【译】玛雅·德伦：实验电影的女祭司

Maya Deren: The High Priestess of Experimental Cinema

作者： Wendy Haslem

译者/校对：覃天

来源：Senses of Cinema（2002年12月）

注：此文曾被自媒体《深焦》翻译，此文为译者自译。

Maya Deren is recognizable as the woman with the enigmatic expression at the window, silently observing from within. Although her eyes indicate distrust, she is not desperate to escape her domestic space, but she is not entirely comfortable immured behind the glass. This image symbolizes some of Deren’s most significant initiatives in experimental cinema. In this still shot she establishes a silent connection with the eyes, suggesting the possibility for reverie or even hallucination. It foreshadows her experiments with superimposition and the juxtaposition of disparate spaces. It is an image that suggests the most compelling themes of her film work（这几句语义重复，已简略）:dreaming, reflection, rhythm, vision, ritual and identity. Like Cindy Sherman’s film stills, this image represents a poignant and hesitant moment, but unlike the photographs, Deren’s still shot belongs within a dynamic, kinetic narrative.

玛雅·德伦最经典的形象出自她站在窗前的一张照片，她的表情神秘，默默地看着外面的世界。虽然眼神里流露出了一丝不信任，但德伦似乎并不急于逃脱这个房间，她并非完全享受自己的状态。在这幅静止的画面中，她的双眼传达了一种无声的信息，暗示了她处在遐想、幻想的状态，象征着德伦在饰演电影中的一些重要举措：梦境、回忆、节奏、视觉、仪式和女性身份。如同辛迪·舍曼的电影剧照一样，德伦的这张照片捕捉到了一个凄美和犹豫的时刻，与普通的照片不同，这张静态的图像带来了更多的动感和叙事感。

Whilst she is first recognized by this image, what is little known is that Deren was also a dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer. In the cinema she was a director, writer, cinematographer, editor, performer, entrepreneur and pioneer in experimental filmmaking in the United States. Like Jean-Luc Godard and Sergei Eisenstein, Maya Deren was both a film theorist and a filmmaker. Unlike these luminaries, Deren’s writing remains relatively obscure in film theory and her films are rarely screened outside of experimental or feminist film courses.

虽然德伦最初通过这一照片被人知晓，但鲜为人知的是，她还是一名舞蹈家、编舞家、诗人、作家和摄影师。在电影方面，她是一位导演、编剧、摄影师、剪辑师、演员、制片人以及美国实验电影的先驱。和让-吕克·戈达尔和谢尔盖·爱森斯坦一样，玛雅·德伦既是电影理论家又是电影创作者。和上述两者不同的是，德伦的著作在电影理论界仍然无人问津，她的电影也很少在实验电影或女性主义电影课程之外放映。

When she was born in Kiev in 1917 her mother named her Eleanora after the Italian actress Eleanora Duse. Deren’s mother Marie confessed that she crossed her legs and refused to give birth whilst her husband Solomon continued to refer to their baby as ‘him’. Marie recollects, “As soon as Dr Deren left, I started to deliver the baby”.(1)In 1922 the Derenkowsky family fled the threat of anti-semitism in the Ukraine, arriving in New York where they contracted and Anglicized their name to Deren. The family was discontent and frequently separated. As an adolescent Maya was sent to Geneva to attend The League of Nations International School whilst Marie Deren studied languages in Paris and Solomon Deren practiced psychology in New York.

玛雅·德伦原名埃莱奥诺拉·德伦科瓦尔斯卡，1917年出生于乌克兰基辅，她的妈妈玛丽以意大利女演员埃莱奥诺拉·杜斯的名字为孩子命名。玛丽后来承认，当时自己盘起双腿，拒绝生下这个孩子，而她的丈夫所罗门则坚持用 「他」来称呼他们的孩子。玛丽回忆说：「医生一走，我就开始分娩了。」 1922年，德伦科瓦尔斯卡家族逃离了乌克兰的反犹威胁，来到纽约定居，并将家族名改为德伦。这是一个不安分的家庭，他们各自分居。少女时期，玛雅·德伦曾被送到日内瓦的国际学校读书，而母亲玛丽·德伦在巴黎学习语言，所罗门·德伦在纽约从事心理学工作。

As a young woman Eleanora Deren studied journalism and political science and became active in student politics at Syracuse University. Deren transferred to New York University where she was awarded her undergraduate degree in 1936. At Smith College she completed a Masters Degree in English Literature and symbolist poetry in 1939. After college Deren began working as an assistant to the famous dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham. Deren found inspiration and nomadic adventure with the innovative Katherine Dunham Dance Company, touring and performing across the US. It was in Los Angeles in 1941 that Deren met Alexander Hammid, a Czechoslovakian filmmaker working in Hollywood. In collaboration with Hammid, Deren produced her first and most remarkable experimental filmMeshes of the Afternoon(1943).

