Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) Luis Buñuel (and Salvador

Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) Luis Buñuel (and Salvador Dali) France, released in 1929 16 min, Black and White Luis Buñuel Salvador Dali Meshes of the AFernoon Maya Deren USA, 1943 14 min, Black and White Maya Deren (April 29, 1917, Kiev – October 13, 1961, New York City), born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-­‐garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer. Meshes of the AFernoon is one of the most important and influenZal experimental films of the 20th century, Maya Deren’s 18-­‐minute classic explores the interior images of a woman (played by Deren) whose daydreams restore mystery and danger to the ordinary objects of her everyday life. Deren veers away from plot to advance her view that a film should be like a poem: a deep Zssue of images designed to examine a mood or startle us with the strangeness of the things around us. Using film as an arZsZc medium rather than as a vehicle for stars or story or acZon, Deren looks back toward the earlier European avant-­‐
garde of such filmmakers as Germaine Dulac, who believed that film most resembled the abstract yet emoZonal form of music. Deren’s invesZgaZon of one woman’s subconscious experience explicitly rejects the linear form of theater and literature in favor of the non-­‐narraZve models offered by painZng, music, sculpture, or poetry. This alternaZve view of film as a non-­‐narraZve arcorm was incalculably influenZal on future filmmakers.