Crystal Gazing

by Laura Mulvey , Peter Wollen

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
1982
92 min
OV English - with French subtitles
Feature film
Fiction, experimental
Color
DCP

Laura Mulvey will be attending

Retrospectives & Focus 2021

Official synopsis

In this experimental drama set in London during the Thatcher administration, four characters interact: Neil, a science-fiction illustrator, Kim, a musician, Vermilion, an analyst of satellite photography, and Julian, an old friend of the illustrator who has just finished his Ph.D thesis on Charles Perrault’s fairy tales. Their four lives are closely interlinked as they go through several events.

The programmer’s eye

This film, which has never been shown in France, explores the fascinating question of utopia. Under the Thatcher era, four destinies get intertwined through the fictions in which each of them is caught. Never shown in France, this film explores the fascinating question of utopia. Adopting a new form compared to previous works by Mulvey and Wollen, the film inaugurates a freer, less theoretical writing, rooted in the issues of that time. As saxophonist Lora Logic would sing it, "No more fiction, no more fiction", the film updates a beautifully contemporary question: what fiction can one still invent?

— Natacha Seweryn

Biography and Filmography

Laura Mulvey is a British film critic and director. She questions audiovisual productions with regard to gender and is behind the concept of "male gaze". She works as a professor at Birkbeck University in London and is the author of the following books: “Visual and Other Pleasures” (1989), “Citizen Kane” (1992), “Fetishism and Curiosity” (1996) and “Death 24xa Second. Stillness and the Moving Image” (2006).

2013 - 23RD AUGUST 2008 (Short) - Mark Lewis, Laura Mulvey - Director
1994 - DISGRACED MONUMENTS - Mark Lewis, Laura Mulvey - Director
1983 - FRIDA KAHLO & TINA MODOTTI (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - THE BAD SISTER - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director
1982 - CRYSTAL GAZING  - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1980 - AMY! (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1977 - RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1974 - PENTHESILEA: QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter

Born in London, Peter Wollen was Emeritus Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media at the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA (California). He died in 2019. With Laura Mulvey, he directed six films, among which “Riddles of the Sphinx” (1977) and “Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti” (1984).

1987 - FRIENDSHIP'S DEATH - Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - FRIDA KAHLO & TINA MODOTTI (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - THE BAD SISTER - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1982 - CRYSTAL GAZING  - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1980 - AMY! (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1977 - RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1974 - PENTHESILEA: QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter

Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, with the participation of Keith Allen and John Howe

Gavin Richards, Lora Logic, Mary Maddox...

British Film Institute, Channel Four, Modelmark

British Film Institute

by Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen

Laura Mulvey is a British film critic and director. She questions audiovisual productions with regard to gender and is behind the concept of "male gaze". She works as a professor at Birkbeck University in London and is the author of the following books: “Visual and Other Pleasures” (1989), “Citizen Kane” (1992), “Fetishism and Curiosity” (1996) and “Death 24xa Second. Stillness and the Moving Image” (2006).

2013 - 23RD AUGUST 2008 (Short) - Mark Lewis, Laura Mulvey - Director
1994 - DISGRACED MONUMENTS - Mark Lewis, Laura Mulvey - Director
1983 - FRIDA KAHLO & TINA MODOTTI (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - THE BAD SISTER - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director
1982 - CRYSTAL GAZING  - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1980 - AMY! (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1977 - RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1974 - PENTHESILEA: QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter

Born in London, Peter Wollen was Emeritus Professor of Film, Television and Digital Media at the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA (California). He died in 2019. With Laura Mulvey, he directed six films, among which “Riddles of the Sphinx” (1977) and “Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti” (1984).

1987 - FRIENDSHIP'S DEATH - Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - FRIDA KAHLO & TINA MODOTTI (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1983 - THE BAD SISTER - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1982 - CRYSTAL GAZING  - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1980 - AMY! (Short) - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1977 - RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter
1974 - PENTHESILEA: QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS - Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen - Director and screenwriter