At Land

MOVIE #1,636 •🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿• 05.15.24 Pαɾƚ σϝ ƚԋҽ MAYA DEREN ԃιɾҽƈƚσɾ ϝσƈυʂ ʂҽɾιҽʂ Deren’s cross-cutting wizardry made 1940s folks’ heads spin like seeing a cat on a Roomba these days, I reckon (see below). I love all this nonsense. She undoubtedly perfected the equation: silent film + subtitles = entertainment / silent film - subtitles = art. It’s certainly not Death playing chess, but maybe Bergman aped (Death is not a lady with pearls) — rather the Immortal Game is shouted out (point, Deren, imo). Maya herself is merely a watching specter, completely unknown and unknowing: a visitor observing past the line of human death, wondering when/if we were ever really alive. This is every bit the equal to her more famous first film.

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,635 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,637 ⫸

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At Land is a 1944 American experimental silent short film written, directed by, and starring Maya Deren. It has a dream-like narrative in which a woman, played by Deren, is washed up on a beach and goes on a strange journey encountering other people and other versions of herself. Deren once said that the film is about the struggle to maintain one's personal identity. It was released on July 20, 1944.