Avant-Garde

Short Film got to a point where it just could not compete with Hollywood anymore. Film auteurs started to make weird and wonderful short films that grew into the avant-garde theatre movement. Short film found a new home in the form of art. A lot of avant-garde films are shorts. Avant-garde comes from the French language and it means "ahead of the crowd", it could be described as cutting edge and experimental.

Avant-garde director Maya Deren produced short films in the 1940's and 50's, her films had a distinct style and were highly individualistic. Deren holds a very anti-mainstream stance within her films and promotes the idea of artistic license and creative freedom. Deren is described as the mother of American avant-garde cinema and her film "Meshes of the Afternoon" is considered a great in short film history. Deren's anti Hollywood stance is backed up by some of her quotes. She stated, “I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick,” and commented that Hollywood “has been a major obstacle to the definition and development of motion pictures as a creative fine-art form.”

Her film "Meshes in the Afternoon" has a circular narrative, the film focuses on a few different subjects but always goes back to the one woman. The film starts off with a flower being put on the floor and then picked up again. The audience isn't shown whether or not the same person picks up the flower or not. The shadows of the person suggests so but they also give an eery and creepy feel to the film. The first few shots also don't show the woman's face and this adds to the eery feel.

When she drops her key the audience feels some sort of suspense which is highlighted by the sound effects added in. The sound then continues to beat, suggesting another presence in the house. When the shot of the unmade bed is shown with the window open, the suggestion of another presence is enforced.

A voyeuristic shot of a grim reaper like figure is shown walking off with the flower, rather than a big action scene, the woman runs after the figure but ends up at the same house. This is when the circular narrative comes into play. Questions are raised whether the character has gone into a dream world or not. Who is this man she is chasing? At one point she seems to be watching herself come into the house.

The camera movements couple the movement in the piece, and show off Deren's skills as a choreographer. The flowing nature of the whole piece is followed by the camera movements but then disturbed with the abrupt movements of the key jumping and morphing into a knife. The imagery suggests a sort of paranoia as when she wakes up she is not about to be stabbed but is instead woken by a man.

The same eery music is played when she is awoken and the protagonist is obviously shaken from her dream. Strangely the events to come are somewhat similar to the events that happened in her sleep. It is when she lies down and the knife appears that the audience is questioned again to whether she is actually awake.



Bibliography:
1.N/A. (2010). Maya Deren. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren. Last accessed 5th February 2010.
2. Gloria L. Foren. (2001). Film: Avant-Garde. Available: http://www.miracosta.cc.ca.us/home/gfloren/f-avant.htm. Last accessed 5th February 2010.
3. N/A. (2010). Meshes of the Afternoon. Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meshes_of_the_Afternoon. Last accessed 5th February 2010.
4. Maya Deren. (2008). Meshes of the Afternoon. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPi9i3gfSAM. Last accessed 5th February 2010.