在雪城大学，埃莱奥诺拉·德伦开始学习新闻学和政治学，并在积极参与学生政治活动。1936年，德伦转到了纽约大学，并在那里完成了本科学业。1939年，她在史密斯学院获得了英国文学和象征主义诗歌的硕士学位。大学毕业后，德伦开始担任著名舞蹈家兼编舞凯瑟琳·邓翰的助手。德伦从凯瑟琳的舞团汲取了不少艺术灵感和勇于开拓的冒险精神，并随舞团在美国各地巡回演出。1941年，德伦在洛杉矶遇到了在好莱坞工作的捷克斯洛伐克电影制作人亚历山大·哈米德。在与哈米德的合作下，德伦制作了她的第一部也是最引人注目的实验电影《午后的迷惘》（1943）。

1943 was a year of transformation and consolidation for Deren. She returned to New York, married Hammid, transferred her primary focus from dance to film and changed her name to Maya. Her new name was particularly apt for a burgeoning filmmaker. Buddhists understand Maya to mean ‘illusion’, in Sanskrit it translates as ‘mother’ and in Greek mythology Maya is the messenger of the Gods.

1943年对德伦来说是转折之年，也是起点之年。她回到纽约，和米哈德结婚，将主要精力从舞蹈转向了电影，并将自己的名字从「埃莱奥诺拉」改成了「玛雅」。对一个新兴的电影人来说，这个名字显得恰如其分。在佛教徒眼中，玛雅的意思是「幻觉」，在梵语中意为「母亲」。在希腊神话中，玛雅是众神的使者。

Meshes of the Afternoonwas produced in an environment of wartime volatility and this is reflected symbolically throughout its mise-en-scène. The title card suggesting that the film was ‘made in Hollywood’ is ironic, Deren sets her film within an LA setting, but it is the nightmare element of the dream factory that interests her most. The film establishes an atmosphere saturated in paranoia and distrust with lovers turning into killers and with the presence of a mysterious but fascinating hooded figure. As European émigrés, Deren and Hammid invest their film with an acute sense of restlessness and alienation. Meshes of the Afternoonreflects this uncanny estrangement in the doubling, tripling and quadrupling of its central character (played by Deren) and in its cyclic narrative, a structure that seems condemned to repetition. The hooded figure with the reflective face adds yet another dimension, reflecting back the identity of those who look into her eyes.

《午后的迷惘》是在战时的动荡的环境中制作的，其象征性以精巧的场面调度呈现。字幕具有讽刺意味地写道，这是一部「在好莱坞制作」的影片。德伦在洛杉矶拍摄了这部影片，但她最感兴趣的是梦工厂中的噩梦。《午后的迷惘》营造了充满偏执感和不信任感的氛围——恋人转瞬间变成了杀手，还有一个神秘但迷人的蒙面人。作为欧洲移民，德伦和米哈德在此片中注入了一种强烈的不安和疏离感。德伦出演的主角将这种疏离感和怪异感放大了三、四倍。影片的循环叙事结构似乎是早已被决定。面部反光的蒙面人又增加了一层叙事，无言地折射出他人的面孔。

Thomas Schatz points toMeshesas the best known experimental film of the decade. He categorizes it as the first example of “the poetic psychodrama”, films bearing the impression of art cinema which were seen as “scandalous and radically artistic.”(2)He writes that the poetic psychodrama “emphasized a dreamlike quality, tackled questions of sexual identity, featured taboo or shocking images, and used editing to liberate spatio-temporal logic from the conventions of Hollywood realism.”(3)

托马斯·沙茨指出，《午后的迷惘》是这那十年最著名的实验电影。他把它归类为 「诗意的心理剧 」的第一个例子，这些电影给人以艺术电影的印象，被视为 「令人反感、激进的艺术。」 他写道，诗意的心理剧 「强调梦幻般的质感，并探讨了性身份的问题，以禁忌或令人震惊的画面为特色，并通过剪辑，将电影的时空逻辑从好莱坞现实主义的惯例中解放出来。」

Meshes of the Afternoonis shot as a silent film, there is no dialogue, communication between characters or diegetic sound. A record player plays silently. Whilst the disc revolves and the needle is engaged in the groove, there is no indication of the sound that it makes. Teiji Ito’s soundtrack makesMeshesappear like a music video before its time, the drumbeat is synchronized to movement and to the cut. When Deren takes one of her many short journeys along the path or up stairs, the sound of her steps is overlaid by Ito’s drumbeat metonymically standing in for and amplifying her movement. Inspired by Eisenstein’s notion of rhythmic montage, the editing and movement are accentuated by the rhythm of the soundtrack.

