Riddles of the Sphinx
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Laura Mulvey, author of the seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, helped to establish feminist film theory as a legitimate field of study. With Peter Wollen, she directed one of the most visually stimulating, theoretically rigorous films to emerge from the 1970s. RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX is a landmark fusion of feminism and formal experimentation that seeks to create a non-sexist film language. Its title figure, the legendary creature of antiquity, 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 section, about Louise, a middle-class woman, and her four-year-old daughter Ana, is an inquiry into the arbitrary nature of conventional film techniques that captures Louise's struggles with motherhood in a patriarchal society.
"Initially the soundtrack is devoted to her rhyming, circular stream of consciousness; only as her husband announces that he is leaving her does it break into synch-sound. Throughout, Louise's oblique progress with motherhood is depicted in a series of thirteen 360-degree panning shots. The effect is to rotate the boundaries of her world in a slow delirium. As its title suggests, 'Riddles of the Sphinx' is meant to raise questions. To that end, it succeeds admirably."
J. Hoberman, The Village Voice
". . . the film can be grasped from a number of different angles, and each one delivers its quota of interest and pleasure to the spectator. Such openness is a precious quality in the cinema, whether commercial or avant-garde, in both of which coercive strategies have often reigned supreme. To find a film which crosses the frontiers of different audience expectations, which is unassuming and yet rigorous in its intellectual stance, and pleasurable and provocative at the same time, is rare indeed."
Geoffrey Howell-Smith, Sight & Sound
Citation
Main credits
Mulvey, Laura (screenwriter)
Mulvey, Laura (film director)
Wollen, Peter (screenwriter)
Wollen, Peter (film director)
Stabb, Dinah (actor)
Jordine, Merdelle (actor)
Tise, Shiannon (actor)
Other credits
Cinematographer, Diane Tammes; editors, Carola Klein, Larry Sider; music, Mike Ratledge.
Distributor subjects
Cinema Studies, Experimental Film, Gender, Women's MovementKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:33.042 --> 00:00:35.750
(Pages turn silently)
00:00:56.958 --> 00:00:59.708
(Silence continues...)
00:01:30.250 --> 00:01:32.667
(Laura) When we were planning
the central section of this
film,
00:01:32.792 --> 00:01:34.250 position:20%
about a mother and child,
00:01:34.375 --> 00:01:38.667
we decided to use the voice of
the Sphinx as an imaginary
narrator -
00:01:38.792 --> 00:01:40.458
because the Sphinx represents,
00:01:40.583 --> 00:01:43.417
not the voice of truth,
not an answering voice,
00:01:43.917 --> 00:01:45.976
but its opposite:
00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.250
a questioning voice,
a voice asking a riddle.
00:01:49.375 --> 00:01:52.250
The Oedipus myth associates
the voice of the Sphinx
00:01:52.375 --> 00:01:56.976
with motherhood as mystery and
with resistance to patriarchy.
00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.583
In some ways the Sphinx is the
forgotten character in the story
of Oedipus.
00:02:00.708 --> 00:02:04.333
Everybody knows that Oedipus
killed his father and married
his mother,
00:02:04.458 --> 00:02:08.083
but the part played by the
Sphinx is often overlooked.
00:02:08.208 --> 00:02:10.542 position:20%
Oedipus set off for Thebes,
00:02:10.667 --> 00:02:14.375
turning away from Corinth, where
he\'d been brought up by foster
parents.
00:02:14.542 --> 00:02:19.042
The Sphinx sat perched on a
cliff or pillar outside the city
gates;
00:02:19.167 --> 00:02:21.333
she asked every man who
went past a riddle.
00:02:21.958 --> 00:02:24.375
If they couldn\'t answer,
she devoured them.
00:02:25.667 --> 00:02:28.375
Then she stopped Oedipus
when he went past
00:02:28.542 --> 00:02:29.976
and when he answered
her correctly,
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:32.583 position:20%
she threw herself down from the
pillar and killed herself.
00:02:34.458 --> 00:02:38.833
The myth of the Sphinx took on
new life after Napoleon\'s
campaigns in Egypt
00:02:38.958 --> 00:02:43.458
when the Great Sphinx at Giza
was disclosed once again to
Western eyes.
00:02:43.583 --> 00:02:45.542
The Egyptian Sphinx is male,
00:02:46.250 --> 00:02:49.875
but on its blank face, resonant
with mystery and with death,
00:02:49.958 --> 00:02:54.375 position:20%
the spectator could project the
image of the Greek Sphinx.
00:02:54.542 --> 00:02:57.750
Once again the Sphinx
could enter popular mythology,
00:02:57.875 --> 00:03:00.917
in the image of male fears
and male fantasies,
00:03:01.583 --> 00:03:07.000
the cannibalistic mother, part
bestial, part angelic,
indecipherable.
00:03:10.583 --> 00:03:13.167
Oedipus is different
from other Greek heroes
00:03:13.292 --> 00:03:17.792
in that he defeated the monster,
not by strength or by bravery,
00:03:17.917 --> 00:03:20.625 position:20%
but simply by intelligence.
00:03:20.750 --> 00:03:22.208
In his answer to the riddle,
00:03:22.333 --> 00:03:26.083
Oedipus restored the generations
to their proper order,
00:03:26.208 --> 00:03:28.750
but by doing so he fell
into a further trap.
00:03:28.875 --> 00:03:31.167
In his own life
he disordered them once more
00:03:31.292 --> 00:03:33.833 position:20%
by marrying his own mother.
00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:38.208
It\'s almost as if Oedipus
stands for the conscious mind
00:03:38.333 --> 00:03:40.542
and the Sphinx for
the unconscious.
00:03:42.417 --> 00:03:46.059
The riddle confuses
and disorders logical categories
00:03:46.083 --> 00:03:48.250 position:20%
and the monster is a hybrid
00:03:48.375 --> 00:03:51.167 position:20%
of human, animal and bird.
00:03:53.250 --> 00:03:55.042
But reading between the lines
00:03:55.167 --> 00:03:59.417
the myth confirms women\'s sense
of exclusion and suppression.
00:03:59.542 --> 00:04:02.083
The Sphinx is outside
the city gates,
00:04:02.208 --> 00:04:04.167
she challenges the
culture of the city,
00:04:04.292 --> 00:04:06.792
with its order of kinship
and its order of knowledge,
00:04:06.917 --> 00:04:11.208
a culture and a political system
which assign women a subordinate
place.
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.292
To the patriarchy, the Sphinx as
woman is a threat and a riddle,
00:04:19.417 --> 00:04:22.417
but women within patriarchy are
faced with a never-ending series
00:04:22.542 --> 00:04:24.750
of threats and riddles -
00:04:24.875 --> 00:04:27.875
dilemmas which are hard
for women to solve,
00:04:27.958 --> 00:04:31.875
because the culture within which
they must think is not theirs.
00:04:34.042 --> 00:04:36.750
We live in a society
ruled by the father,
00:04:36.875 --> 00:04:40.059
in which the place of the mother
is suppressed.
00:04:40.083 --> 00:04:42.601
Motherhood and how to live it,
00:04:42.625 --> 00:04:44.083
or not to live it,
00:04:44.208 --> 00:04:46.625
lies at the roots
of the dilemma.
00:04:46.750 --> 00:04:48.167
And meanwhile,
00:04:48.292 --> 00:04:52.458
the Sphinx can only speak
with a voice apart, a voice off.
00:05:00.958 --> 00:05:03.583
( Ambient electronic
music begins)
00:05:48.333 --> 00:05:50.542
(Music continues...)
00:11:54.542 --> 00:11:56.833
(Music fades)
00:12:33.542 --> 00:12:36.625
( Murmuring electronic
music begins)
00:12:45.267 --> 00:13:05.267
(Music continues)
00:13:25.910 --> 00:13:45.910
(Music continues)
00:13:55.934 --> 00:14:15.934
(Music continues)
00:14:28.292 --> 00:14:33.083
( Music continues
over dialogue...)
00:15:20.542 --> 00:15:22.583
(Voice Off) Time to get ready.
00:15:22.708 --> 00:15:24.458
Time to come in.
00:15:24.583 --> 00:15:26.042
Things to forget.
00:15:26.167 --> 00:15:28.042
Things to lose.
00:15:28.167 --> 00:15:29.792
Meal time.
