Instant knee jerk reaction is to call this my favorite short of all time. I don’t wanna act pretentious, but I really do feel like this film spoke to me and I pulled some real truths from it. Unlike Un Chien Andalou which took me some time and effort to pull together my ideas, I feel confident i have a coherent analysis.

What I took from this was Maya Deren’s character, or stand in perhaps, is considering suicide throughout the film. She appears to feel trapped, and threatened, by this pervasive feeling of being stuck in the house. I think the man is clearly meant to be a lover, or husband, and there is a sense of threat from him as well, though perhaps not with his own intent.

The repeating cycle, of trying to catch the fleeing, reaper like figure with a mirrored face, only to return waiting in the window, I believe supports this idea that Deren is trapped within this house, or within this life. She has dreams of walking the Earth, away from this place, but is held within. Her only real touch from the outside world mere flowers, not nearly enough to truly free the soul. 

This reaper with a mirrored face definitely implies suicidal ideation, her reaper that will take her life is herself. The knife, interchanging with a key, is her ticket to escape. As a key opens the front door, the knife will open her life to the release of death. The knife seems to travel around the house, even appearing outside I think? As if Deren is subconsciously toying with it as her day continues. As each day repeats the similar pattern, the reaper grows ever closer. Deren leans out the window, and over the railing. She shatters a mirror, escaping her own gaze that reminds her of her husband, and we the audience. She considers leaving with the key, before ultimately taking the knife. 

And the surrealism comes full circle. The husband returns home, and Deren is dead. Her physical state resembles drowning, she has successfully made it past that threshold to the natural world. She killed herself with the mirror pieces, broken with the knife. Symbols and symbols. I can already feel this film echo in other favorites of mine, it’s ethos in directors I love.

Fantastic, I’m sure nothing I said here is groundbreaking stuff, but I felt a real rush of excitement I rarely get. A real lightbulb, eureka moment for me. I think watching this with no sound whatsoever really dialed me into the symbolism, and surrealist art has taken much of my interest lately. 

I gotta watch more from Maya Deren. No excuses with the general length of her work.