《午后的迷惘》是一部没有对白，没有人物之间的交流的无声片，除配乐外，也没有音效。一台唱片机无声地播放。虽然唱片在旋转，唱针在凹槽里活动，但没有任何迹象表明它发出了真实的声音。伊藤贞司的配乐让这部影片看起来像一个前卫的MV，鼓点、动作和剪辑点同步。当德伦沿着小路行走，踏上楼梯或者短途散步时，她的脚步声被伊藤的鼓声所覆盖，隐喻了她的动作，并将其放大。受到爱森斯坦的节奏蒙太奇概念的启发，剪辑和动作被配乐的节奏再一次强调。

Rhythm is a defining element of all of Deren’s films, it arises from the play of repetition and variation which is integral to her experiments in narrative.Meshesdeploys an innovative style of cutting on action where the protagonist steps over such disparate terrains as the beach, soil, grass and concrete. The rhythmic drumbeat and the repeated movement highlight her deliberate progress across these discontinuous spaces. As the central, consistent element, Ito’s soundtrack enables Deren’s temporal and spatial experimentation.

节奏是德伦所有电影的决定性元素，它源于重复和变化的游戏，这是她叙事实验中不可或缺的一部分。《午后的迷惘》运用了一种创新的动作剪辑风格，主人公踩在海滩、土壤、草地和混凝土等不同的地形上。有节奏的鼓点和重复的动作故意突出了她在这些不连续的空间中的连贯感。作为核心、始终如一的元素，伊藤的配乐使德伦的时空实验成为可能。

Rhythm also impacts significantly on spectatorship. The rhythm of the sound, movement and editing conspire to produce the effect of a trance film.Meshes of the Afternoon‘s dream-like mise-en-scène, illogical narrative trajectory, fluid movement and ambient soundtrack invite a type of contemplative, perhaps even transcendental, involvement for the spectator.

节奏对观众观赏影片也有很大影响。声音、动作和剪辑共同产生了电影恍惚而迷惘的效果。影片梦境般的调度、不合逻辑的叙事轨迹、流畅的动作和配乐为观众带来了一种沉思甚至是超然的参与感。

WhilstMeshesengages the viewer, it also presents vision in crisis. The film is constructed from a myriad of eyeline matches and mismatches. The use of extreme angles to imply one character looking down on the dreamer, a type of spider’s point of view, foreshadows the dreamer’s death. Seen in reverse it could translate as the dreamer’s ‘out of body’ experience. Occasionally Deren’s point of view proves to be ineffectual, the reverse shot from the sleeping Deren is impossible. The fourth replica of Deren’s character wears bulbous goggles that can do nothing to enhance her vision.

在吸引观众的同时，《午后的迷惘》也在危机中呈现了视觉。这部电影是由无数的视线匹配剪辑和不匹配剪辑构成的。使用极端的角度来暗示一个角色正俯视着做梦者，这是蜘蛛的观点，预示着做梦者的死亡。反过来看，它可以解释为做梦者的「体外体验」。然而德伦的观点被证明是无效的，沉睡的德伦不可能进行任何反击。德伦的第四个「替身」戴着夸张的护目镜，这对她的视力没有任何帮助。

The film sets up a nightmare vision.Meshesis a projection of the dreamer’s desires and fears. Deren’s point of view transforms into tunnel vision with her perspective funneled through a cylinder rounding out the edges of the frame. This nightmarish vision is intensified with the use of an obscure horizontal wipe, with a semi-opaque filter, mystifying the image and implying the beginning of the nightmare. In Deren’s nightmare progress is difficult, speed is varied and the emphasis on circularity results in an unnerving repetition. The hooded figure is perpetually out of range, all attempts to capture her prove futile. In domestic space, activity has been suspended. The phone is off the hook, the record player is playing, the knife has begun to slice through the bread. Deren writes, “everything that happens in the dream has its basis in a suggestion in the first sequence – the knife, the key, the repetition of the stairs, the figure disappearing around a curve in the road.”(4)

这部电影呈现了一个噩梦般的景象。它是梦想者欲望和恐惧的投射。德伦的视角转变为隧道的视觉，她的视角穿过圆柱体，使框架的边缘变得圆润。通过使用模糊的水平擦拭和半不透明的滤镜，这种噩梦般的视觉被强化了，使图像变得神秘，并暗示着噩梦的开始。在德伦的噩梦中，前行是困难的，速度是不同的，对循环的强调导致了令人不安的重复。蒙面人永远不在摄影机的范畴内，所有试图捕捉她的努力都被证明是徒劳的。在室内，一切似乎都是静止的。电话空挂着，录音机正在播放，小刀已经开始切开面包。德伦写道：「第一个序列中的暗示——刀、钥匙、重复的楼梯、在路上一个转弯处消失的身影，梦中发生的每一件事都有它的依据。」

