At Land

Watching some of Maya Deren's works made me think that directors like David Lynch owe a lot to this brilliant woman.

At land is one of the most beautiful and innovative movies I have ever seen. At Land is like a dream that is brought to the screen something I don't think any other director has succeeding in doing so well. The images of the sea, of the 2 women playing chess (and every other scene) don't seem to be connected in any way, but just like a dream that you have just waken up from it leaves you with the feeling you had an experience you couldn't even think of. Very beautiful and one of Maya Deren's best films.

Maya Deren certainly does capture her dreams. Even through a silent soundtrack, she creates a gripping linear story line out of symbols, scattered situations, and moods. Through it all, she displays a sensuous love for cinematography by eliminating all but one dischordant splice. It flows together as an answer to all the movie-lovers who wished movies would cut between shots with a little more flow. Not to mention, that she's a fricking lovely actress! To me, it's even more accomplished than her "Meshes of the Afternoon" from the year before, since it's less frenzied, and takes its time to build a mood that draws the viewer in and ends up accelerating with unexpected twists.

At Land is first and foremost a dream projection. Meaning that, while if it's either surreal or not, what we see is a not the narration of a dream or even the interpretation of a dream; it's the shared experience of a dream. Like, in dreams, you change from one location to another, or the person you are talking to suddenly become somebody else, or a Walt Disney look alike in a bed may be creepy, without any logical reaction to the strange nature of it because while you are dreaming you are just experiencing it, not trying to understand it. I strongly suggest that with this film, in fact, most of Deren's films, to let got to the rational function of "understanding" and just flow with it.

I don't think that most of Lynch or Buñuel's films are really onirical, maybe they are surrealistic on an absourdist level or rich on Jungian symbolism, but in the end, they have a basic narrative structure and usually bring a closure to whatever the film is about. Maya Deren's At Land is not based on rethorical figures or a discernible point; I don't even think there is no explicit symbolism to it (maybe Deren has explained it in some essay, but I haven't read her yet). It's experiencing the whole thing as if we are in Deren's head while she is dreaming. Of course, this implies the alienation of most viewers who may be in need of closure. Few films are successful as shared dreams, Malle's Black Moon or Jean Cocteau's Blood of a Poet come to mind.

Comercially, Kubrick tried and achieved to some extend the share dream with Wide Eyes Shut, but it's only last year's blockbuster Inception the one which has nailed it. Of all the references that are to be found about the excellent Inception, At Land it's the most clear influence, from the beach opening to the dream experience to the search of the totem and getting back to the first "dream layer".

So, even 60 years and something later, Deren is still a truly influential filmmaker

Like Maya Deren's first short Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land is a narrative story infused with surrealism. It flows more smoothly comparing to Meshes, but lacks the energy that her first film has. Also, the structure of several fragmented episodes lacks coherency; some parts may reflect the director's personal experiences and/or mindscapes so that the audience may get confused. For example, the scene of the female protagonist walking with a young man and then meeting an old man in a bed seems barely related to the main story and unnecessary.

After the claustrophobic feminist nightmare of her first film 'Meshes of the Afternoon' Ukrainian/American experimental film-maker Maya Deren made this mesmerising, bewildering, and strangely reassuring short which continues to expand upon her interest in the rhythmic potentialities of the camera as well as the representation of dream-like states that challenge traditional narrative conventions. Indeed, despite being largely stripped of the Freudian symbology which figured so prominently (some may say conspicuously) in 'Meshes…', 'At Land' is arguably more dream-like than its illustrious predecessor through its use of clever editing which matches physical movements of the lead character (Deren) from shot to shot but against different physical backdrops to create a vivid, authentic representation of a subjective inner realm.

In addition to this technique, which she would also use beautifully in her next film 'A study in Choreography for Camera', the theme of the multiple-Mayas used in 'Meshes…' reoccurs. However, while in 'Meshes…' it was created using multiple exposures of the camera film to allow the different aspects of Maya to share the same space around the kitchen table, in 'At Land' the effect is achieved through a series of eye-line matches from each of the freshly manifested Mayas as she runs along the beach triumphantly.

The film also differs from 'Meshes…' in that it is almost completely set outside and begins with Deren washing up / being born on a beach, the waves of which then roll backwards into the sea. It is a characteristic feature of Deren's films to use simple camera effects to reveal hidden worlds of motion and latent artistic possibilities in things which our everyday eye often misses. Indeed, the composition of shots in 'At Land' is incredibly aesthetic and, even though she was avowedly not a surrealist, as she wanders the dunes and stony caverns the film certainly recalls a Dali painting to the point that the inclusion of a melting clock would not feel out of place.

Deren herself stated that the film is meant to represent a form of spiritual odyssey and an individuals struggle to maintain personal identity, however I must confess my shortcomings and admit that I didn't get that from the film…if anything, for me the film was the very opposite: a reappraisal of splintered selfhood as curiously liberating. This difference of interpretation doesn't bother me though as I've always agreed with Oscar Wilde's opinion that "diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital", and certainly, while being made in 1944 disqualifies it from being labelled "new", Deren's work in general, and 'At Land' in particular, is definitely complex, and undeniably vital.