at the start. Is that where the ‘crisis’ begins - the use of disorienting camera angles and editing seem threatening; but so do events of the first section.	Where do you think the ‘crisis’ occurs?
Resolution - is it closed or open narrative?	The ending is closed - she is dead - But also ambiguous: did she commit suicide while awake (when we saw her eye close); did a figure from her dream murder her? Whose dream are we even in? Could it be the man’s?	What do you think happens at the end?

 

Meaning and Effect:

Meaning/Effect	Example	Your own thoughts
What did you think was the intention of the filmmaker(s)? Intellectual message? Emotional response?	Maya Deren said the film is an attempt to show “the interior experiences of the individual… to take a single incident… and develop it into a critical emotional experience.” The whole film has a dream-like quality, so we’re never sure what is ‘real’ and what isn’t.	When the woman pulls out the key from her mouth, perhaps she has the key to find the way out all along, but as the regurgitated key becomes a knife, a connection between escape and suicide is established. The mirror could represent introspection and the death by the mirror cut might allegorically refer to the disintegration of the identity. We feel sympathetic towards the woman as her understanding went beyond her consciousness and she wasn’t able to keep up.
How was the response/intellectual message best achieved?	In addition to the above techniques, jump cuts and disorienting camera angles/movement (especially 5:40-6:35) evoke the confusion and shifting geometry of a ‘dream house’.
Aesthetic binary oppositions	Subjective and objective camera and editing are confused throughout. The ‘waking’ first section seems entirely from the protagonist’s POV; the dream more objective. But this is ambiguous.	Knife – flowers Off the hook phone – silent record player
Effect of these oppositions	Creates a dream-like, strange atmosphere. The recurring objects (key, knife, mirror) seem symbolic - but of what?	Juxtaposition of object contributes to the sense of dread and paranoia