Deren is clearly influenced by Méliès’ magical editing style with objects transforming without warning.Meshesis also inclined towards the Gothic’s fascination with the instability of objects, uncanny visions and confusion surrounding the intentions of the male characters. The film is one of many made during the 1940s which asks: is the hero intending to kiss the heroine or to kill her?

德伦显然受到了梅里爱奇幻蒙太奇风格的影响，物体在没有任何预示的情况下发生了变化。《午后的迷惘》也展现了德伦对哥特式艺术风格的迷恋，物体不再稳定，围绕着男性角色的视角怪异而混乱。这部电影只是上世纪40年代众多电影中的一部，电影中的问题是：男主人公是打算亲吻女主角还是想杀了她？

P. Adams Sitney refutes the notion that Deren was the director ofMeshes of the Afternoon. He argues that Hammid “photographed the whole film. Maya Deren simply pushed the button on the camera for the two scenes in which he appeared.”(5)Stan Brakhage also classifiesMeshesas Hammid’s film. Deren’s biographers perceive the film as a collaboration, noting that Hammid provided the mechanical expertise to realize images born from Deren’s imagination.(6)What is undeniable is thatMeshesestablishes key themes and cinematic innovations that Deren continued to explore throughout her career as an experimental filmmaker.

美国实验电影学家P·亚当斯·西特尼驳斥了玛雅·德伦是《午后的迷惘》导演的说法。他认为哈米德「拍摄了整部电影」。玛雅·德伦只是简单地为他出现的两个场景按下了摄像机上的按钮。德伦的传记作者认为这部电影是一次合作，并指出哈米德提供了专业设备来帮助德伦实现自己的想象力。不可否认的是，《午后的迷惘》抛出的主题是先锋的，促进了电影的创新，而德伦在其职业生涯中将继续自己的探索。

Deren’s second experimental film,At Land(1944), reinforces her interest in the juxtaposition of anachronistic spaces and introduces a critique of social rituals. This film begins by reversing the natural rhythm with images of waves breaking and descending back into the sea. Starring again, Deren is seen climbing up a dead tree trunk on the beach, magically emerging onto a table where a formal dinner party is in progress. This ‘civilized’ world ignores Deren as she crawls along their dinner table. By depicting herself as invisible to the diners, Deren highlights the myopia of the guests. The dinner sequence inAt Landends with an enchanted chess game. A pawn falls from the table and descends back into the dead wood on the beach, it falls over rocks, into the water and is washed away over the waterfalls. Chasing the pawn, Deren is restored to her original landscape.

德伦在第二部实验电影《在陆地上》（1944）中加强了她对多重空间的探索，并引入了对社会仪式的批评。这部电影一开始就颠倒了自然的节奏，出现了海浪破碎地拍击着大海的画面。德伦再次出演了这部影片，可以看到她爬上海滩上的一棵枯树干，神奇地出现在一张正在举行正式晚宴的桌子上。当德伦沿着餐桌爬行时，这个文明的世界忽视了她。通过将自己描绘成餐桌上的隐形人，德伦突出了客人视角的暧昧感。在洛杉矶的晚餐戏以一个神奇出现的国际象棋棋盘结束。一个棋子从桌子上掉下来，落回海滩上的枯木里，落在岩石上，掉进水里，被瀑布冲走了。追赶棋子的德伦又回到了影片开头自然的景观中。

WithA Study in Choreography for the Camera(1945) Deren’s 16mm Bolex becomes a performer equal in significance to the star of this film, Talley Beattey. In the opening sequence Deren’s camera rotates more than 360 degrees, scanning past the figure in movement. In this film Deren articulates the potential for transcendence through dance and ritual. The movement of the dancer does not always motivate the camera, so Deren’s visual expression remains free floating. The spaces linked in this film range from the interior of a museum to the forest and courtyard. Deren writes, “The movement of the dancer creates a geography that never was. With a turn of the foot, he makes neighbors of distant places.” As Beattey spins, he appears to develop more than one face, forming an illusion of a totem pole.

