Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)

Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) (Blu-Ray) (*)

$27.99

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Dolby Linear PCM )
English ( Mono )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
91 min

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen

Special Features:
Commentary
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Booklet
Blu-Ray & DVD Combo

Movie filmed in 1977 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Laura Mulvey
Peter Wollen

Written By:
Laura Mulvey
Peter Wollen

Actors:
Dinah Stabb ..... Louise
Merdelle Jordine ..... Maxine
Riannon Tise ..... Anna
Clive Merrison ..... Chris
Marie Green ..... Acrobat
Paula Melbourne ..... Rope Act
Crisse Trigger ..... Juggler
Mary Maddox ..... Voice Off (voice)
Laura Mulvey ..... Herself / Voice Off
Marion Dain
Rosalind Delmer
Mary Dickenson
Rosamund Howe
Carole James
Claire Johnston

Synopsis:

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's visually accomplished and intellectually rigorous Riddles of the Sphinx is one of the most important avant-garde films to have emerged from Britain during the 1970s. The second collaboration between Mulvey and Wollen, both of whom are recognised as seminal figures in the field of film theory, Riddles of the Sphinx explores issues of female representation, the place of motherhood within society and the relationship between mother and daughter. Composed of a number of discrete sections, many of which are shot as continuous circular pans, the film takes place in a range of domestic and public spaces, shot in locations which include Malcolm LeGrice's kitchen and Stephen Dwoskin's bedroom. The film's ground-breaking electronic score, by The Soft Machine's Mike Ratledge, was composed on synthesisers which were developed in collaboration with Denys Irving (the man behind the mysterious and controversial 1970s band Lucifer). Newly mastered to High Definition, this extraordinary, era-defining work is presented here with a wealth of essential bonus material, including a newly-recorded feature-length commentary by Laura Mulvey, Mulvey and Wollen's film Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons (1974, 99 mins), and a video interview with Laura Mulvey in conversation with the University of Bremen's Winfried Pauleit. Also included is an extensive booklet with new essays and complete film credits.

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's film (1977) addresses the position of women in patriarchy through the prism of psychoanalysis. Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) draws on the critical writings and investigations by both filmmakers into the codes of narrative cinema, and offers an alternative formal structure through which to consider the images and meanings of female representation in film. The film is constructed in three sections and 13 chapters, combining Mulvey's own to-camera readings around the myth of Oedipus's encounter with the Sphinx with a series of very slow 360 degree panning shots encompassing different environments, from the domestic to the professional. Louise, the narrative's female protagonist, is represented through a fragmented use of imagery and dialogue, in an attempt to break down the conventional narrative structures of framing and filming used to objectify and fetishise women in mainstream cinema. This could be seen as a formal development of the Lacanian analyses that Mulvey had applied to the female image in film in essays such as 1975's 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' (in Screen). Riddles of the Sphinx attempts to construct a new relationship between the viewer and the female subject, presenting her through multiple female voices and viewpoints. The dialogue, constructed from the different voices of Louise, her friends and fellow workers, brings a shifting and ambiguous range of meanings to the film, in contrast to the explanatory authority associated with a conventional voice-over. Other voices and images from outside the film's narrative world also question and disrupt pre-supposed meanings and symbols of the woman within and without the screen; from the mythical enigma of the Sphinx to the appearances of artist Mary Kelly and Mulvey herself.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 14 October, 2013.

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