00:15:29.917 --> 00:15:31.417
Story time.
00:15:32.667 --> 00:15:34.542
Desultory.
00:15:34.667 --> 00:15:36.417
Peremptory.
00:15:36.542 --> 00:15:38.000
Keeping going.
00:15:38.125 --> 00:15:40.042
Keeping looking.
00:15:40.167 --> 00:15:41.875
Reading like a book.
00:15:42.625 --> 00:15:44.375
Relief.
00:15:44.542 --> 00:15:46.458
Things to cook.
00:15:47.292 --> 00:15:48.958 position:20%
Keeping in the background.
00:15:50.333 --> 00:15:52.000
Fish-slice.
00:15:52.125 --> 00:15:54.000
Domestic labour.
00:15:55.625 --> 00:15:57.250
Disheartened.
00:15:57.375 --> 00:15:59.083
Burdened.
00:15:59.208 --> 00:16:00.417
Keeping calm.
00:16:00.542 --> 00:16:02.625
Keeping clean.
00:16:02.750 --> 00:16:05.167
Fitting like a glove.
00:16:05.292 --> 00:16:07.125
Remorse.
00:16:07.250 --> 00:16:08.875
Things to mend.
00:16:10.792 --> 00:16:13.042 position:20%
Losing touch with reality.
00:16:13.625 --> 00:16:15.167
Dish-cloth.
00:16:16.292 --> 00:16:18.333
Narcissistic love.
00:16:20.083 --> 00:16:22.167
Idolise.
00:16:22.292 --> 00:16:24.250
Tranquillise.
00:16:24.375 --> 00:16:25.542
Losing count.
00:16:25.667 --> 00:16:27.375
Losing control.
00:16:27.542 --> 00:16:29.542
Shaking like a leaf.
00:16:30.208 --> 00:16:32.018
Release.
00:16:32.042 --> 00:16:33.958
Things to say.
00:16:34.958 --> 00:16:36.976
No time to make amends.
00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:39.083
No time for tea.
00:16:39.208 --> 00:16:40.708
Time to worry.
00:16:40.833 --> 00:16:42.792
No time to hold.
00:16:42.917 --> 00:16:44.667
Things to hold.
00:16:44.792 --> 00:16:47.208
Things past.
00:16:47.333 --> 00:16:49.976
Meal time.
00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.750
Story time.
00:16:53.250 --> 00:16:54.708
Keeping going.
00:16:54.833 --> 00:16:56.875
Keeping looking.
00:16:56.958 --> 00:17:00.083
Reading like a book.
00:17:01.208 --> 00:17:02.625
Things to forget.
00:17:02.750 --> 00:17:05.250
Things to lose.
00:17:05.375 --> 00:17:07.458
No time lost.
00:17:07.583 --> 00:17:09.375
Story time.
00:18:18.583 --> 00:18:21.833
(Music fades)
00:18:55.125 --> 00:18:57.792
(Minimalist electronic music)
00:19:33.333 --> 00:19:35.167
(Voice Off) Distressed.
00:19:35.292 --> 00:19:37.333
Strained.
00:19:37.458 --> 00:19:39.000
Nesting.
00:19:39.125 --> 00:19:41.042
In the nest.
00:19:42.958 --> 00:19:44.333
Comfort.
00:19:44.458 --> 00:19:46.018
Effort.
00:19:46.042 --> 00:19:47.708
At the breast.
00:19:48.125 --> 00:19:50.208
At rest.
00:19:50.333 --> 00:19:52.250
Resting.
00:19:53.750 --> 00:19:55.167
Take leave.
00:19:55.292 --> 00:19:56.625
Take moss.
00:19:56.750 --> 00:19:58.458
Be close.
00:19:58.583 --> 00:20:01.583
Be clasped and cleft.
00:20:01.708 --> 00:20:03.708
Be close.
00:20:03.833 --> 00:20:05.750
Nesting.
00:20:05.875 --> 00:20:07.542
Acquiesced.
00:20:09.417 --> 00:20:11.042
Memory.
00:20:11.167 --> 00:20:13.018
Mystery.
00:20:13.042 --> 00:20:14.792
Dispossessed.
00:20:14.917 --> 00:20:16.375
Depressed.
00:20:16.542 --> 00:20:17.958
Trusting.
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:22.208
Make cross.
00:20:22.333 --> 00:20:24.292
Make grieve.
00:20:24.417 --> 00:20:26.042
Morose.
00:20:26.167 --> 00:20:29.167
Subject to conquest.
00:20:29.292 --> 00:20:32.333
Object to incest.
00:20:33.125 --> 00:20:34.125
Nesting.
00:20:35.042 --> 00:20:36.417
From the nest.
00:20:37.083 --> 00:20:38.375
Blood.
00:20:38.542 --> 00:20:39.875
Brood.
00:20:39.958 --> 00:20:41.542
From the breast.
00:20:42.458 --> 00:20:44.250
Caressed.
00:20:44.375 --> 00:20:45.625
Hurting.
00:20:46.958 --> 00:20:48.625
Bleeding.
00:20:48.750 --> 00:20:51.059
It was obvious.
00:20:51.083 --> 00:20:53.708
It was as obvious as
it was oblivious.
00:20:54.542 --> 00:20:56.125
Brooding.
00:20:57.250 --> 00:20:58.667
It was plain.
00:20:59.417 --> 00:21:01.000
Be close.
00:21:01.625 --> 00:21:04.125
It was as plain as it was pain.
00:21:05.542 --> 00:21:06.875
Make love.
00:21:06.958 --> 00:21:08.583
Make grieve.
00:21:09.333 --> 00:21:11.059
Marries.
00:21:11.083 --> 00:21:13.417
Mother\'s and another\'s.
00:21:14.292 --> 00:21:16.417
Mysteries.
00:21:16.542 --> 00:21:17.833
Nesting.
00:21:54.417 --> 00:21:57.708
\"If only I hadn\'t
minded,\" I used to say,
00:21:57.833 --> 00:22:00.625 position:20%
but I did mind very much.
00:22:00.750 --> 00:22:03.059
I minded more than very much.
00:22:03.083 --> 00:22:06.125
I minded more than I could ever
have dared.
00:22:06.792 --> 00:22:08.833
Mind the door.
Mind the glass.
00:22:08.958 --> 00:22:10.292
Mind the fire.
00:22:10.417 --> 00:22:12.333
Mind the child.
00:22:13.250 --> 00:22:15.625 position:20%
I never minded the warmth.
00:22:15.750 --> 00:22:17.750
I minded the need.
00:22:18.583 --> 00:22:21.208
\"It was needed to have minded,\"
I used to say,
00:22:21.333 --> 00:22:24.958
but was it needed to have minded
more than very much?
00:22:25.750 --> 00:22:28.417
More than I could
ever have dared?
00:22:31.250 --> 00:22:33.250
(Music fades)
00:22:52.250 --> 00:22:55.667
( Buzz of electronic
music begins)
00:23:36.417 --> 00:23:39.417
Transformed, I would confide.
00:23:40.292 --> 00:23:41.601
I could have cried.
00:23:41.625 --> 00:23:43.125
I could have died.
00:23:44.958 --> 00:23:48.083
Transformed, to
cold from warmth.
00:23:50.583 --> 00:23:52.208
The warmth.
00:23:52.333 --> 00:23:55.018 position:20%
It pacified and purified.
00:23:55.042 --> 00:23:57.250 position:20%
The warmth was far within.
00:23:57.375 --> 00:23:58.625
Hidden within.
00:23:58.625 --> 00:24:01.625
The warmth was deep
and far within.
00:24:02.583 --> 00:24:04.042
The cold.
00:24:05.167 --> 00:24:06.333
In labour.
00:24:06.458 --> 00:24:07.750
In hiding.
00:24:07.875 --> 00:24:09.542
In the storm.
00:24:09.667 --> 00:24:11.018
Sheltered.
00:24:11.042 --> 00:24:12.792
Nurtured.
00:24:13.708 --> 00:24:15.708
The warmth.
00:24:15.833 --> 00:24:17.542
It was inside.
00:24:17.667 --> 00:24:19.333
It was in hiding.
00:24:19.958 --> 00:24:22.042 position:20%
The warmth was far within.
00:24:22.167 --> 00:24:24.083
Hidden within.
