Meshes of the Afternoon Hammid's desire to create an avant garde personal film that dealt with devastating psychological problems, like the French surrealist films of the 1920s such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's "Un Chien Andalou" (1929) and "L'Age d'Or" (1930). Deren and Hammid wrote, directed and performed in the film. Although Deren is usually credited as its principal artistic creator, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, who knew the couple, has claimed in his book "Film at Wit's End" that "Meshes" was in fact largely Hammid's creation, and that their marriage began to suffer when Deren received more credit. The original print had no score.
Maya Deren influence because of the surreal nature of "Meshes of the Afternoon". Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou" (1928) is on the premier examples of film representing the structure of the subconscious. Deren detested this comparison because of the surrealist movement's interest in the entertainment value of its subject more than its meaning. The form of "Meshes of the Afternoon" does not compare to Un Chien Andalou either. Psychoanalysis of "Meshes of the Afternoon" from a Freudian viewer or Jungian viewer attempted to decode the symbolism in the film to uncover what Deren was saying about identity and sexuality. Deren adamantly objected her