玛雅·德伦用16毫米的Bolex相机拍摄了《摄影机舞蹈习作》（1945），舞者泰利·比提主演了这部短片。在开场，德伦的相机旋转了360度，扫过移动中的泰利。德伦在片中阐明了摄影机超越舞蹈和仪式的潜力。舞者的动作并不总是激发镜头的动力，所以德伦的视觉表达仍然自由浮动。这部电影中连接的空间范围从博物馆内部到森林，继而来到庭院。德伦写道：「舞者的动作创造了一种前所未有的地理。脚步一转，他就可以来到远方。当泰利旋转自己的舞步时，他动态的脸似乎变成了了一颗图腾柱。

Ritual In Transfigured Time(1946) silently follows Rita Christiani’s perspective as she enters an apartment to find Maya Deren immersed in the ritual of unwinding wool from a loom. Deren includes another expression of the external invading the internal with a strange wind that surrounds and entrances her as she becomes transported by the ritual.Ritual in Transfigured Timelinks the looming ritual with the ritual of the social greeting. Christiani enters a party, meets and greets, moving throughout the crowd like a dancer. Her movements become increasingly expressive and fluid, the ritual becomes a performance. Key themes in this film are the dread of rejection and the contrasting freedom of expression in the abandonment to the ritual.

《时间变形中的仪式》（1946）缓慢而安静地跟随丽塔·克里斯汀的视角，她走进一间公寓，发现玛雅·德伦沉浸在从织布机上解开羊毛的「仪式」中。德伦的另一种表达方式是，当她专注于手上的动作时，一阵优雅而奇异的风包围了她，吹进了她的内心。《时间变形中的仪式》中解羊毛的「仪式」将迫在眉睫的动作和社交问候的动作结合在一起。克里斯汀妮进到了一个派对，和其他人见面打招呼，像舞者一样在人群中移动。她的动作变得越来越有表现力和流畅性，仪式变成了表演。这部电影的关键主题是对拒绝的恐惧，以及与放弃仪式形成鲜明对比的表达自由。

InMeditation on Violence(1948) Deren’s camera is motivated by the movement of the performer, Chao Li Chi. This film is marked by a lack of dynamism and mobility that we have come to expect from Deren’s camera. It also obscures the distinction between violence and beauty. The shadows on the white wall behind Chi amplify the movement of the Wu Tang ritual. InMeditation on ViolenceDeren experiments with film time, reversing the film part way through producing a loop. Exhibited forwards and then backwards, the difference in the Wu Tang movements is almost imperceptible.

在《暴力的冥想》（1948）中，德伦的相机对准了冀朝理。这部电影缺乏我们期望在德伦电影中看到的活力和流动性。它模糊了暴力和美之间的区别。冀朝理身后白墙上的阴影放大了他的武当派动作。在《暴力的冥想》中，德伦对电影时间进行了实验，通过循环的场景来颠倒电影的结构。不论从哪个角度来看，冀朝理武术动作的细微区别都难以被察觉。

The Very Eye of Night(1958) was a collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School. The film was beset by problems in its production and carried with it a heavy weight of expectation. A shimmering constellation of stars established the background for negative images of figures resembling Greek Gods superimposed on and magically transported along the milky way. Deren called it her ‘ballet of night’, an ethereal dance within a nocturnal space that focused on the spectacle rather than the narrative. Ito collaborated on the soundtrack using tone blocks and bells, recalling the trance rhythm ofMeshes of the Afternoon. Prioritizing enchantment over interpretation,The Very Eye of Nightproved to be Deren’s most controversial and misunderstood film.

《夜之眼》（1958）玛雅·德伦是与大都会歌剧院芭蕾舞学校合作的作品。这部电影在制作上遇到了不少困难——它承载了德伦的期望。片个个闪闪发光的星座为负面形象奠定了背景，这些形象类似希腊诸神，叠加在银河系上，并神奇地沿着银河系移动。德伦称这是她的「夜间芭蕾舞」，这是一种在夜空中的空灵舞蹈，专注于奇观而不是叙事。伊藤使用音块和音铃制作了配乐，与《午后的迷惘》恍惚节奏遥相呼应。事实证明，《夜之眼》是玛雅·德伦最具争议、最被误解的电影，它的魅力远大于人们对它的解读。

Deren is often referred to as the archetypal example of independence, a filmmaker who managed to avoid the institutional regulation of American cinema. Deren screened her films on her living room walls to interested audiences, occasionally exhibiting to critics like Manny Farber and James Agee. Her aim was to inspire a new generation of avant-garde filmmakers. Nichols writes,

玛雅·德伦经常被视为独立电影的标志性人物，她同时也一位设法避开美国电影监管制度的导演。德伦在客厅的墙上向感兴趣的观众放映她的电影，偶尔还会向曼尼·法伯和詹姆斯·阿吉等评论家放映。她的目标是激励新一代前卫的电影人。在《玛雅·德伦和美国先锋派电影》一书中，电影评论家比尔·尼科尔斯写道：

