Meshes of the Afternoon
(1943)
★ 7.6 IMDb · 453 votes
Year: 1943
Runtime: 14 мин
Country: United States of America
Director: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Cast: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Plot
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
On her way home, a solitary woman picks up a frail flower, then drops her key. Exhausted, the mysterious lady finally enters her home and falls asleep in a deep, comfortable armchair. But even in her dreams, an intangible dark presence stains her afternoon nap; she tries to catch it, but her efforts are in vain. As the confined environment gradually becomes a maze-like purgatory, bizarre but perfect doppelgangers of her physical self materialise in the house. Before long, an old record player playing a never-ending tune, a telephone, and a sharp, serrated bread knife become part of the nightmare. But the blade thirsts for blood, and the woman hungers for a way out. Can the undivided mind/matter entity escape consciousness?