Penn
Cinema Studies
Penn Cinema Studies and Film @ International House present Contemporary
Slovenian Cinema, one
of the most exciting developments in contemporary European cinema
in the last decade as well as Cinevardaphoto
and Riddles of the Sphinx, both
of which challenge the viewer to think about the nature of the
cinematic image and its relationship to other modes of representation.
Like the works in Moving
Pictures: From Frame to Screen (screening in April),
these films reveal the persistent importance of the photographic
image for Mulvey and Varda in work that spans a period from
the 1963 to the present and that explores a range of themes,
including motherhood, femininity, collecting and curating, the
Cuban revolution, and visual media's relationship to time.
Wednesday,
March 26 at 7pm
Cinevardaphoto
dir.
Agnes Varda,
France, 2004/1982/1963, video, 96 mins, color, English and French
w/ English subtitles
 A
photographer before she turned to film, Agnes Varda explores
the medium’s ability to preserve a moment for eternity, while
remaining open to an array of interpretations that evolve over
time. Her newest film Ydessa…, records a moving and
macabre exhibit of early 20th century photographs, each featuring
a teddy bear. The curator/collector/bear aficionado is Ydessa
Hendeles, a scarlet-haired slight woman, who looks to be a figment
of Edward Gorey’s imagination. Cinevardaphoto
features three short cine-essays: Ydessa, The
Bears, and Etc. (2004), Ulysses (1982) and Salut
Les Cubains (1963).
Tuesday,
April 1 at 7pm
The
Films of Laura Mulvey
Riddles
of the Sphinx
dir.
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, UK, 1977, video, 92 mins, color
Director
Laura Mulvey in person
Penn Cinema Studies and Film @
International House are pleased to screen
works by renowned film scholar Laura Mulvey, co-written
and co-directed with Peter Wollen. Mulvey
came to prominence in the early 1970s with her seminal essay
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. One of the most
widely cited and anthologized articles in the field of contemporary
film theory, this groundbreaking work investigated questions
of spectatorial identification and its relationship to the male
gaze. With this essay and other articles, Mulvey helped establish
feminist film theory as a legitimate field of study.
 One
of the most visually stimulating, theoretically rigorous films
to emerge from the 1970s, this landmark fusion of feminism and
formal experimentation seeks to create a non-sexist film language.
Its title figure terrorized Thebes and self-destructed only
after Oedipus correctly answered her riddle. Invoking and challenging
traditional interpretations of the Oedipus story as a movement
from matriarchal culture to patriarchal order, the film also
probes representation in film itself. The central narrative
is an inquiry into the arbitrary nature of conventional film
techniques that captures Louise, a middle-class woman with a
four-year-old daughter as she struggles with motherhood in a
patriarchal society.
preceded
by
Frida
Kahlo and Tina Modotti
dir.
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, UK, 1983, video, 29 mins, b/w
& color
Originally
commissioned for an international art exhibition this short
film is an unconventional portrait of painter Frida Kahlo and
photographer Tina Modotti. Simple in style but complex in its
analysis, Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti explores the
divergent themes and styles of two contemporary and radical
women artists working in the upheaval of the aftermath of the
Mexican Revolution.
and
Amy!
dir.
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, UK, 1980, video, 30 mins, b/w
& color
Amy
Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to
Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines
newsreel footage of the
aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life
and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject
of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
Laura
Mulvey's films screen in conjuction
with the
Penn
Cinema Distinguished International
Scholars Series
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