00:24:24.208 --> 00:24:26.750
The warmth was in the centre.
00:24:26.875 --> 00:24:28.583
In the calm.
00:24:29.458 --> 00:24:31.167
The cold.
00:24:32.417 --> 00:24:34.018
Underneath.
00:24:34.042 --> 00:24:36.042
Beneath.
00:24:36.167 --> 00:24:37.917
Beneath the quilt.
00:24:38.625 --> 00:24:39.667
Mothering.
00:24:39.792 --> 00:24:41.250
Covering.
00:24:42.125 --> 00:24:44.000
The warmth.
00:24:44.125 --> 00:24:46.458 position:20%
The cold conceded nothing.
00:24:47.167 --> 00:24:51.625
Whoever, frozen, pleaded,
it conceded nothing.
00:24:51.750 --> 00:24:53.976
The warmth consoled.
00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.000
The warmth was needed.
00:24:57.458 --> 00:24:59.000
The cold.
00:25:01.417 --> 00:25:03.625
Transformed.
00:25:03.750 --> 00:25:05.250
Preoccupied.
00:25:06.458 --> 00:25:08.083
I could have cried.
00:25:08.833 --> 00:25:11.059
It never died.
00:25:12.083 --> 00:25:13.625
In repose.
00:25:13.750 --> 00:25:16.333
From warmth to cold.
00:25:17.333 --> 00:25:18.875
Frozen.
00:25:18.958 --> 00:25:20.667
Controlled.
00:25:21.333 --> 00:25:23.042
Preoccupied.
00:25:54.542 --> 00:25:58.542
There\'s nothing much more
to say really is there?
00:25:59.917 --> 00:26:01.292
...said it all...
00:26:02.458 --> 00:26:04.000
Look.
00:26:04.125 --> 00:26:07.000
You\'ve got my number
haven\'t you, at Keith\'s?
00:26:07.125 --> 00:26:09.601
Just ring me if
there\'s anything.
00:26:09.625 --> 00:26:11.042
All right?
00:26:13.833 --> 00:26:16.417
Bye, Anna.
00:26:54.958 --> 00:26:58.792
(Murmur of children\'s voices)
00:27:11.417 --> 00:27:14.018
- Oh, hello!
- Hello.
00:27:14.042 --> 00:27:16.000
- Anna.
- Hello, Anna.
00:27:16.125 --> 00:27:18.917
(Children\'s voices
over conversation)
00:27:23.042 --> 00:27:26.417
(Maxine) Are you going shopping
with that? Will you take me to
the shop?
00:27:26.542 --> 00:27:29.292
- (Girl) The shop? - We can buys
some things at the shop.
00:27:29.417 --> 00:27:31.708 position:20%
(Chaotic notes from piano)
00:27:32.750 --> 00:27:36.208 position:20%
(Girl) Can we play outside?
00:27:36.333 --> 00:27:39.583 position:20%
I don\'t want to be in here.
00:27:39.708 --> 00:27:42.708
We could go outside?
00:27:50.333 --> 00:27:53.667
(Maxine) What shall we measure?
What shall we measure?
00:27:53.792 --> 00:27:55.542
(Pencils tumble out of a cup)
00:27:55.667 --> 00:27:57.167
(Girl) Whoops!
00:28:01.833 --> 00:28:03.375
Let\'s see which one\'s heaviest.
00:28:06.542 --> 00:28:09.542
You want to get into the shop?
All right then.
00:28:09.667 --> 00:28:11.292
What are you going to sell me?
00:28:13.792 --> 00:28:14.792 position:20%
(Louise) Bye bye, my love.
00:28:14.917 --> 00:28:18.333
I\'ve got to go now.
I\'ve got to go to work.
00:28:18.458 --> 00:28:20.750
I\'ll see you later,
I\'ll collect you after tea.
00:28:20.875 --> 00:28:23.292
(Anna) Bye.
00:28:23.417 --> 00:28:24.875
(Louise) Bye my love.
00:28:24.958 --> 00:28:28.917
(Maxine) Say goodbye. Don\'t
worry. We\'ll look after her.
00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:48.958
(Fragments of conversations
amongst the clattering of plugs
into sockets)
00:28:54.917 --> 00:28:56.333
Number, please?
00:28:59.708 --> 00:29:02.833
- Hello, Mrs Smith...
- ...extension 510.
00:29:20.208 --> 00:29:22.167
Extension 203...
00:29:24.042 --> 00:29:26.417
- Hello, who\'s calling?
- Number, please?
00:29:26.542 --> 00:29:28.833
I\'ll put you through
to extension number...
00:29:30.917 --> 00:29:32.875
Extension 506 is
still unavailable.
00:29:36.458 --> 00:29:38.875
I\'m afraid the number is
engaged. Will you wait?
00:29:41.583 --> 00:29:43.958
Extension 8...
00:29:48.958 --> 00:29:52.833
Would you just like to hold the
line, I\'ll try and find out what
extension it is?
00:30:03.333 --> 00:30:07.708
(Talking continues...)
00:30:32.958 --> 00:30:36.042
(Louise) Ah, Maxine, good.
Is Anna all right?
00:30:37.917 --> 00:30:38.976
Oh, that\'s a relief.
00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.018
I knew she\'d be all right
with you once I\'d gone.
00:30:44.042 --> 00:30:48.292
That\'s why I\'m ringing. I don\'t
think I\'m going to be able to.
00:30:48.417 --> 00:30:50.167
No, it\'s not that
really, it\'s just ...
00:30:51.292 --> 00:30:55.125
I can\'t talk now, I\'ll tell you
when I come and collect Anna.
00:30:55.250 --> 00:30:59.018
We\'ll arrange something else
perhaps. Listen, I must go now,
OK?
00:31:00.042 --> 00:31:01.667
Bye.
00:31:12.375 --> 00:31:14.917
I\'m sorry. Did I cut you off?
00:31:16.542 --> 00:31:19.667
Can I reconnect you?
00:31:19.792 --> 00:31:22.000
What number was it you wanted?
00:31:34.083 --> 00:31:35.792
I\'m very sorry.
00:31:39.250 --> 00:31:40.958
Fernbrook Products...
00:31:41.542 --> 00:31:44.250
Extension 222 is
engaged, will you hold?
00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:01.958
You could do with
a cup of tea now.
00:32:08.750 --> 00:32:13.417
(Fragments of conversations and
clattering of switchboards
continue)
00:33:50.958 --> 00:33:53.792
(Murmur of conversation)
00:34:48.667 --> 00:34:50.875
(Louise) We really have
to think about it.
00:34:50.958 --> 00:34:53.125
(Woman #1) Oh, definitely.
You do have to think about it.
00:34:53.250 --> 00:34:55.059
I mean, it costs a lot
of money doesn\'t it?
00:34:58.083 --> 00:34:59.601
(Louise) What
happened to you then?
00:34:59.625 --> 00:35:02.750
Well, you know I have to take
my Ellie to the child minder\'s.
00:35:02.875 --> 00:35:05.601
Well, this morning she was ill
and she couldn\'t cope,
00:35:05.625 --> 00:35:08.375 position:20%
so I had to go right across
the other side of London.
00:35:08.542 --> 00:35:13.167
The child minder\'s got a friend,
you know, and she helped her
out. But I mean,
00:35:13.292 --> 00:35:16.976
I had to go right down Holloway
Road and it cost me twice as
much as usual.
00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000
They ought to have a nursery
here, the company ought to
provide one.
00:35:20.125 --> 00:35:23.875
(Lyn) Well they should really. I
mean, it would make my life a
bit easier if they did.
00:35:23.958 --> 00:35:28.458
(Woman #2) I\'m not sure. I don\'t
really like the idea of my kids
here where I work...
00:35:28.583 --> 00:35:30.750
Louise, put the milk
in that tea then.
00:35:32.875 --> 00:35:36.018
...I like to think of work as
being a bit separate from the
house.
00:35:36.042 --> 00:35:38.458 position:20%
(Louise) Well, they\'re
rich enough, aren\'t they?
00:35:38.583 --> 00:35:42.042
(Woman #1) Yeah, I know, but
it\'s such an effort, isn\'t it?
00:35:42.167 --> 00:35:44.542 position:20%
It\'s just a job isn\'t it?
00:35:44.667 --> 00:35:46.583
Look how many mothers
there are here.
