Riddles of the Sphinx

This film addresses the position of women in patriarchy through the prism of psychoanalysis. I love the fragmented use of text, dialog, and image, which echoes the fragmentation of unconscious thought and also subverts the usual way of filmmaking and of portraying women as sexualized objects. The film asks questions which were pertinent at the time and which still are pertinent, e.g. what issues should feminists be fighting on. It leaves these questions unanswered, instead of being a didactic film. Other parts of the film show the drudgery and mundanity of women's traditional role, subverting the idea that women might find this role 'naturally' rewarding and fulfilling. The images of the acrobats in one of the final sections are beautiful and trippy. This is an important, philosophical film.

I watched this movie about five years ago in Women and Film class at Rutgers. Disappointed with the class itself and the lecturer. I was not disappointed by the wide array of films including the Riddles by Laura Mulvey. THe film is bizarre to describe. But I still am drawn to it somehow. I wish it was on video. I even felt the smell from the screen like purple at me. I never smelled a film before. I still would like to see it again for a better perspective. Whether you are interested in the bizarre and unusual aspect of film-making, this film might be for you. It doesn't really have much of a storyline. A woman wants to seek independence from her marriage but is still a mother. I never understood it and still don't but I would love to see it again if I had the opportunity. Laura Mulvey is an acquired taste that we grow accustomed too.

Writer/producer/directors Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's 1977 experimental feature film is like their previous film 'Penthesilea Queen of the Amazons' an example of an essay film (although not as complex as 'Penthesilea') and like their previous film divided into chapters and referencing (and questioning) ancient mythology (the female Greek Sphinx and the male Egyptian Sphinx), and ideas of the conscious mind (the male Oedipus) and the unconscious mind (the female Sphinx). Featuring shots of the Sphinx, and Mulvey addressing the camera about mythology, patriarchy and gender roles, the film develops into a series of circular pans (clockwise then anti-clockwise) round various spaces - domestic, work and public (including the Wandsworth Arndale Centre) - that Louise (Dinah Stabb) occupies, and which serves the role of a visual meditation on her world of domestic exploitation (and workplace exploitation). As cinema this is not particularly effective, or as a women's liberation polemic.

As Laura Mulvey's lasting legacy has been her theorization of a feminist avant-garde that eschews visual pleasure, it's hardly surprising that her famous 1977 experiment Riddles of the Sphinx is a bit difficult to digest. I certainly had a hard time watching it. But even though the film consistently tried my attention and nerves, I cannot deny that it's a wholly original work. And the more I think about it, the more I respect it, and the more--this is a bit crazy--the more I think I might like to watch it again.

The most immediately intriguing stylistic component is the slow, rotating cinematography of the film's fourth chapter. By placing a camera in an environment and confining it to a mechanical 360 degree rotation, Mulvey and Wollen offer a deliberate point of view that maintains visual interest without conforming to any traditional understanding of the filmic "gaze." This technique is most effectively employed in a scene that takes place in moving traffic, to a distinctly Children of Menesque effect; its a compelling demonstration of the spectatorial pleasure to be derived from cinematic skill as opposed to voyeurism and scopophilia.

Elsewhere, Mulvey and Wollen continue to push the boundaries of how we engage with cinema--I can say truthfully that I was far more invested in seeing two water drops reach the end of a maze than I would have been in characters chasing MacGuffins. I can't promise that you'll enjoy Riddles of the Sphinx in any traditional sense, but I can wholeheartedly recommend it to any filmmakers or artists interested in exploring new forms of expression. -TK 9/23/10

Laura is one of the most famous film theorists in history and deservedly so for her "Visual Pleasures..." paper. This film is, to my mind, a direct result of her criticism. It is a critique of visual pleasure in narrative film, and man does it feel that way. Granted, I haven't seen this film for years, but I remember it as being two of the most excruciating hours of my life. Read her work, it's brilliant, but see this film at your own risk. You have to REALLY like theory to see the whole thing, if you can even find it. First try watching Peter Greenaway's "The Falls", if you enjoy that, you might be ready for the beating that is "Riddles of the Sphinx". I excluded discussing Peter Wollen just to streamline my thoughts, he's brilliant in his own right.