The Best Films You've Never Seen Series Returns to RMIT The Capitol

The Best Films You've Never Seen Series returns to RMIT The Capitol with a night of surrealist cinema.

The double screening will include Maya Deren’s experimental and ground-breaking avant-garde short film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) and David Lynch’s surrealist neo-noir Mulholland Drive (2001).

For the first time, both films made it into the Top 20 of the recent British Film Institute (BFI) Sight and Sound magazine The Greatest Films of All Time list.

Meshes of the Afternoon debuted in The Greatest Films of All Time list at an impressive ranking of #16, acknowledging Deren’s contribution to cinema. 

Deren directs and stars in Meshes of the Afternoon with her husband and collaborator Alexander Hammid. It is shot on 16mm in the couple's Los Angeles home and explores its central character's interior experience through its formal repetition and variation. 

The spiralling dream sequences in Meshes of the Afternoon has cemented its place in cinematic surrealism. However, critic and scholar, Adrian Martin described the renowned work as a proto-film noir.

Previously, Mulholland Drive was included in top 100 The Greatest Films of All Time, but the recent ranking skyrocketed from #28 to #8.  

Made almost sixty years after Meshes of the Afternoon, Mulholland Drive includes a similar menacing Los Angeles imaginary based on Lynch’s distinctive brand of contemporary surrealism. 

Starring Naomi Watts in her career defining performance, Mulholland Drive interrogates a Hollywood actress and femme fatale through a narrative that twists back in on itself. It explores the duality of Hollywood as a place that is both dream and nightmare.  

The two films have sparked countless interpretations of their meaning and symbolism. RMIT academic Alexia Kannas will introduce the films and provide context for first-time viewers and fans alike.

Quotes attributed to Doctor Alexia Kannas
– RMIT University Lecturer of Cinema Studies in the School of Media and Communication

"Meshes of the Afternoon is Maya Deren's ground-breaking and influential work of experimental cinema. It's a must-see for anyone interested in surrealism, avant-garde filmmaking or the art of visual storytelling.” 

"David Lynch's distinctive take on surrealism is on full display in this neo-noir, Mulholland Drive. The dreamlike sequences and unexpected plot twists leave the audience questioning what's real and what's not. The film's lush cinematography captures the dark side of Hollywood in a way that is both beautiful and unsettling.”  

The Best Films You’ve Never Seen Series – A night of surrealist cinema

• Meshes in the Afternoon (1943)
• Mulholland Drive (2001)

6.30pm Tuesday, 18 July 2023

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