In brief
Date - Wednesday 18 October 2023
Venue - Lecture Theatre C, 40 George Square
Speaker - Professor Lucy Bolton (Queen Mary University of London)
Title - Seberg, Stewart and Sobchack: The posthumous phenomenology of the star biopic
Abstract
by Lucy Bolton
In this talk, I will examine the posthumous phenomenological encounter that occurs through the experience of a star biopic by analysing the film Seberg (dir. Benedict Andrews, 2019), in which Kristen Stewart portrays the actress Jean Seberg.
There are clear physical differences between the two actors, in terms of facial features, physicality, gestures, speech patterns and comportment. There is also the inevitably jarring presence of anachronistic aesthetics and extra-textual connotations that occur when a person from the past is conjured up in a contemporary piece of filmmaking, played by a modern star, with costume and cosmetics that stand apart from the historical images and footage of the star subject.
Nevertheless, Seberg is an affecting and moving depiction of Jean Seberg, that not only conveys a period in her life which was challenging and traumatic, but also evokes her experience of sexism in the film industry, the frustrations of her professional and personal life, and her perspective on the surveillance under which the FBI placed her in order to discredit her and nullify her potential political influence.
Drawing on the four modes of embodiment involved in an actor’s performance, as proposed by phenomenologist Vivian Sobchack, I will break down the differences and similarities between Jean Seberg and Kristen Stewart as a way of understanding how the film Seberg presents both actors, and how our encounter with Jean Seberg is mediated and shaped by our phenomenological encounter with Kristen Stewart’s modes of embodiment.
Speaker bio
Lucy Bolton is Professor of Film at Queen Mary University of London, where she researches and teaches film philosophy and film stardom.
She is currently editing an anthology of feminist film philosophy for Bloomsbury and writing a monograph for EUP called Philosophies of Film stardom: Ethics, Aesthetics, Phenomenologies.
She is co-editor of Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure, author of Contemporary Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch, and of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema, and Thinking Women.
Browse Lucy Bolton's staff profile
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