00:35:46.708 --> 00:35:50.250
They\'ve all got young children.
They\'ve all got problems about
leaving them.
00:35:50.375 --> 00:35:51.601
I know I have.
00:35:51.625 --> 00:35:53.125
I hate leaving mine,
00:35:53.250 --> 00:35:57.167
- I can\'t keep my mind on my
work. - But you are the worrying
type.
00:35:57.292 --> 00:35:58.833 position:20%
Well, it\'s not that, is it?
00:35:58.958 --> 00:36:01.059
If you\'ve got to take your child
to the nursery before you get to
work,
00:36:01.083 --> 00:36:03.250
no wonder you\'re in a flap
when you get here.
00:36:16.583 --> 00:36:18.833
(Woman #4)
What was all that about then?
00:36:18.958 --> 00:36:21.125
(Woman #5) Something about
nurseries, I think.
00:36:21.250 --> 00:36:23.042
(Woman #4) Oh. What, is she
worried about her kid?
00:36:23.167 --> 00:36:25.333 position:20%
(Woman #5) Yeah, she doesn\'t
like leaving her you know.
00:36:25.458 --> 00:36:28.292
Coming in,
leaving her somewhere else.
00:36:28.417 --> 00:36:32.542
She\'s only been here a little
while, but she\'s talking about
lots of problems.
00:36:32.667 --> 00:36:34.333
She\'s right though.
00:36:34.458 --> 00:36:36.601
- We ought to have a nursery
here. - Yeah.
00:36:36.625 --> 00:36:40.292 position:20%
We\'ve got a Personnel Manager,
give him something to do.
00:36:40.417 --> 00:36:43.583
Oh, yeah, they\'ll probably only
take it off the wages anyway.
00:36:43.708 --> 00:36:46.375
Oh, no, not if the
Union\'s involved.
00:36:46.542 --> 00:36:49.125
Somebody ought to find out what
they could do about it really.
00:36:49.250 --> 00:36:52.833
I think Louise should. I mean,
it was her idea in the first
place.
00:36:52.958 --> 00:36:55.601 position:20%
Yeah, I suppose it depends
how many people there are
00:36:55.625 --> 00:36:57.417
who\'ve got kids and need this.
00:36:57.542 --> 00:36:59.875 position:20%
Yeah, I think the important
thing to do is to find out
00:36:59.958 --> 00:37:03.208
how many kids are involved
and the ages as well,
00:37:03.333 --> 00:37:04.875
and then take it to the Union
00:37:04.958 --> 00:37:07.792
and see if they can do anything
about it with the management.
00:37:26.792 --> 00:37:28.208 position:20%
(Louise)
He should be here by now.
00:37:28.333 --> 00:37:29.976
A little boy with fair hair.
00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:32.375
(Maxine) I think he\'s got to
come across the footbridge.
00:37:35.708 --> 00:37:38.601
(Woman) What were you asking
about your little girl?
00:37:38.625 --> 00:37:42.167
(Louise) Well, at the moment,
she\'s in a community nursery,
where Maxine works,
00:37:42.292 --> 00:37:46.292
but I was wondering whether it
wouldn\'t be better to have the
nursery at work.
00:37:46.417 --> 00:37:49.018
Have the Unions
thought about that?
00:37:49.042 --> 00:37:51.125
(Woman) Not much really.
00:37:51.250 --> 00:37:55.125
You\'re lucky to get any sort of
day care, let alone the one that
suits you best.
00:37:55.250 --> 00:37:58.667
(Maxine) Hello. Give this to
your mother and say thanks for
waiting.
00:37:59.792 --> 00:38:01.208
(Child) Bye!
00:38:04.458 --> 00:38:07.875
(Maxine) Local authorities are
cutting back on nursery
education aren\'t they?
00:38:07.958 --> 00:38:10.000 position:20%
(Woman) Yes that\'s right.
00:38:10.125 --> 00:38:14.542
It may stimulate the women to
demand more for themselves
though.
00:38:18.125 --> 00:38:21.976
(Louise) Have the Unions ever
done anything at all about day
care?
00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:24.059
(Woman) They haven\'t
done very much.
00:38:24.083 --> 00:38:28.625
The TUC is in favour of free
state nursery care for any
parent who wants it,
00:38:28.750 --> 00:38:31.059
but we\'re a long way from that.
00:38:31.083 --> 00:38:32.333
(Louise) I was
wondering whether...
00:38:32.458 --> 00:38:35.708
(Woman) There are some nurseries
in the textile industry
00:38:35.833 --> 00:38:38.833
and the Unions do negotiate
about child care there,
00:38:39.958 --> 00:38:43.750
but that\'s an industry that
really depends on women\'s
labour.
00:38:43.875 --> 00:38:45.792
Unless there\'s organised
action around it,
00:38:45.917 --> 00:38:48.875
the Union wouldn\'t have any
reason to take it up, it\'s like
most things.
00:38:49.958 --> 00:38:53.792
(Maxine) We have to do something
first if we want the Unions to
take it up.
00:38:53.917 --> 00:38:57.208
(Louise) How can you make people
see the connection between
better wages
00:38:57.333 --> 00:39:00.018
and providing day care?
00:39:00.042 --> 00:39:03.792
(Woman) Well, trade unionism
isn\'t just a question of wages
struggle.
00:39:03.917 --> 00:39:06.417
It\'s about work conditions
too, it has to be.
00:39:09.750 --> 00:39:13.375
(Louise) In that case, might the
Unions get involved in running
nurseries?
00:39:13.542 --> 00:39:15.000
(Woman) They might.
00:39:15.125 --> 00:39:18.750 position:20%
All sorts of questions come up
with workplace nurseries.
00:39:18.875 --> 00:39:21.601
Should the mothers be allowed
to visit during the day?
00:39:22.625 --> 00:39:27.018
Should the crèche stay open to
let women shop before they
collect their children?
00:39:27.042 --> 00:39:29.875
Some Unions want the employers
to pay for company nurseries,
00:39:29.958 --> 00:39:33.875
but have the nurseries run by
Unions and parents together.
00:39:48.417 --> 00:39:52.375 position:20%
(Electronic music imitates
powerful cathedral organ)
00:43:25.250 --> 00:43:27.750
(Music fades)
00:43:41.542 --> 00:43:44.625
(Murmuring electronic music)
00:44:16.417 --> 00:44:19.750
(Voice Off) Questions arose
which seemed to form a linked
ring,
00:44:19.875 --> 00:44:22.208
each raising the next
until they led the argument
00:44:22.333 --> 00:44:24.958
back to its original
point of departure.
00:44:55.375 --> 00:44:59.000
Should women demand special
working conditions for mothers?
00:45:00.542 --> 00:45:05.250
Can a child-care campaign attack
anything fundamental to women\'s
oppression?
00:45:06.250 --> 00:45:10.542
Should women\'s struggle be
concentrated on economic issues?
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:14.542
Is domestic labour productive?
00:45:16.542 --> 00:45:19.750
Is the division of labour
the root of the problem?
00:45:21.250 --> 00:45:25.583
Is exploitation outside the home
better than oppression within
it?
00:45:27.917 --> 00:45:31.583
Should women organise themselves
separately from men?
00:45:33.125 --> 00:45:38.292
Could there be a social
revolution in which women do not
play the leading role?
00:45:41.042 --> 00:45:44.542 position:20%
How does women\'s struggle
relate to class struggle?
00:45:47.458 --> 00:45:50.583
Is patriarchy the main enemy
for women?
00:45:52.000 --> 00:45:55.083
Does the oppression of women
work on the unconscious
00:45:55.208 --> 00:45:57.958
as well as on the conscious?
00:45:59.208 --> 00:46:04.417
What would the politics
of the unconscious be like?
00:46:04.542 --> 00:46:10.583
How necessary is being-a-mother
to women, in reality or
imagination?
00:46:12.708 --> 00:46:16.542
Is the family an obstacle
to the liberation of women?
00:46:17.208 --> 00:46:21.542
Is the family needed
to maintain sexual difference?
00:46:24.667 --> 00:46:27.917
What other forms of childcare
might there be?
00:46:29.542 --> 00:46:33.542 position:20%
Are campaigns about childcare
a priority for women now?
