Riddles of the Sphinx

A study of Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen's avant-garde classic Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) in the BFI Film Classics series

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen’s Riddles of the Sphinx (1977) follows the life of Louise (played by Dinah Stabb), a white middle-class woman living in London in the 1970s who is transforming her place in patriarchal culture. The film is recognised as one of the most important avant-garde films to have emerged from Britain during the 1970s and a classic of feminist cinema. Kimberly Lamm’s study of the film examines its kaleidoscopic array of cinematic strategies and poetic devices and how it explores issues of female representation, the place of motherhood within society and mother-daughter relationships. Lamm delves into the context of the film's production and reception, considering its significance as the second collaboration between Mulvey and Wollen, and the ways in which it was inspired by Mulvey's work on "the male gaze". She goes on to position Riddles as an essay film, analysing its formal experimentations, including the use of direct address and found footage, the rejection of continuity editing and its groundbreaking, haunting electronic score by Mike Ratledge of Soft Machine. Finally, considering the voice of the Sphinx, Lamm highlights how Mulvey and Wollen work with sound and images to reconfigure visual pleasure and create conditions in which the full range of women’s voices can be listened to, heard, and valued.