Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)

Director:

Maya Deren

Stars:

Rita Christiani, Maya Deren, Anaïs Nin

Cast

Credited cast:
Rita Christiani
Maya Deren
Anaïs Nin	...	Haughty woman
Frank Westbrook	...	Dancer

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

slow motion scene | negative footage | experimental film | title directed by female | sculpture | 

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Genres:

Short

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Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

11 October 2003 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Rituálé a megváltozott időben

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

15 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Scream and Scream Again (1970)

User Reviews

The enigmatic world of Maya Deren

The first five minutes of Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946 )are probably the finest she did up until then. That first third still partakes of that atmosphere dreamline and supine characteristic of her earlier work, but stripped from that which the mind is quick to associate meaning to, that symbolic quality is often an end in itself rather than a means. The beauty of the surreal, and perhaps the most difficult thing to achieve, is to create the situation the viewer will project upon his own feelings rather than try and decipher the filmmaker's. The film still guides you in that it chooses X visual instead of Y but there's no right or wrong interpretation to be deciphered. Kind of like walking around London with a map of Berlin without knowing you're in London or the map is of Berlin. The scene in the crowded room wasn't quite as good, it's still a drone, but not a visually interesting one I thought. The dancing segment that closes the film recalls A Study in Choreography for Camera but how it all ties in remains a mystery.