00:46:52.208 --> 00:46:58.167
(Music continues over dialogue)
00:47:15.208 --> 00:47:17.542
(Voice Off)
Question after question arose,
00:47:17.667 --> 00:47:21.792
revolving in her mind without
reaching any clear conclusion
00:47:21.917 --> 00:47:26.458
They led both out into society
and back into her own memory.
00:47:27.542 --> 00:47:31.083
Future and past
seemed to be locked together.
00:47:31.208 --> 00:47:33.792
She felt a gathering of strength
00:47:33.917 --> 00:47:36.958
but no certainty of success.
00:47:52.708 --> 00:47:55.583
(Music fades)
00:48:09.042 --> 00:48:11.208
(Soft electronic music)
00:48:13.333 --> 00:48:15.750 position:20%
Let\'s go and have
a nice time in the garden.
00:48:15.875 --> 00:48:18.167
Oh, look they\'re
looking at photos.
00:48:18.292 --> 00:48:21.833
You go and have a look at those
while I go and see to the
bonfire ...
00:48:26.250 --> 00:48:29.417
(Passing aircraft
drowns conversation)
00:48:58.667 --> 00:49:02.042
(Music continues over dialogue)
00:49:46.958 --> 00:49:48.833
Now this one.
00:49:48.958 --> 00:49:51.542
Ooh, that\'s a lovely drink too.
00:49:53.292 --> 00:49:55.417
Here are the tomatoes.
00:49:55.542 --> 00:49:58.583
This will make them
all lovely and red.
00:49:58.708 --> 00:50:02.018
We don\'t want green
tomatoes, do we?
00:50:02.042 --> 00:50:05.458
No, we want lovely red ones...
00:50:10.583 --> 00:50:13.292
Some are here, look.
00:50:13.417 --> 00:50:15.417 position:20%
There you are. That\'s it.
00:50:15.542 --> 00:50:18.018
Ooh, look at those.
What are they up to?
00:50:18.042 --> 00:50:20.583
Quick! Quick!
00:50:24.625 --> 00:50:27.059
OK, put that in
there for Grandma.
00:50:27.083 --> 00:50:28.625
That\'s right.
00:50:28.750 --> 00:50:31.167
And there\'s a stick.
00:50:31.292 --> 00:50:33.167
Put the stick in.
00:50:35.083 --> 00:50:37.250
That\'s right.
00:50:37.375 --> 00:50:39.976
- There\'s a stick.
- Shall we blow it?
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:41.542
Blow it!
00:50:45.458 --> 00:50:47.292
That\'s right.
00:50:53.042 --> 00:50:55.250
There we are...
00:50:55.375 --> 00:50:57.542
There we are, all
lovely and blazing.
00:50:57.667 --> 00:51:00.667
No, no. Come on now,
I want you to help me.
00:51:00.792 --> 00:51:04.059 position:20%
Put more paper on because
that makes a lovely blaze.
00:51:04.083 --> 00:51:06.583
Oooh! That\'s better.
00:51:07.292 --> 00:51:09.333
That\'s better!
00:51:39.000 --> 00:51:40.833
Yes.
00:51:41.667 --> 00:51:43.667
- Bye bye.
- Bye bye.
00:51:43.792 --> 00:51:45.625
Bye bye.
00:52:10.208 --> 00:52:12.458
(Chris) Do you mind, I\'ve just
got to get this film ready.
00:52:12.583 --> 00:52:14.792
Won\'t be a moment, OK?
00:52:14.917 --> 00:52:17.708
(Maxine and Louise) - OK.
- Right.
00:52:20.708 --> 00:52:22.875
(Maxine) Hey, Louise,
I\'ve got something to show you.
00:52:22.958 --> 00:52:24.583
Have you got a mirror?
00:52:24.708 --> 00:52:26.333
(Louise) Here.
00:52:29.958 --> 00:52:31.708
- See?
- Mm-hm.
00:52:32.417 --> 00:52:33.976
- Look.
- What?
00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:36.250
It should be in mirror writing.
00:52:36.375 --> 00:52:40.792
- It is.
- OK. Now, look.
00:52:42.333 --> 00:52:45.292
Oh! It\'s not in mirror writing.
00:52:47.167 --> 00:52:50.250
- How does it work?
- Magic.
00:52:50.375 --> 00:52:52.417
No, seriously, it\'s
the cellophane.
00:52:52.542 --> 00:52:55.375
It acts as a special
kind of filter.
00:52:55.542 --> 00:52:59.125
It puts the letters back to
front again so they appear the
right way round.
00:53:02.333 --> 00:53:05.458 position:20%
Do you know, I think camels
are my favourite animals.
00:53:07.083 --> 00:53:09.792
I like the way that camel\'s
much bigger than that pyramid.
00:53:09.917 --> 00:53:13.750
And the way the desert just
stretches out to the horizon.
00:53:14.792 --> 00:53:18.792
I think it\'s their shape,
all lumpy and baggy,
00:53:18.917 --> 00:53:21.917
hanging over a
ramshackle old skeleton.
00:53:24.167 --> 00:53:27.625
(Chris) OK, I think I\'m ready.
Shall we start?
00:53:27.750 --> 00:53:31.458
(Louise) Oh, Chris, by the way,
there\'s something I wanted to
say to you.
00:53:31.583 --> 00:53:33.059
I\'ve decided...
00:53:33.083 --> 00:53:35.125 position:20%
I want to sell the house.
00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:39.917
(Chris) Oh. Erm...
00:53:42.917 --> 00:53:45.167
Umm...
00:53:45.292 --> 00:53:48.958
OK, if that\'s what you want .
00:53:51.542 --> 00:53:53.601
What about the market though?
00:53:53.625 --> 00:53:57.000
It\'s a bad time to
sell, isn\'t it?
00:53:57.125 --> 00:53:59.542
(Louise) It\'s a good
time for me to sell.
00:53:59.667 --> 00:54:02.958
- I\'ve decided I want to be rid
of it. - All right.
00:54:04.667 --> 00:54:06.726
(Chris) You won\'t get much money
for anywhere else, you know,
00:54:06.750 --> 00:54:09.059
once we\'ve sold the mortgage.
00:54:09.083 --> 00:54:11.083
(Louise) I don\'t think
I want anywhere else.
00:54:12.208 --> 00:54:14.059
I\'m going to be
staying with Maxine.
00:54:14.083 --> 00:54:18.708
(Maxine) She\'ll be much nearer
and you\'ll be able to see Anna
more.
00:54:18.833 --> 00:54:21.250 position:20%
(Louise) Yes, Anna\'s older.
00:54:21.375 --> 00:54:23.976
She doesn\'t need me
all the time now.
00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:26.792
You mean you don\'t need her?
00:54:31.250 --> 00:54:34.750 position:20%
(Louise) Well anyway that\'s what
we\'ve decided, haven\'t we?
00:54:40.958 --> 00:54:42.625
Right.
00:54:44.417 --> 00:54:45.542
Shall we start?
00:54:45.667 --> 00:54:47.333
(Maxine) Is it work
by a woman artist?
00:54:47.458 --> 00:54:48.708
Yes that\'s right.
00:54:49.833 --> 00:54:52.750 position:20%
It\'s about her child
and herself as the mother.
00:54:52.875 --> 00:54:57.625
I\'ve got some film, I\'ve got
some video tape as well.
00:54:57.750 --> 00:54:59.667
I\'ll put the lights out.
00:54:59.792 --> 00:55:01.375
(Projector whirrs)
00:55:01.542 --> 00:55:04.018
(Sound recordist)
Mary Kelly, retaping.
00:55:04.042 --> 00:55:05.833
(Mary Kelly)
The diaries in this document
00:55:05.958 --> 00:55:09.208
are based on recorded
conversations between mother and
child,
00:55:09.333 --> 00:55:11.125 position:20%
that is myself and my son,
00:55:11.250 --> 00:55:15.125 position:20%
at the crucial moment of his
entry into nursery school.
00:55:15.250 --> 00:55:17.792
The conversations took place
at weekly intervals
00:55:17.917 --> 00:55:22.601
between September 7th
and November 26th 1975.
00:55:23.625 --> 00:55:28.000
They came to a natural end with
his/my adjustment to school.
