Un Chien Andalou is a landmark example of the 1920s Surrealist movement, while Meshes established the "trance film"/psycho-drama as a major method of avant garde filmmaking in the US at the time. Meshes is a personal journey within the dream realm of Deren's character; Un Chien Andalou, in Sitney's words, “attempts to provide us with a broken, violent, spatially and temporally unstable world, without final reference to a more conventional actuality;" the film uses techniques and imagery which reflect the mechanics and irrationality of dream-logic for its own ends, whereas Meshes "offers an extended view of a mind in which there is a terrible ambivalence between stable actuality and subconscious violence.” Deren's film has a meaning, no matter how obscure, behind its logic--that of the dreaming protagonist's mind. Sitney also terms the difference between the two films as instructive, i.e., Meshes has no metaphors and instead is pregnant with symbolic meaning, while Un Chien Andalou is rife with metaphors. Also, the space within Meshes is "rounded and linear," with most movement taking place within a closed frame, across the screen. In Un Chien Andalou, the space of the film is deep, with movement occuring across the planes as well as vertically and virtually (eg behind doors and between unrelated spaces.)
2. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?
The psychodrama or trance film focuses on a journey of self-realisation of the invisible, isolated protagonist, emphasising the self and its inner workings. This protagonist's movements are stylised and symbolic, and s/he cannot interact with fellow characters within the film. The act of watching/seeing is more important than performing actions within the psychodrama. Ultimately, interpretation of trance films is very open.
3. What does Sitney mean by an "imagist" structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?
In Choreography for the Camera, Deren isolates "a single gesture as a complete film form." Focusing a single movement of the dancer across space and time through the use of different matches on action, the film is imagist because it expounds upon this simple gesture, expounding on its aesthetic depth.
4. According to Sitney, Ritual in Transfigured Time represents a transition between psychodrama and what kind of film?
Deren's film Ritual marks the transition between the trance film and the mythopoeic film.
6. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins "The filmic dream constituted..." in your own words.
The "filmic dream" Sitney speaks of stands, for such filmmakers as Anger and Deren, as a way to create a highly personal and subjective film as both main actor in the film and as the creative force behind the lens.
7. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?
The end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, according to Sitney, marks the subsuming of the characters/all gods into the Magus, the ultimate god created by their ritual and combining these separate characteristics into one amalgation of power.
9. What kind of venues rented Kenneth Anger's Fireworks?
Anger's film was rented by such venues as universities, art/film societies, museums, and individuals.
Good.
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