The new American cinema of the 1950s took on the shape of an institutional reality that gave sustenance to the creative efforts of Hollis Frampton, Stan Brakhage, Paul Sharits, Robert Frank, Morris Engel and Jack Smith. Deren demonstrated how such artists could gain common recognition and participate in a shared framework of distribution, exhibition, and critical discourse.(7)

「20世纪50年代的新美国电影依然呈现出了一种制度性的形态，这为荷利斯·法朗普顿、斯坦·布拉哈格、保罗·沙里茨、罗伯特·弗兰克、莫里斯·恩格尔和杰克·史密斯的创作奠定了基础。德伦展示了这样的艺术家应该如何获得社会共同的认可，并将实验电影引入到一个公共的发行、展览和批评话语的语系中。」

As an independent distributor Deren exhibited and presented lectures on her films across the United States, Cuba and Canada. In 1946 she booked the Village’s Provincetown Playhouse for a public exhibition. Deren titled the exhibition: ‘Three Abandoned Films – a showing ofMeshes of the Afternoon,At Land&A Study in Choreography for the Camera‘. Deren took the word ‘abandoned’ to refer to Guillaume Apollinaire’s observation that a work of art is never completed, just abandoned. Whilst the title was ironic, the exhibition was successful.

作为一名独立影人，德伦相继在美国、古巴和加拿大放映了自己的作品并发表了关于她关于电影的演讲。1946年，她在格林威治村的普罗文斯敦剧场进行公开展览。德伦将展览的标题定为：《三部被遗弃的电影：<午后的迷惘><在陆地上><摄影机舞蹈习作>展映》。德伦用「被遗弃」这个词来指代法国诗人、剧作家纪尧姆·阿波利奈尔的观点：一件艺术品永远不会完成，它只是被遗弃了。尽管标题具有讽刺意味，但这次展览非常成功。

Deren’s independent exhibitions inspired Amos Vogel’s formation of Cinema 16, a film society that promoted and exhibited experimental films in New York. Nichols argues that, “Deren acted the role of cinematic Prometheus, stealing the fire of the Hollywood gods for those whom the gods refused to recognize.”(8)In the late 1950s Deren formed the Creative Film Foundation to reward the achievements of independent filmmakers. Her work led to the establishment of the first filmmaker’s Co-op in New York City.

德伦的独立展览启发了阿莫斯·沃格尔成立了16号电影院，这是一个在纽约推广和放映实验电影的电影协会。比尔·尼科尔斯认为，德伦如同电影界的普罗米修斯，为那些「神灵」拒绝承认的电影人偷走了好莱坞的神火。早在20世纪50年代末，德伦就成立了创意电影基金会，奖励独立电影人的成就。她的工作促成了纽约市第一家电影人合作机构的成立。

Evasive and unclassifiable, Deren actively rejected categorization as a surrealist and refused the definition of her films as formalist or structuralist. Her affiliation with surrealism is undeniable. In 1943 Deren collaborated with Marcel Duchamp to produce a film calledWitch’s Cradle, a choreographed set of movements between the figure (played by Duchamp) and the camera. The film was intended to be an exploration of the magical qualities of objects in Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery, a space where Duchamp also exhibited.Witch’s Cradleremains unfinished, the film recalling Duchamp’s difficulty with completion. Duchamp’sLarge GlassorThe Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even(1915-23) collected dust in his studio for seven years until it was shattered in transit. Duchamp celebrated the accident as the final element allowing the art to be considered complete.

德伦的作品是暧昧、敏感，无法被分类的，她拒绝人们简单地将自己定义为超现实主义者，或将自己的影片称为形式主义电影和结构主义电影。然而她和超现实主义艺术运动的联系确实不可否认的。1943年，德伦与马塞尔·杜尚合作了一部名为《女巫的翻绳游戏》的电影，这是一套精心设计的人物（由杜尚扮演）和摄像机之间的动作。这部电影意在探索佩姬·古根海姆的世纪艺术画廊中艺术品，杜尚也在这个空间展出了自己的作品。从某种程度上来说，《女巫的翻绳游戏》是一部未完成的电影，它记录了杜尚创作时的艰难过程。杜尚的玻璃作品《大玻璃》在他的工作室尘封了七年之久，这件作品在运输的过程中被摔坏了。这却令杜尚欣喜不已，认为这个意外成就了自己的作品。

杜尚《大玻璃》

It is in Deren’s writing that her status as an innovator in film production and film theory is accentuated. In 1946 Deren wrote “An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film” where she explained her approach to filmmaking. Her argument emphasizes filmmaking as a matrix where elements exist outside of the constraints of hierarchy, order or value. It is a utopian approach, comparable to the logic developed by the Russian Formalists, which stresses the influence of individual elements within the anagram.

