Sphinx is a 1981 American adventure film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring Lesley-Anne Down and Frank Langella. The screenplay by John Byrum is based on the 1979 novel of the same name by Robin Cook.
Dedicated Egyptologist Erica Baron is researching a paper about the chief architect to Pharaoh Seti. Soon after her arrival in Cairo, she witnesses the brutal murder of unscrupulous art dealer Abdu-Hamdi, meets Yvon Mageot, a French journalist, and is befriended by Akmed Khazzan, who heads the antiquities division of the United Nations. When she journeys to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor to search a tomb reportedly filled with treasures, she finds herself the target of black marketeers determined to keep the riches for themselves.
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Schaffner said in 1981, "I've never done this kind of film before, this mixture of mystery and adventure and romance. Two years ago, when I considered taking on the project, it seemed to me that audiences would look for this kind of escapist entertainment when it was released. I sincerely hope I'm right."[4]
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said the film "never stops talking and never does it make a bit of sense. It's unhinged. If it were a person, and you were trying to be nice, you might say it wasn't itself." He continued, "Mr. Schaffner and Mr. Byrum have effectively demolished what could have possibly been a decently absurd archeological-adventure film. The locations . . . are so badly and tackily used that the movie could have been shot more economically in Queens . . . The performers are terrible, none more so than Mr. Langella, who is supposed to be mysterious and romantic but behaves with all of the charm of a room clerk at the Nile Hilton." In conclusion, he called the film "total, absolute, utter confusion."[7]
Variety described the film as a contemporary version of The Perils of Pauline and called it "an embarrassment," adding "Franklin J. Schaffner's steady and sober style is helpless in the face of the mounting implausibilities."[8]
Time Out New York thought the film made "striking use of locations" but criticized the "lousy script, uneasy heroine, and weak material." It called it a "clear case of a lame project that only a best selling (ie. heavily pre-sold) novel could have financed" and warned audiences to "avoid" it.[9]
Lesley-Anne Down Frank Langella Maurice Ronet John Gielgud Vic Tablian Martin Benson John Rhys-Davies Nadim Sawalha Saeed Jaffrey William Hootkins James Cossins Victoria Tennant Tutte Lemkow Behrouz Vossoughi Eileen Way
I'd like to think that some industry rag mentioned Lucasfilm's 18 million dollar commitment to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as the catalyst for Orion dumping 14 into this archaeologist adventure yarn by Robin Cook (Coma). Sphinx beat Raiders to the theatres by six months. Now if I'm being overly cynical, and this isn't a rushed to completion case of similar cinema, I apologize. Even if we don't compare Sphinx to one of the greatest American films every created, however, and decide to assess it on its own merits, this kind of sucks as a movie.
I must say I am baffled by the low rating for this film and also about why it remains so obscure. The production values are very high, it has a good director and solid cast, an excellent score, some stunning shots of Cairo and Luxor, and a pretty appealing story to boot. Comparable to Raiders of the Lost Ark (which was released around the same time) in some respects, though obviously not reaching quite the same level of entertainment value. Still, there is a lot more here than I was expecting and I hope more people will give it a chance now that it is available on blu-ray. For anyone interested in Egyptology at all (like myself), I would certainly recommend it.
Dr. Jesus Alfonzo serves as a professor of music at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he teaches viola, chamber music, and string pedagogy. He also conducts the Viola Consort and leads the Viola Clinic. He is a member of the Bach Festival Orchestra in Winter Park, Florida, and has been a member of the Rios Reyna String Quartet since 1987. He received a diploma and post-graduate diploma from the Juilliard School of Music and a Master of Music and a Doctor in Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University. His viola teachers include Jos Francisco Del Castillo, Julia Adams, Margaret Pardee, Harry Shub, Robert Dan, Bronislaw Gimpel, and Rony Rogoff. He studied chamber music with Joseph Gingold, Felix Galimir, Jascha Brodsky, the Juilliard and the Amadeus string quartets. He has appeared with orchestras and performed recitals and chamber music concerts in Europe, South America, and the United States.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Dr. Alfonzo is a founding member of the El Sistema, the Venezuelan National System of Youth Orchestras, an opportunity that allowed him to develop his teaching and playing skills. In 1980 and 1981, he served as principal violist of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra. Dr. Alfonzo became the principal violist of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra for sixteen years. During his career, he has collaborated with distinguished conductors and soloists, including Claudio Abbado, Gustavo Dudamel, Leonard Bernstein, Jose Antonio Abreu, Maxim Shostakovich, Kristoff Penderecki, Zubin Mehta, Serge Baudo, Carlos Chavez, Jerzy Semkov, Eduardo Mata, Claudio Arrau, Joseph Silverstein, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Zukerman, Yo-Yo Ma, Montserrat Caballe, Jean Pierre Rampal, Yehudi Menuhin and Henry Szeryng. He taught at the Conservatorio de Msica Simon Bolivar in Venezuela, the University Institute of Musical Studies (IUDEM), and the Colegio Emil Friedman. His students have been accepted in distinguished conservatories and schools of music in the United States and Europe, as well as well-known European and American orchestras.
Dr. Alfonzo recorded The Johannes Brahms Viola Sonatas (1988) and Pipocas with the Rios Reyna String Quartet (1997), a CD set containing string quartet music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Silvestre Revueltas, and Inocente Carreo. His publications include Soggetto Cavato I: La Historia mis Relatos de los Primeros Cinco Aos de El Sistema (2015), Soggetto Cavato II: Mis Relatos en la Historia de El Sistema 1980-1984 (2018), and Viola Music by Latin American Composers: Catalogue of Works, which is also published by Sphinx Organization -american-viola-works.
Dr. Alfonzo is frequently invited to lecture at conferences and congresses in the United States and Latin America and teach a series of viola and string pedagogy master classes at El Sistema in Venezuela and Spain. In addition to his teaching duties and performance schedule, he maintains a private studio of distinguished students in Florida. 152ee80cbc
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