00:55:28.125 --> 00:55:29.792
There also occurs at this moment
00:55:29.917 --> 00:55:32.792
a kind of \'splitting\'
of the dyadic mother/child unit
00:55:32.917 --> 00:55:35.976
which is evident in my
references, in the diaries,
00:55:36.000 --> 00:55:37.625
to the father\'s presence
00:55:37.750 --> 00:55:43.601
and in my son\'s use of pronouns,
significantly \"I\", in his
conversations
00:55:43.625 --> 00:55:45.625
and of implied diagrams
00:55:45.750 --> 00:55:50.667
for example, concentring
markings and circles in his
drawings.
00:55:51.792 --> 00:55:55.250
The marking process is regulated
by the nursery routine,
00:55:55.375 --> 00:56:00.875 position:20%
so that almost daily finished
\'works\' are presented by the
children to their mothers.
00:56:00.958 --> 00:56:04.167 position:20%
Consequently, these markings
become the logical terrain
00:56:04.292 --> 00:56:08.333
on which to map out the
\'signification\' of the maternal
discourse.
00:56:10.708 --> 00:56:12.708
September 27th.
00:56:13.833 --> 00:56:18.792
I was shocked to find that he
was crying when I picked him up
from the nursery.
00:56:18.917 --> 00:56:22.625
I didn\'t think about coming
early and he saw the others
leave.
00:56:22.750 --> 00:56:25.083
Now he\'s very suspicious
when I take him.
00:56:25.667 --> 00:56:27.250
I can\'t forgive myself for that
00:56:27.375 --> 00:56:29.542
because I should have known.
00:56:31.875 --> 00:56:35.208
Although, I thought that, I was
so convinced that he was
different,
00:56:35.333 --> 00:56:38.250 position:20%
that he is very sociable.
00:56:39.375 --> 00:56:43.083
The second day he actually
screamed when I left.
00:56:43.208 --> 00:56:45.167 position:20%
The teachers made me leave.
00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:51.292 position:20%
I was shocked because Ray
was not upset by it at all
00:56:51.417 --> 00:56:53.250 position:20%
although I couldn\'t
take him again that week.
00:56:55.375 --> 00:57:00.208
I had Sally take him the first
three days and Ray took him the
rest of the week.
00:57:01.792 --> 00:57:05.750
I suppose it\'s kind of lack
of boundary definition.
00:57:10.875 --> 00:57:12.708
October 11th.
00:57:14.042 --> 00:57:15.667
I was distressed all this week
00:57:15.792 --> 00:57:19.458 position:20%
by his apparent anxiety over
going back to the nursery
00:57:20.750 --> 00:57:26.458
and I felt a bit guilty about
being away teaching every day
until Wednesday.
00:57:26.583 --> 00:57:30.583
And he had tantrums
which freaked Sally out.
00:57:30.708 --> 00:57:33.667
Thursday was the first
day that I saw him
00:57:33.792 --> 00:57:36.625 position:20%
and it bothered me as well
00:57:40.042 --> 00:57:41.417
(Sound recordist)
Roll 34, Take 1.
00:57:41.542 --> 00:57:42.625
(Clapper board)
00:57:42.750 --> 00:57:44.583 position:20%
(Mary Kelly) October 24th.
00:57:44.708 --> 00:57:48.125
I was amazed that he actually
said I like school this week.
00:57:48.250 --> 00:57:49.601 position:20%
At least that\'s sorted out
00:57:49.625 --> 00:57:51.833
but why doesn\'t he get over
this tonsillitis.
00:57:51.958 --> 00:57:54.708
He had to go
to the doctor again this week.
00:57:54.833 --> 00:57:58.976
It was a very unsatisfactory
check-up, it took about one
minute.
00:57:59.000 --> 00:58:02.059
It just makes me feel
more responsible for him
00:58:02.083 --> 00:58:05.601
when other people
don\'t show concern for him.
00:58:05.625 --> 00:58:09.125
But I guess I\'m just as bad, I
forgot to give him his medicine.
00:58:11.250 --> 00:58:13.750
Weaning from the dyad.
00:58:13.875 --> 00:58:16.059
For both the mother
and the child,
00:58:16.083 --> 00:58:17.708
the crucial moment of \"weaning\"
00:58:17.833 --> 00:58:21.375
is constituted by the
intervention of a \"third term\",
00:58:21.542 --> 00:58:23.333
that is, the father,
00:58:23.458 --> 00:58:26.417
thus consolidating
the oedipal triad
00:58:26.542 --> 00:58:28.750
and undermining the
Imaginary dyad
00:58:28.875 --> 00:58:33.875
which determined the
inter-subjectivity of the
pre-oedipal instance.
00:58:34.958 --> 00:58:40.208
This intervention situates the
imaginary \'third term\' of the
primordial triangle,
00:58:40.333 --> 00:58:42.601
that is, the child as phallus,
00:58:42.625 --> 00:58:45.458
and the paternal imago
of the mirror phase
00:58:45.583 --> 00:58:50.583
within the dominance of the
symbolic structure through the
word of the father.
00:58:51.708 --> 00:58:55.750
That is, the mother\'s words
referring to the authority of
the \'father\'
00:58:55.875 --> 00:58:59.375
to which the real father
may or may not conform.
00:59:00.167 --> 00:59:03.667
(Whirring of projector stops)
00:59:22.833 --> 00:59:26.083
(Shimmering electronic music)
01:01:30.458 --> 01:01:34.292
What does it mean?
I can\'t understand most of it.
01:01:34.417 --> 01:01:37.417
Oh... they\'re thoughts.
01:01:37.542 --> 01:01:40.333
Pieces of thoughts...
01:01:40.458 --> 01:01:42.083
I put into words, and...
01:01:42.208 --> 01:01:44.542
pieces of words...
01:01:44.667 --> 01:01:48.208 position:20%
which seemed to mean something
and I wanted to remember.
01:01:48.333 --> 01:01:51.042
What about this?
What does this mean?
01:01:51.167 --> 01:01:53.375
\"They make a groove or a pattern
01:01:53.542 --> 01:01:57.250
into which or upon which
other patterns fit
01:01:57.375 --> 01:02:01.583
or are placed unfitted and are
cut by circumstance to fit.\"
01:02:02.542 --> 01:02:06.333
I don\'t know. It must be
something I copied out of a
book.
01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:15.018
I see what it is.
01:02:15.042 --> 01:02:17.542
She felt she had been living
in a fairy tale,
01:02:17.667 --> 01:02:22.000
the oldest fairy tale that we
still know, from the Valley of
the Nile.
01:02:22.125 --> 01:02:23.333 position:20%
It matched with something
01:02:23.458 --> 01:02:26.083
she remembered very clearly
from her childhood.
01:02:28.208 --> 01:02:30.625
Yes. Now I remember now.
01:02:30.750 --> 01:02:35.208
It\'s about how she went out with
her mother and her little
brother
01:02:35.333 --> 01:02:40.333
and how her mother laughed at
them when they said they weren\'t
going home.
01:02:40.458 --> 01:02:42.583 position:20%
Her mother just turned
and went round the corner.
01:02:42.708 --> 01:02:45.667
(Louise) Do you know, I
remember almost the same thing.
01:02:45.792 --> 01:02:50.976
I remember sitting on the kerb
and refusing to move.
01:02:51.000 --> 01:02:54.542
There must have been something I
wanted and my mother wouldn\'t
give it to me,
01:02:55.250 --> 01:02:58.167
and a little group of people
gathered round.
01:02:58.292 --> 01:03:00.601
(Maxine) It\'s like when you
go to a demonstration.
01:03:00.625 --> 01:03:04.083
There\'s a ring of people
standing looking at you
01:03:04.208 --> 01:03:06.583
and you don\'t know
whose side they\'re on.
01:03:06.708 --> 01:03:10.917
(Louise) You feel very
defiant and eventful.
01:03:46.292 --> 01:03:49.583
What about this? When was this?
01:03:49.708 --> 01:03:53.750
I was on a boat, sitting on a
stool in front of the mast,
01:03:53.875 --> 01:03:58.750
eating a pear which had been cut
very carefully into slices.
01:04:00.875 --> 01:04:02.542
It was a large boat,
01:04:02.667 --> 01:04:04.625 position:20%
some kind of naval vessel,
01:04:04.750 --> 01:04:10.125
because it had large guns and
sailors wearing helmets with
plumes.
01:04:10.250 --> 01:04:14.125 position:20%
They must have been soldiers,
a whole regiment of them.
