Maya Deren: The Woman in Film Everyone Should Know
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the speaker discusses their favorite filmmaker, Maya Deren, a prominent figure in avant-garde cinema during the 1940s and 50s. Deren believed in the unique experiential potential of film, criticizing the over-reliance on traditional storytelling that stifled cinematic innovation. The speaker praises Deren's work for pushing the boundaries of film language, particularly highlighting her film 'Atland,' which explores a non-linear, symbolic narrative. The video serves as an introduction to Deren's philosophy and encourages viewers to explore her films, available online for free.
Takeaways
- 🎬 The speaker often lies about their favorite movie and filmmaker due to the obscurity of their true choices.
- 🌟 The speaker's actual favorite filmmaker is Maya Deren, a prominent figure in avant-garde cinema during the 1940s and 50s.
- 💃 Maya Deren was a multi-talented artist, known for her work as a dancer, choreographer, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer.
- 🏆 Deren was an independent artist who never worked in Hollywood and made films on a shoestring budget.
- 📜 She believed that film should create unique experiences and criticized the over-reliance on narrative patterns borrowed from literature.
- 🚀 Deren argued for a cinematic language that explores the medium's unique capabilities, beyond storytelling.
- 🎥 Her films, like 'At Land' and 'Meshes of the Afternoon', are known for their innovative use of editing and manipulation of time and space.
- 📽 'At Land' is the speaker's all-time favorite film, which explores identity and the self through a series of surreal encounters.
- 📚 The speaker recommends 'Essential Deren', a collection of her writings, for those interested in learning more about her work.
- 👍 The speaker encourages viewers to watch Deren's films, which are available online for free, to experience her unique cinematic vision.
Q & A
What are the two common questions the speaker gets asked about movies?
-The two common questions are 'What's your favorite movie?' and 'Who's your favorite filmmaker?'
Why does the speaker often lie when answering the questions about movies?
-The speaker lies because their real answers are obscure and they feel the other person will not understand or look up the references without context.
What is the purpose of the video the speaker is creating?
-The purpose of the video is to provide a comprehensive response to the questions about the speaker's favorite filmmaker and movie, so they can refer people to it for better understanding.
Who is Maya Deren and what was her significance in cinema?
-Maya Deren was a prominent filmmaker in the 1940s and 50s, known for her work in avant-garde cinema. She was also a dancer, choreographer, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer. She was significant for her belief that film should create a unique experience and not rely on traditional storytelling.
What did Maya Deren believe was the primary function of film?
-Maya Deren believed that the primary function of film was to create an experience that was unique to cinema, not just to record realities or imitate other art forms.
How does the speaker feel about the current state of popular cinema?
-The speaker feels that the over-reliance on storytelling in popular cinema has shifted the focus away from the unique language and vocabulary of cinema, which is a detriment to the art form.
What is the title of Maya Deren's most famous film mentioned in the script?
-The title of Maya Deren's most famous film mentioned is 'Meshes of the Afternoon'.
What is the title of the speaker's all-time favorite film by Maya Deren?
-The speaker's all-time favorite film by Maya Deren is 'Atland'.
What does the film 'Atland' attempt to achieve according to the speaker?
-The film 'Atland' attempts to eliminate literary dramatic lines and literal symbolic meanings to discover a purely cinematic coherence and integrity through dislocations of space and time.
What is the main message the speaker wants to convey about Maya Deren's work?
-The main message is that Maya Deren's work reflects a pursuit of cinematic language and pushes the boundaries of the medium to express specific ideas and concepts, manipulating time and space in radical ways.
What book does the speaker recommend for those interested in learning more about Maya Deren?
-The speaker recommends the book 'Essential Deren', a collection of her writings.
Outlines
🎬 The Artistic Vision of Maya Deren
The speaker begins by discussing the common questions asked about favorite movies and filmmakers, admitting to often providing safe, well-known answers to avoid confusion. They express a desire to share their true favorites through a video, highlighting the work of Maya Deren, a prominent figure in avant-garde cinema during the 1940s and 50s. Deren was a multi-talented artist who pursued an independent path, creating films that were inexpensive and focused on the unique experiences cinema could offer. She criticized the reliance on traditional narrative structures in film, advocating for a cinematic language that explores the medium's own structural modes and dimensions, separate from literature and other art forms.
