Mulvey & Philadelphia.

"In 1973, Laura Mulvey dropped her essay 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' on the unsuspecting world of film theory, and came as close to superstardom as any theoretician is likely to get," writes Sam Adams in the Philadelphia City Paper. "Mulvey, who will introduce the screenings [of her films Riddles of the Sphinx, Frida Kahlo & Tina Modotti and Amy!] as part of a Penn Cinema Studies program on her work, has spent much of her career wrestling with the issues in her original essay, not least the problem that the feminist narrative she conceived is so self-marginalizing that its political effectiveness is circumscribed. Finding a new language that is still intelligible to speakers of the old one is a riddle that remains unsolved."

The screenings are on Tuesday, but Mulvey is already in town, lecturing away. Meantime, The Duchess of Langeais has arrived in Philadelphia; you might also find Rick Valenzuela's cover story on the Hacktory of interest. For more local goings on, see Matt Prigge in the Philadelphia Weekly. And of course, the city is gearing up for the Philadelphia Film Festival, opening a week from today and running through April 15.

Posted by dwhudson at March 27, 2008 6:03 AM