Have American filmmakers ever been as experimental as Deren since this short was made? If so, my guess is not very often - not as far as I know anyway. It really is astonishing to think that this was made in 1943, in the midst of WWII! A fellow IMDb user had first recommended I watch this when a while back, I had started a thread about movies that should be taken in non-rationally on one of the boards. I can now completely see why he urged me to watch this: whatever side of the brain it is that we use when our rationality is switched off, is the side one must use to make the most of Deren's film. Symbols aplenty - symbols I wasn't especially trying to interpret, but just trying to take in with everything else that was going on - Maya Deren's own very striking, very beautiful physical presence, a Death-like figure bearing a fake flower (but they're not the only one to carry it during the course of the movie), a key popping out of Deren's mouth which reminded me of the cover of Kate Bush's The Dreaming album, shadows, light, repetitions, interiors, exteriors... just soak it in, and don't try and explain it.
Review of Meshes of the Afternoon
