This week we engaged in learning about abstraction in film going over the main two categories. Formal abstraction: meaning that the abstraction elements deal with the formal aspects of the media, for film an example would be scratching the film tape after shooting on it to produce an effect. Conceptual abstraction: meaning abstraction dealing with concepts and ideas, while it doesn’t necessarily mess with the form of the media it uses the language of the media to attempt to portray something conceptual like fear or a nightmare.
For my blog post I looked at the surrealist film ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ (1943) by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. I would firmly place the film in Conceptual abstraction rather than formal. For why not formal it is because that while the content of the film is strange it does not mess with any formal elements of the media. No film reel has been scratched on, no cameras have had their lenses or cases cracked for light to leak in, formally the film is normal. The actual content of the film is conceptually abstract as despite being in 1943 it forgoes any use of sound at all, instead through iconography like the record player it alludes to sound. Its use of reverse footage and high speed footage to make the protagonist ghost like and move strangely conveys the dream aspect of the film. To me the film seems to be about a nightmare as a woman is trapped in a repeating loop, perhaps alluding to the entrapments of an abusive household?