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.

The movie starts with an intro of a woman telling the mythical story of Oedipus and the Sphinx. The movie then goes into showing a woman fixing breakfast for her child. A womans voice is heard saying one word at a time that relates to the current scene being shown. The woman in the film puts her child in bed. The camera slowly moves horizontally while loud synthetic music plays in the background. This occurs throughout the whole film.

I have seen many experimental and "art" films but during this film I became so bored that after about 45 minutes and more than half the viewing audience had left I finally got up and walked out also.

I don't recommend this movie unless you need a place to take a nap.

Mulvey's Riddles of the Sphinx is as haunting as its title would suggest, a dizzy philosopher of a film, completely unique then and now.

The short consists of a number of short tableaux, each filmed "in the round", so to speak, by a 360 degree camera turn. Also short snippets of Mulvey herself wrestling with these "riddles" are interspersed in a few places.

The effect of these simple elements is striking--as are the colors of the cinematography. The 16mm film is as rich and deep as I've seen.

Her intent was to create an entirely new form of cinema, one made by women (hence the 360 degree shots instead of the very male, penetrating, zoom, for example). What she did create is ineffable and difficult, and important.

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.

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.