🌊 The Impact of Storytelling on Cinema
The second paragraph delves into the impact of an over-reliance on storytelling in cinema, suggesting that it has detracted from the development of a unique cinematic language. The speaker admires Maya Deren's work for pushing the boundaries of film through editing techniques that manipulate time and space, creating a visual language beyond words. They single out 'Meshes of the Afternoon' and 'Atland' as particularly noteworthy examples of Deren's pursuit of a pure cinematic coherence. 'Atland', made in 1944, is described as a film that follows a woman's journey through a fluid universe, aiming to preserve personal identity amidst constant change. The speaker encourages viewers to explore Deren's work and recommends 'Essential Deren', a collection of her writings, for further insight.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Filmmaker
💡Cinephile
💡Avant-garde Cinema
💡Independent Artist
💡Cinematic Idiom
💡Narrative Pattern
💡Visual Logic
💡Ritual in Transfigured Time
💡Meshes of the Afternoon
💡Atland
💡Cinematic Coherence
Highlights
The speaker often lies about their favorite movie and filmmaker due to the obscurity of their true choices.
The speaker's favorite filmmaker is Maya Deren, a prominent figure in avant-garde cinema during the 1940s and 50s.
Maya Deren was a multi-talented artist involved in dance, choreography, poetry, lecturing, writing, and photography.
Deren was an independent artist who did not work in Hollywood and made films on a shoestring budget.
She believed that film's primary function was to create a unique cinematic experience, not just to tell stories.
Deren criticized the over-reliance on literary narrative in cinema, advocating for a more visual and auditory approach.
She argued that cinema should develop its own vocabulary and techniques, distinct from literature.
The speaker contrasts popular cinema's focus on storytelling with Deren's exploration of cinematic language.
Maya Deren's films are available online for free, challenging traditional narrative structures.
Her film 'Meshes of the Afternoon' is a notable example of her work and is often studied in film schools.
The speaker's favorite film by Deren is 'Atland', a 15-minute film from 1944 that explores identity and reality.
In 'Atland', Deren eliminates traditional narrative to discover a purely cinematic coherence.
The film creates a relativistic universe where the individual struggles to maintain identity amidst change.
The speaker admires how 'Atland' communicates through a visual language beyond words.
The video encourages viewers to explore Deren's work and a book of her writings called 'Essential Deren'.
The speaker hopes that more people will discover and appreciate Maya Deren's contributions to cinema.
Transcripts
[Music]
when you make movies there are two
questions that you always get asked
one is what's your favorite movie and
the other one is who's your favorite
filmmaker when i get asked these
questions i hate to say it but most of
the time i lie
i say something like star wars is my
favorite movie and my favorite filmmaker
is edgar wright i pick something save
something that's generally well known
and i do this because when i've given my
real answers
nobody really outside of filmmakers or
cinephiles knows
who or what i'm talking about and so
whoever i'm talking to will just kind of
smile and nod and say okay that's cool
i'll check it out later and because this
is kind of so obscure for most people um
i know they're never gonna look it up
and i know if they do they're gonna see
it with no context and they're going to
be like what's wrong with jordan so
rather than do that what i wanted to do
was make a video response to those two
questions that way if someone asked me
who my favorite filmmaker is or what's
my favorite movie
i can point them towards this video
where they can learn a little bit about
the filmmaker a little bit about
my tastes in movies and it's all in one
place in an easy to watch video so today
i'm talking about why my favorite
filmmaker is
[Music]
and why my favorite film is her movie
[Music]
so maya dieren was a filmmaker working
in the 1940s and 50s she was a prominent
filmmaker in avant garde cinema she was
also a dancer a choreographer a poet a
lecturer a writer a photographer among
many other things she was an independent
artist who never worked in hollywood and
made her films for incredibly cheap
[Music]
she believed that the primary function
of film was to create an experience that
was unique to cinema she saw that the
art form had been in a state of
stagnation because of the over-reliance
on other mediums and art forms she wrote
what has been responsible for the lack
of development of the cinematic idiom is
the emphatic literacy of our age so
accustomed are we to thinking in terms
of continuity logic of the literary
narrative that the narrative pattern has
come to completely dominate cinematic
expression in spite of the fact that it
is basically a visual form we overlook
the fact that painting for instance is
organized in visual logics or that music
is organized in tonal rhythm logics that
there are visual and auditory
experiences which have nothing to do
with a descriptive narrative so what she
is basically saying is that back in her
age movies had become film plays they
followed the rules of literature and
they didn't really take full advantage
of what movies could be she made the
comparison once that radio wasn't just a
loud voice and an airplane wasn't just a
faster car and in that same way the
motion picture shouldn't be thought of