通过写作，玛雅·德伦作为导演和电影理论创新者的地位得到了强调。1946年，德伦写了《关于艺术、形式和电影想法的字谜游戏》一文，在文中她阐释了她的电影的制作方法。她强调电影制作是一个矩阵，其中的元素存在于等级、顺序或价值的限制之外。这是一种乌托邦的设想，可以与俄罗斯形式主义者发展的逻辑相媲美，后者强调字谜中个别元素对整体的影响。

In an anagram all the elements exist in a simultaneous relationship. Consequently, within it, nothing is first and nothing is last; nothing is future and nothing is past; nothing is old and nothing is new… Each element of an anagram is so related to the whole that no one of them may be changed without affecting its series and so affecting the whole. And conversely the whole is so related to every part that whether one reads horizontally, vertically, diagonally or even in reverse, the logic of the whole is not disrupted, but remains intact.(9)

「在字谜中，所有的元素都是同时存在的。因此，没有什么处于首位，也没有什么最不受重视；没有什么是未来，没有什么是过去；没有什么是旧的，没有什么是新的......字谜的每个元素都与整体密切相关，任何一个元素的变化都会影响到序列的排布，从而影响到整体。相反，整体与每个部分的联系是如此紧密，以至于无论是水平、垂直、对角还是反向阅读，整体的逻辑都不会被打乱，而守住了完整。」

Deren also wrote “Cinematography: the creative use of reality” and an unpublished article entitled “Psychology of Fashion”. In 1953 Deren presented a paper entitled “Poetry and the Film” at a Cinema 16 Symposium. In this paper she argued that film works on two axes: the horizontal, including narrative, character and action, and the vertical, characterized by the more ephemeral elements of mood, tone and rhythm.

德伦还写了《电影摄影：对现实的创造性运用》和一篇未发表的题为《时尚心理学》的文章。1953年，德伦在16号电影院的研讨会上发表了一篇题为《诗歌与电影》的论文。在这篇论文中，她认为电影是在两个「坐标系」上运作的：包括叙事、人物和动作的水平轴；以情绪、基调和节奏等更短暂的元素为特征的垂直轴。

In 1947 Deren won the Cannes Film Festival’s Grand Prix Internationale. The same year she was also awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship(10)to begin research on the Voudoun (voodoo) ritual in Haitian culture. A book, recordings of the sounds of the rituals, and the beginnings of a film were the results of her extraordinary research. Deren recorded two albums of Voudoun music “Divine Horsemen” and “Meringues and Folk Ballads of Haiti”. In 1953 she published the definitive study of the Voudoun ritual:Divine Horsemen: the Living Gods of Haiti. Deren consulted with luminaries like Joseph Campbell and Gregory Bateson in her research and she shot more than 18,000 feet of footage during her three visits between 1947 and 1954. During her research Deren’s position became ambiguous. On one hand she was distanced from the project, a medium for the transmission of ideas, but she was also closely involved in the ritual. Her insights on the Voudoun ritual emerge from her participation in the ceremonies. On one of her trips to Haiti, Deren was initiated as a Voudoun priestess.

1947年，德伦赢得了戛纳电影节为实验电影颁发的评审团奖。同年，她还被授予古根海姆基金会奖的学金，开始研究海地文化中的巫毒教（伏都教）仪式。她在书中记录了仪式的录音，并且用一部电影的开头段落展示了她非凡的研究成果。德伦录制了两张有关巫毒教仪式的音乐专辑《神骑士》和《海地奶油酥饼和民谣》。1953年，她出版了关于巫毒仪式的权威专著：《神骑士：海地的活神灵》。德伦在著述中咨询了作家约瑟夫·坎伯以及人类学家格雷戈里·贝特森等名人，在1947年至1954年的三次访问海地的途中，她拍摄了超过1.8万英尺的镜头。在她的研究过程中，德伦的立场变得模棱两可。一方面，她与这个传播思想的媒介保持着距离，但她也密切参与了这个仪式。她对巫毒仪式的洞察力来自于她对仪式的参与。在她的一次海地之旅中，德伦负责了巫毒女祭司的工作。

In 1985 Deren’s third husband Teiji Ito and his new wife Cherel assembled and edited the Haitian footage that had remained incomplete since Deren’s death. The footage was spliced together to form an anthropological structure and a voice-over narration was added to clarify the details of the ceremonies. Upon its release, critics expressed reservations that the film was at odds with Deren’s style and contrasted with her original conception of the film.

