Riddles of the Sphinx

[What A Disgrace]

May I ask why this release wasn't included with the Flipside strand? It seems right up its alley.

Received mine Monday, and am looking for the right time to dip in. Its certainly up *my* alley.

[MichaelB]

I can't speak for the BFI, but to me it doesn't really seem like a Flipside release.

For starters, it's long been recognised as a major milestone in British avant-garde cinema, and although audiences have been predictably tiny throughout its existence, it's never been wholly forgotten in the way that, say, Herostratus or the B.S. Johnson films were.

[zedz]

I'd say this is the most celebrated (and maybe even most seen) British experimental film of the 70s, and probably since the 70s. It might have been unavailable on (reasonably priced) home video, but there's no way it's been overlooked or lost. It's a staple of film theory and feminist theory courses. I wouldn't be surprised if - as was apparently the case with Jeanne Dielman - the continued demand for 16mm screenings acted as a disincentive for DVD release (since that would immediately replace those rentals and kill the revenue stream).

Love it though I do, the Flipside label is a kind of ghetto, and that sort of branding really wouldn't be appropriate for this release, or for other similarly high-ish profile BFI titles like the Jarmans and Greenaways.

[What A Disgrace]

That makes sense. The announcement of this release was actually the first time I heard about the film (as is often the case with Flipside titles, too), I'm embarrassed to say.

[zedz]

Even though it's been in distribution all this time, absence from home video does confer a kind of invisibility on titles - though you could already have picked up a DVD from Women Make Movies if you'd had a spare 400 bucks rattling around!

[antnield]

I wish the BFI would put up a second trailer for the film - the one on the BFI youtube page reminds me of In the Shadow of the Sun or some other Derek Jarman Super 8 film, and I imagine it's not representative of the film...

And so they have.

[zedz]

I wish the BFI would put up a second trailer for the film - the one on the BFI youtube page reminds me of In the Shadow of the Sun or some other Derek Jarman Super 8 film, and I imagine it's not representative of the film...

And so they have.

When I looked at that, I had to sit through an ad which featured something like the Mars Rover, which was oddly appropriate, since the central section of Sphinx basically resembles the heroine's daily life as if it were being observed by an alien probe.

I've started to work my way through this release, and can affirm that Mulvey's commentary is detailed and lucid - a great primer for the theoretical components of the film. And I'm reminded how mysterious and beautiful this film can be. The theory informs all of Mulvey and Wollen's decisions, but it doesn't overburden or overdetermine the film. As a purely sensory experience it offers plenty of the visual pleasure that Mulvey was so concerned with, and those obsessive 360 degree pans are smart and stately, and I particularly love it towards the end when they get a lot more playful, aping blank screens or navigating the outrageous pitfalls of a room full of mirrors. That latter scene is such a gorgeous shot, probably one of my favourites of the 70s, and it makes it plain that all of these plans sequences are as carefully choreographed as something you'd find in a Jansco film.

In terms of comparisons, Riddles of the Sphinx is quite similar to what Godard and Mieville were doing at the same time (e.g. Comment ca va), only so, so, so much better.

[colinr0380]

Jonathan Rosenbaum's Monthly Film Bulletin review of Penthesilea: Queen of the Amazons

[Orlac]

I found this mindnumbingly tedious, I'm sorry to say.

[EddieLarkin]

Thanks for the bump; you reminded me to pick this up before it disappears. Can anyone confirm if Penthesilea is in HD or SD?

[neilist]

Thanks for the bump; you reminded me to pick this up before it disappears. Can anyone confirm if Penthesilea is in HD or SD?

It's in HD on the Blu-ray, according to the booklet 'scanned at 2K resolution from the original 16mm negatives'.

[antnield]

I'm told that this release is down to its last few copies - and the next pressing will be DVD-only.

So anyone wanting this on Blu-ray had better hurry...