In Riddles of the Sphinx, a key work of the British cinema of the seventies, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen use a new formal structure to analyse the way women were represented in the cinema. Based on the critical articles and research of the two filmmakers, the film returns constantly to women and the place of maternity in society, not as a visual image but as a theme for investigation. This content cannot be addressed by the aesthetic parameters established by traditional cinematographic practice, instead involving formal research in which, using multiple voices, Mulvey and Wollen seek to construct a different relation between the spectator and the female subject.
Riddles of the Sphinx, Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, 1977, video, 90 min.