1985年，德伦的第三任丈夫伊藤贞司和他的新婚妻子谢丽尔收集并整理了有关海地的素材，这些素材在德伦去世后一直残缺不全。这些镜头被拼接在一起，形成了一个具有人类学影像，并添加了画外音旁白，以让观者了解仪式的细节。在上映时，评论家们纷纷持保留意见，认为这部电影与德伦的风格不符，并与她最初对电影的想法形成了鲜明对比。

Maya Deren was a key figure in the development of the ‘New American Cinema’. Her influence extends to contemporary filmmakers like David Lynch, whose filmLost Highway(1997) pays homage toMeshes of the Afternoonin his experimentation with narration. Lynch adopts a similar spiraling narrative pattern, sets his film within an analogous location and establishes a mood of dread and paranoia, the result of constant surveillance. Both films focus on the nightmare as it is expressed in the elusive doubling of characters and in the incorporation of the “psychogenic fugue”, the evacuation and replacement of identities, something that was also central to the voodoo ritual.

玛雅·德伦是理解「新美国电影运动」发展历程的关键人物，她的影响了大卫·林奇这样的当代电影人，他的电影《妖夜慌踪》（1997）在叙事实验的方向上在向《下午的迷惘》致敬。林奇采用了类似的螺旋式叙事模式，将他的电影设定在一个类似的地点，并建立了一种恐惧和偏执的情绪，这是因为主人公一直处于受监视的状态。这两部电影都聚焦于噩梦，因其中的人物都有令人难以捉摸的双重身份，并融入了身份的疏离和替换，这也是巫毒教仪式的核心。

Speculation surrounding Maya Deren is most rampant concerning the details of her death. Deren died in 1961, aged 44. The legend begins with Stan Brakhage who, in his bookFilm at Wit’s End, speculates that Deren’s death was punishment for her intimate involvement in the Haitian Voudoun ritual. In Martina Kudlacek’s recent videoIn The Mirror of Maya Deren, this notion is coldly dispelled with the dreadful assertion that Deren died of a cerebral hemorrhage due to a combination of malnutrition and a predilection for amphetamines and sleeping pills.

围绕玛雅·德伦死亡细节的猜测最为猖獗。德伦于1961年去世，享年44岁。传说始于斯坦·布拉哈奇，他在《Film at Wit’s End》一书中推测，德伦的死是对她亲密参与海地巫毒仪式的惩罚。在玛蒂娜·库德拉切克的纪录片《在玛雅·德伦的魔镜》中，这种观点显得并没有什么说服力了，因为该片断言，德伦死于脑出血，原因是营养不良以及她对安非他命和安眠药的依赖。

When she died Maya Deren’s ashes were scattered across the lively port side of Mount Fuji, in Japan.

玛雅·德伦去世时，她的骨灰被撒在日本富士山热闹的港口一侧。

Ito thought that this was the perfect resting place for a woman energized in life by ritual, dance, voodoo, music, poetry, writing and of course, experimental film. As a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema, Deren’s legacy is both abstract and tangible. Her innovations in filmmaking continue to fascinate aspiring experimental filmmakers. Her pioneering, uncompromising spirit enabled her to elude the institutional limitations that controlled filmmaking in 1940s American culture. Deren’s enduring quest to secure financial support for experimental filmmakers during her lifetime was finally answered with the establishment of a grant bearing her name. In 1986 the American Film Institute recognized Deren’s significant contribution to experimental filmmaking by creating the Maya Deren Award to act as an incentive and reward for the work of contemporary independent film and video makers.

伊藤贞司认为，对于一个通过仪式、舞蹈、巫毒教、音乐、诗歌、写作，当然还有实验电影而充满活力的女性来说，富士山是一个完美的休息之地。作为美国先锋电影的先驱，德伦的遗产既抽象又有形。她在电影制作方面的创新继续吸引着有抱负的实验电影人。她开拓进取、毫不妥协的精神使她避开了20世纪40年代美国文化中控制电影制作的制度限制。德伦在有生之年为实验电影人争取资金支持的不懈追求终于得到了回应，以她的名字命名的一笔赠款得到了回应。1986年，美国电影学会设立了玛雅·德伦奖激励当代独立电影人的工作，并以此表彰德伦对实验性电影的重大贡献。

And what more could I possibly ask as an artist than that your most precious visions, however rare, assume sometimes the forms of my images.

作为一名艺术家，我还能要求什么呢？希望我创作的那些梦境和影像能够映入你的眼帘。

Maya Deren

玛雅·德伦

来源：https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/deren-2/