when hopscotch blends into hats...

"you see, the way the words are used in films mostly derives from the theatrical tradition in which what you see makes the sound you hear. and so, in that sense, they would be redundant in film if they were used as a further projection of the image. however if they were brought in on a different level, not issuing from the image which would be complete in itself, but as another dimension relating to it, then it is the two things together that make the poem. it's almost as if you were standing at a window and looking out into the street and there are children playing hopscotch. well, that's your visual experience. behind you in the room are women discussing hats or something, and that's your auditory experience. you stand at the place where these two come together by virtue of your presence. what relates these two moments is your position in relation to the two of them. they don't know about each other, and so you stand by the window and have a sense of afternoon, which is neither the children in the street, nor the women talking behind you, but a curious combination of both, and that is your resultant image, do you see? and this is possible in film because you can put a track on it."

maya deren to arthur miller during a poetry and film symposium, 1953. reprinted in film culture no. 29, 1963