Critical opinion regarding the film has been overwhelmingly positive . '' The Village Voice '' critic J. Hoberman , who in 1981 included the film in his list of the ten best films commercially released in the United States during that year , more recently wrote that the film is one " of the richest avant-garde features of the 1970s " and praised its " winning combination of sexual frankness and visual wit , " while another critic , Dennis Schwartz , wrote that the " film 's beauty is derived from its sexual frankness and playfully drawn out intimate relationship scenes , witty use of photography , and its originality as it breaks free of conventional unities of body , space and time . Export skillfully edits montage and integrates video , still photography , and performance art with elements from Cubism , Surrealism , Dada and avant-garde cinema . " '' Artforum '' noted in November 1980 that " w atching their scenes together , we realize how seldom , if ever before , the details of sexual intimacy have been shown in film from the point of view from a woman . Export privileges rupture over unity and never settles for one-dimensional solutions " and it was called one " of the most original films in this year 's exposition " and a " tour de force of cinematic invention " grounded in the director 's " fresh and intelligent sensibility , characteristically self-referential . Her visual resources include mirrors , still photography , video , dance , and films within the film , all employed with a bold and surprising inventiveness " by the catalogue notes of the 1978 Los Angeles International Film Exposition . Similarly , critic Alison Butler wrote that the " film is a witty and visually brilliant essay on gender and experience , culture and environment " and program notes used by the San Francisco Cinematheque during a screening quote critic Amy Taubin as opining that the film " makes you reconsider what you and everyone else is doing — in life and in art " and critic Steve Anker underscoring that it is an important " crossover film " combining " avant-garde and theatrical sensibilities , made during the mid-1970s . It chronicles the nightmarish breakdown of a fashion photographer as she confronts her waning identity and security as a career woman ; blending narrative experimentation , fantasy , fact and theoretical critique , it has enormous impact on independent features which followed it . " PopMatters noted that the film has " enough originality to nag at patient viewers and get at least partially under our skin " and critic Michael Atkinson wrote that it is a " weird , restless , beguilingly offbeat bit of dreamwork . " The film was presented for the first time at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1977 , it has won a Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and was recently called " seminal " during a screening at a repertory cinema , " a strong and humoristic showdown " at another and " a sonically-complex , montage-rich , darkly funny and uriniferous cornerstone of avant-garde cinema " during a screening at a New York University class . Critic Peter Hajek wrote in the Austrian newspaper '' Kurier '' that " Valie Export presents this psychopanoptic view of the present in solid , striking images and often in unexpected humorous passages . " Critic Chris Holmlund , author of the scholarly article " Feminist Makeovers : The Celluloid Surgery of Valie Export and Su Friedrich , " referred to '' Invisible Adversaries '' as a feminist version of '' Invasion of the Body Snatchers '' , noted that the film includes references to famous paintings and to '' Un Chien Andalou '' , and wrote that therefore it " is visually rick , entertaining , striking , but also demanding . " A few reviews , however , were negative . For example , London 's '' Time Out '' wrote about the film that it is " n ot unlike '' W.R. : Mysteries of the Organism '' " and that it will " probably age as badly " and a reviewer for '' The Heights '' wrote that " I was expecting a great feminist work here , but got mediocrity . I can not recommend that you see this film , " though he nevertheless praised the film as a " cornucopia of video spectacle in which Export delights , confounds and amuses the audience with her antics . "
Berlin International Film Festival
27th Berlin International Film Festival
Invisible Adversaries