Bøker utgitt av British Film Institute

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.

Actress-turned-director Barbara Loden's only feature length film, Wanda (1970), tells the story of a struggling working-class woman, Wanda Goronski, as she faces a troubled life, a failing marriage, and a sense of detachment from society. The film received critical acclaim upon its release and was the only American film chosen for the Cannes Film Festival in 1971. Today, it is recognised as one of the most significant films made by a woman director. Elena Gorfinkel's study of the film examines Loden's unconventional approach to storytelling, including long takes and a meandering narrative. Drawing on interviews, oral history and archival sources, she charts the film's lasting aesthetic and political potency. She considers the tension between acting and directing in Loden's manipulation and management of gesture, posture, voice and habitus, comparing her performance of Wanda in relation to independent and arthouse strategies and developments in de-dramatisation. Gorfinkel goes on to situate the film within Loden's career as a whole, discussing the recollections of her key collaborators, including cinematographer Nicholas Proferes. She argues its significance to 1970s American film culture and its continuing influence on contemporary film practice.

This original book asks how, in an age of convergence, when 'television' no longer means a box in the corner of the living room that we sit and watch together, do we remember television of the past? How do we gather and archive our memories? Kristyn Gordon and Joanne Garde-Hansen explore these questions through first person interviews with tv producers, curators and archivists, and case studies of popular television series and fan communities such as 'Cold Feet' and 'Doctor Who'. Their discussion takes in museum exhibitions, popular televison nostalgia programming and 'vintage' tv websites.