01:04:14.250 --> 01:04:16.375
I was afraid of the soldiers.
01:04:16.542 --> 01:04:20.059
It seemed to me that
they were finding fault with me.
01:04:20.083 --> 01:04:23.208
I think it was because they
wanted to weigh anchor.
01:04:23.333 --> 01:04:28.292
So I went down to my cabin and
looked at myself in the looking
glass.
01:04:28.417 --> 01:04:33.833
Only instead of myself, I saw
my father carrying a saucepan.
01:04:33.958 --> 01:04:36.417
He said he had come
for the wool-combing.
01:04:36.542 --> 01:04:38.333
There was going to be
some kind of festival
01:04:38.458 --> 01:04:40.792
where the sheep
were going to be sheared
01:04:40.917 --> 01:04:43.625
and the wool combed by women.
01:04:44.750 --> 01:04:47.292
The sheep were held
down by straps.
01:04:47.417 --> 01:04:49.976
Then my father blew on a bugle
01:04:50.000 --> 01:04:53.875
and the soldiers with plumes
on their helmets all came in.
01:04:53.958 --> 01:04:57.083
My father ordered me to begin
combing the wool.
01:04:57.208 --> 01:05:01.059
I said, \"I can\'t,
I\'m dead beat.\"
01:05:01.083 --> 01:05:02.792
He said that I must,
01:05:02.917 --> 01:05:06.792
or I would infect everybody at
the festival with some kind of
disease,
01:05:07.917 --> 01:05:11.375
or rather, all the men
at the festival.
01:05:11.542 --> 01:05:14.333
They all began to show
horrible symptoms.
01:05:14.458 --> 01:05:19.059
They were growing gills and
their entrails were falling out.
01:05:19.083 --> 01:05:20.750
I was very frightened,
01:05:20.875 --> 01:05:24.708
and picked up the comb which had
a number of notches cut in it.
01:05:24.833 --> 01:05:27.833
My father began to coax me
to begin combing
01:05:27.958 --> 01:05:30.333
but I was not able to.
01:05:30.458 --> 01:05:35.167
Then I noticed that standing
behind my father was another
man,
01:05:35.292 --> 01:05:37.042
who seemed to be lame,
01:05:38.167 --> 01:05:40.750
or perhaps some kind of priest.
01:05:40.875 --> 01:05:43.792
He asked me
whether I was an oyster woman.
01:05:45.542 --> 01:05:48.417
Everybody was excited
by this question,
01:05:48.542 --> 01:05:51.583
which they seemed to think
was very shrewd,
01:05:51.708 --> 01:05:54.292
but I did not know
what to reply.
01:05:54.417 --> 01:05:56.208
I ran to my father
01:05:56.333 --> 01:05:59.875
and seized the saucepan which he
had been holding in his hands.
01:05:59.958 --> 01:06:04.018 position:20%
It was full of jewels,
which had a rind on them.
01:06:04.042 --> 01:06:06.000 position:20%
When I began to shell them,
01:06:06.125 --> 01:06:09.417
all the men began
01:06:10.542 --> 01:06:12.750
to grind their teeth
01:06:12.875 --> 01:06:15.625
but I carried on
peeling the rind.
01:06:15.750 --> 01:06:19.792
Inside there were hundreds
of tiny caraway seeds.
01:06:19.917 --> 01:06:21.250
When I looked up,
01:06:21.375 --> 01:06:24.333
I saw that the lame man was
wearing a feathered headdress,
01:06:24.458 --> 01:06:26.875
like an Indian Chief,
01:06:26.958 --> 01:06:32.083
I suddenly realised that all
this time, I had been wearing a
veil.
01:06:32.208 --> 01:06:33.708
I tore it off
01:06:33.833 --> 01:06:38.750
and threw the caraway seeds at
the lame man, dressed like an
Indian Chief.
01:06:38.875 --> 01:06:42.875
He became all distorted
and disappeared.
01:06:42.958 --> 01:06:44.958
Only my father was left.
01:06:45.875 --> 01:06:48.018
I felt very perplexed.
01:06:48.042 --> 01:06:49.333
Then he said,
01:06:49.458 --> 01:06:52.583
\"You must receive
communion at Easter.\"
01:06:52.708 --> 01:06:55.167
I realised that it
was Ash Wednesday
01:06:55.292 --> 01:06:57.875
and I thought that I
must be my mother,
01:06:57.958 --> 01:07:00.792
although I knew she was dead.
01:07:01.917 --> 01:07:04.167
I had a feeling of jubilation
01:07:04.292 --> 01:07:06.292
and in a very loud
voice I ordered that
01:07:06.417 --> 01:07:10.583 position:20%
all my father\'s property
should be sold by auction.
01:07:10.708 --> 01:07:13.625 position:20%
All the women threw away
their combs and shouted...
01:07:14.750 --> 01:07:17.083
\"Bravo! Well done!\"
01:07:17.875 --> 01:07:19.976
They unstrapped all the sheep
01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:24.583
and knocked the helmets and the
military caps off the soldiers.
01:07:24.708 --> 01:07:26.833 position:20%
I don\'t remember much more
01:07:26.958 --> 01:07:30.292
except that I was dancing
on the deck of the ship
01:07:30.417 --> 01:07:33.875
in front of a sheet of
canvas or sailcloth.
01:07:33.958 --> 01:07:37.042
There were colours and banners.
01:07:37.542 --> 01:07:42.000
When I looked at the sea,
it seemed to be made of silk.
01:07:46.375 --> 01:07:48.250
What does that mean, I wonder?
01:07:49.375 --> 01:07:52.042
(Maxine) I don\'t knew exactly.
01:07:52.167 --> 01:07:54.375
That\'s why I wrote it.
01:07:55.208 --> 01:07:57.833
I hoped that I\'d
understand it more.
01:08:00.750 --> 01:08:03.917
I guess it has the
texture of meaning.
01:09:52.583 --> 01:09:55.958
(Oscillating electronic music)
01:10:21.625 --> 01:10:24.333
She remembered reading
somewhere a passage from a book
01:10:25.458 --> 01:10:27.625
which she could no longer trace,
01:10:27.750 --> 01:10:32.125
words which had struck her at
the time and which she now tried
to reconstruct.
01:10:32.542 --> 01:10:38.417
Inscribed on the lid of the box
were the words \"Anatomy Is No
Longer Destiny\"
01:10:38.542 --> 01:10:40.708
and inside, when she opened it,
01:10:40.833 --> 01:10:46.167
she found the figure of the
Greek Sphinx with full breasts
and feathery wings.
01:10:46.292 --> 01:10:50.167
She lifted it up out of the box
to look at it more closely.
01:10:50.292 --> 01:10:51.708
As she did so,
01:10:51.833 --> 01:10:53.667
it seemed to her
that its lips moved
01:10:53.792 --> 01:10:57.792
and it spoke a few phrases in a
language which she could not
understand,
01:10:57.917 --> 01:11:02.059
except for three words which
were repeated several times:
01:11:02.083 --> 01:11:07.000
Capital, Delay and Body.
01:11:07.125 --> 01:11:10.167
She replaced it in the box
and closed the lid.
01:11:10.292 --> 01:11:13.458
She could feel her heart beat.
01:11:15.625 --> 01:11:18.333
The rhythm of the sentences
was not quite right
01:11:18.458 --> 01:11:22.375
and she felt sure there was some
particular she had forgotten.
01:11:22.542 --> 01:11:26.042 position:20%
She tried to imagine the scene
as the writer might have.
01:11:26.167 --> 01:11:29.167
Would the box have been
padded with cushioning,
01:11:29.292 --> 01:11:31.167
a quilted material,
01:11:31.292 --> 01:11:33.667
folds of velvet,
01:11:33.792 --> 01:11:36.042
black or red,
01:11:36.167 --> 01:11:38.292
buttoned or embroidered?
01:11:39.542 --> 01:11:42.208
What would the pattern
of the embroidery be?
01:11:43.458 --> 01:11:48.292
She imagined an intricate web of
curved forms, intertwined knots,
01:11:48.417 --> 01:11:52.333
like the tendrils and fronds in
the marsh where, according to
Bachofen...
01:11:53.458 --> 01:11:56.417 position:20%
the first matriarchy arose,
01:11:56.542 --> 01:11:59.833 position:20%
or the curls of pubic hair from
which, according to Freud,
01:11:59.958 --> 01:12:02.333 position:20%
women wove the first veil.
