Meshes of the Afternoon (1969) on Netflix

A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.

On her way back home, a solitary woman picks up a frail flower, and then, she drops her key. Exhausted, she finally enters her home and falls asleep in a deep and comfortable armchair. However, even in her intimate dreams, an intangible and elusive dark presence blemishes her afternoon nap--she tries to catch it; but, in vain. Now, as, more and more, the already confined environment becomes a maze-like purgatory, bizarre but perfect doppelgängers of her physical self start materialising in the house, catching a glimpse of a record player playing a never-ending tune, a telephone, and a sharp, serrated bread knife. The blade thirsts for blood; the woman hungers for a way out. Can the undivided mind/matter entity escape consciousness?

—Nick Riganas

A solitary flower on a long driveway, a key falling, a door unlocked, a knife in a loaf of bread, a phone off the hook: discordant images a woman sees as she comes home. She naps and, perhaps, dreams. She sees a hooded figure going down the driveway. The knife is on the stair, then in her bed. The hooded figure puts the flower on her bed then disappears. The woman sees it all happen again. Downstairs, she naps, this time in a chair. She awakes to see a man going upstairs with the flower. He puts it on the bed. The knife is handy. Can these dream-like sequences end happily? A mirror breaks, the man enters the house again. Will he find her?

—<jhailey@hotmail.com>