as a faster painting or a more real play
if cinema is to take its place beside
the others as a full-fledged art form it
must cease to merely record realities
that owe nothing of their actual
existence to the film instrument instead
it must create a total experience so
much out of the very nature of the
instrument as to be inseparable from its
means it must relinquish the narrative
disciplines that it has borrowed from
literature and its timid imitation of
casual logic of narrative plots a form
which flowered as a celebration of the
earthbound step-by-step concept of time
space and relationship which was part of
the primitive materialism of the 19th
century instead it must develop the
vocabulary of filmic images and evolve
the syntax of filmic techniques which
relate those it must determine the
disciplines inherent in the medium and
discover its own structural modes
explore the new realms and dimensions
accessible to it and so enrich our
culture artistically as science is done
in its own province so think about how
we talk about movies think about the
movies that are being made by hollywood
popular cinema has become an art form
that is driven by storytelling first and
foremost and by storytelling in this
context i mean films which reflect a
traditional three-act structure with the
b story with setups with payoffs
inciting incidents all that kind of
stuff packaged neatly with a pretty
little bow on top meanwhile the artistry
of filmmaking is often neglected in
favor of preserving the formula of
traditional screenwriting think about
pixar one of the most successful film
studios out there and their motto story
is king
and by looking at the films they produce
in the critical reception and audience
reception it would appear that most
folks agree with this statement that
story is king in my opinion i agree with
maya dhiran completely it was true in
her age and i think it's true today that
this over reliance on story has shifted
our focus
from
cinema to storytelling and it's been a
detriment to the art form it seems these
days that a film is only as good as its
screenplay but films are way more than
just a script a script is just
literature that's not the movie itself
they have a unique language and
vocabulary that has yet to been fully
fleshed out and what i really really
love about maya deering is her work
reflects this pursuit of the cinematic
language she used editing techniques to
push the boundaries of the medium to
express very specific ideas and concepts
her movies manipulated time and space in
a really radical way her most noteworthy
example of this is her film ritual in
transfigure time and just all of her
movies just in general they're they're
awesome her films are all available to
see online for free check them out
the most famous one is meshes of the
afternoon i think most film school
students have probably seen that movie
at some point in their studies but i
wanted to highlight my favorite film of
hers and my all-time favorite film which
is her movie atland
atlan was made in 1944 it's about 15
minutes long and it follows a woman
played by maya dirian who washes up on a
beach and goes on a strange journey in
which she encounters different versions
of herself different people and
situations she's compared this film to
an inverted version of the odyssey and
in some old program notes for screens of
her films she wrote this about atland
the direction of this film is towards
the elimination of literary dramatic
lines and literal symbolic meanings in
order to discover instead a purely
cinematic coherence and integrity
through dislocations of space and time
it creates a relativistic universe in
which the individual alone is a
continuous identity if one may speak of
a theme it is an effort of the
individual to relate oneself as an
identity to a fluid apparently
incoherent universe the universe was
once conceived almost as a vast preserve
landscape for heroes plotted to provide
them with appropriate adventures the
rules were known and respected the
adversaries honorable the oracle's as
articulate and as precise as the
directives of a six-lane parkway
errors of weakness or vanity led with
measured momentum to the tragedy which
resolved everything today the rules are
ambiguous the adversary is concealed in
aliases the oracles broadcast a babble
of contradictions the adventure is no
longer reserved for heroes and
challengers the universe itself imposes
its challenges upon the meek in the
brave indiscriminately one does not so
much act upon such a universe as react
to its volatile variety struggling to
preserve in the midst of such relentless
metamorphosis the constancy of personal
identity
atlant is a film that's kind of hard to
describe
aside from the beautiful cinematography
and the editing it's hard to articulate
why i enjoy it so much and maybe that's
the point it's communicating in a visual
language that's beyond words the
language of cinema thank you for
watching everyone i hope you learned
something about my idea and i hope you
check out her work she's awesome
there's also this really great book
where i've gotten a lot of this
information from it's a collection of
her writings
called essential deering
this is all written by her her films are
out there check him out check out her
work she's awesome i would love it if
more people discovered her if you
enjoyed this video hit like and
subscribe it only takes a few seconds
out of your day but who knows something
really cool might pop up in your feed
one day thanks for watching everyone and
i'll see you on the next one
[Music]
you
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