01:12:03.333 --> 01:12:06.875
What kind of material
was the Sphinx carved from?
01:12:06.958 --> 01:12:10.542
Soft like wax or
hard like agate?
01:12:10.667 --> 01:12:15.083
Ancient like amber
or modern like bakelite?
01:12:16.083 --> 01:12:17.458
Were the feathers real,
01:12:17.583 --> 01:12:21.458
rippling under her heedful touch
like overlapping waves?
01:12:23.625 --> 01:12:25.833
Whatever it was that
she\'d forgotten,
01:12:25.958 --> 01:12:28.292
it was surely more
something central,
01:12:28.417 --> 01:12:33.000 position:20%
more weighty, not some detail
of design or manufacture.
01:12:34.833 --> 01:12:38.958
Could she have known the name of
the language which the Sphinx
spoke?
01:12:42.167 --> 01:12:45.750
The more she tried to remember,
the more she found her mind
wandering,
01:12:45.875 --> 01:12:49.042 position:20%
mislaying the thread
of logical reconstruction
01:12:49.167 --> 01:12:53.458
and returning to images
from her own childhood.
01:12:53.583 --> 01:12:56.208
She remembered how,
when she had been very small,
01:12:56.333 --> 01:12:59.333
her mother had lifted her up
to carry her on her hip
01:12:59.458 --> 01:13:03.000
and how she had hovered round
her cot while she fell asleep.
01:13:03.917 --> 01:13:07.250
She remembered her feeling of
triumph when her father left the
house
01:13:07.375 --> 01:13:10.833
and the sudden presentiment
of separation which followed.
01:13:12.250 --> 01:13:14.667
There was the time when she had
opened a drawer with a little
key
01:13:15.792 --> 01:13:20.583
and found a piece of coral and a
badge which had gone darkish
green.
01:13:21.958 --> 01:13:24.875
And she remembered one morning
coming into her mother\'s room
01:13:24.958 --> 01:13:28.833
and finding her mother\'s friend
sleeping next to her mother,
01:13:28.958 --> 01:13:30.601
and she suddenly
understood something
01:13:30.625 --> 01:13:33.059
she realised her mother
had tried to explain
01:13:33.083 --> 01:13:35.542
and she felt a surge of panic,
01:13:35.667 --> 01:13:38.875
as though she\'d been
left behind and lost.
01:13:39.458 --> 01:13:42.083
She thought her mother
would be angry,
01:13:42.208 --> 01:13:44.601
but she smiled,
01:13:44.625 --> 01:13:46.875
and, when she got out of bed,
01:13:46.958 --> 01:13:50.125
she noticed the shapes
of the arch of her foot
01:13:50.250 --> 01:13:54.750
and her heel and the
back of her calf.
01:14:30.667 --> 01:14:32.833
She had been drawing acrobats,
01:14:32.958 --> 01:14:37.458
trajectories of the body and
displays of skill and balance.
01:14:37.583 --> 01:14:40.708 position:20%
She saw them no longer
as pioneers of the ideal,
01:14:40.833 --> 01:14:42.583
but as bodies at work,
01:14:42.708 --> 01:14:45.958
expending their labour power
upon its own material.
01:14:47.917 --> 01:14:51.625
She was fascinated by the gap
between the feeling of bodily
exertion
01:14:51.750 --> 01:14:54.208
and the task of
drawing and writing,
01:14:54.333 --> 01:14:57.458
gestures which consumed
themselves in their own product,
01:14:57.583 --> 01:15:00.059
giving a false sense
of effortlessness
01:15:00.083 --> 01:15:02.875
which no acrobat
could hope to approach.
01:15:05.667 --> 01:15:10.417
Capital, Delay and Body.
01:15:10.542 --> 01:15:13.583
She replaced it in the box
and closed the lid.
01:15:13.708 --> 01:15:16.208
She could feel her heart beat.
01:15:17.833 --> 01:15:19.976
She felt giddy with success,
01:15:20.000 --> 01:15:24.601
as though after labouring daily
to prevent a relapse into her
pristine humanity,
01:15:25.625 --> 01:15:28.333
she had finally got
what she wanted.
01:15:28.458 --> 01:15:30.667
She shuddered.
01:15:30.792 --> 01:15:33.542 position:20%
Suddenly she heard a voice,
01:15:33.667 --> 01:15:37.059
very quiet, coming from the box,
01:15:37.083 --> 01:15:39.750
the voice of the Sphinx,
growing louder,
01:15:39.875 --> 01:15:43.125
until she could hear it clearly,
compellingly,
01:15:43.250 --> 01:15:47.059 position:20%
and she knew that it had never
ever been entirely silent
01:15:47.083 --> 01:15:50.833
and that she had heard
it before, all her life,
01:15:50.958 --> 01:15:54.208
since she first understood
that she was a girl.
01:15:57.250 --> 01:16:01.875
The voice was so familiar
yet so fatally easy to forget.
01:16:03.083 --> 01:16:06.000
She smiled and, in her mind,
01:16:06.125 --> 01:16:08.708
she flung herself
through the air.
01:16:26.167 --> 01:16:28.958
(Syncopated electronic music)
01:23:04.333 --> 01:23:06.958
(Music stops abruptly)
01:23:19.833 --> 01:23:22.000
(Laura on tape)
...into a social hieroglyphic.
01:23:22.125 --> 01:23:26.875
Later on, we try to decipher the
hieroglyphic to get behind the
secret...
01:23:36.208 --> 01:23:40.601
To the patriarchy, the Sphinx,
as woman, is a riddle and a
threat.
01:23:41.625 --> 01:23:45.250
But to women,
who live under patriarchy...
01:23:46.417 --> 01:23:51.375
To the patriarchy, the Sphinx as
woman is a riddle and a threat.
01:23:51.542 --> 01:23:53.250 position:20%
But women within patriarchy
01:23:53.375 --> 01:23:56.750
are faced by a never-ending
series of threats and riddles -
01:23:56.875 --> 01:23:59.875
dilemmas which are hard
for women to solve,
01:23:59.958 --> 01:24:04.250
because the culture within which
they must think is not theirs.
01:24:05.375 --> 01:24:07.976
We live in a society
ruled by the father,
01:24:08.000 --> 01:24:11.417
in which the place of the mother
is suppressed.
01:24:11.542 --> 01:24:15.542
Motherhood and how to live it,
or not to live it,
01:24:15.667 --> 01:24:18.042
lies at the roots
of the dilemma.
01:24:18.167 --> 01:24:23.417
And meanwhile, the voice of the
Sphinx is a voice apart, a voice
off.
01:24:41.667 --> 01:24:44.708
(Voice Off on tape) I was
looking at an island in the
glass.
01:24:44.833 --> 01:24:48.375
It was an island of comfort
in a sea of blood.
01:24:48.542 --> 01:24:51.083
It was lonely on the island.
01:24:51.208 --> 01:24:53.000
I held tight.
01:24:53.125 --> 01:24:57.625
It was night and, in the night,
I felt the past.
01:24:57.750 --> 01:25:00.042
Each drop was red.
01:25:00.167 --> 01:25:04.042
Blood flows thicker
than milk, doesn\'t it?
01:25:04.167 --> 01:25:08.250
Blood shows on silk, doesn\'t it?
01:25:08.375 --> 01:25:10.292
It goes quicker.
01:25:10.417 --> 01:25:13.333
Spilt. No use trying.
01:25:13.458 --> 01:25:15.333
No use replying.
01:25:15.458 --> 01:25:16.976
Spilt.
01:25:17.000 --> 01:25:19.250
It goes stickier.
01:25:19.375 --> 01:25:22.583
The wind blew
along the surface of the sea.
01:25:22.708 --> 01:25:25.833
It bled and bled.
01:25:25.958 --> 01:25:28.708
The island was an
echo of the past.
01:25:28.833 --> 01:25:33.833
It was an island of comfort,
which faded as it glinted in the
glass.
01:25:40.875 --> 01:25:43.583
(Playback crackles...)
01:25:53.333 --> 01:25:55.833
(Playback stops)
01:26:03.542 --> 01:26:06.042
(Silence continues...)
01:29:12.333 --> 01:29:15.958
(Syncopated electronic music)
