Maya Deren
Maya Deren : Écrits sur l'art et le cinéma
Author(s) Maya Deren, Eric Alloi, Julie Beaulieu, Sébastien Côté
Format Paperback
Language French
Pages 120 pages
Year 2004
Description
WRITINGS ON ART AND CINEMA by Maya Deren
A mythical figure and pioneer of the American cinematic avant-garde of the 1940s, Maya Deren (1917-1962) asserts in her writings the unique character of cinema as an art form, in the tradition of the greatest film theorists (Eisenstein, Dulac or Epstein).
Two essential theoretical texts are translated in this book: An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film, from 1946, and Cinematography: The Creative Use of Reality, from 1960.
Written in the post-war context, An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film is an aesthetic essay with multiple entries. The general framework of the text positions cinema as an essential encounter between art and science. For Maya Deren, the artist's work must commune with culture; the artwork must be ritualistic and reflect myth, hence her rejection of the surrealist "unconscious" in favor of a privileged relationship between the artist and civilization and nature. In parallel, Maya Deren compares cinema to other art forms. Based on her cinematic practice, she aims to "free" cinema from its constraints, particularly from literature or theater which imprison it in old schemas. Furthermore, she develops for cinema the concept of time form, closer to music or dance than to plastic arts, which are more concerned with spatial arts.
Maya Deren's films and texts are an important source of inspiration for the avant-garde in general, for women filmmakers, and for contemporary feminists.
Texts translated from English by Eric Alloi and Julie Beaulieu with the collaboration of Sébastien Côté.