About the seminar
By Dr Catherine Wheatley...
“I understand it to be, let me say, a natural vision of film that every motion and station, in particular every human posture and gesture, however glancing, has its poetry, or you may say its lucidity,” writes Stanley Cavell, in an essay entitled “The Thought of Movies”. Here, Cavell points us towards those “apparently insignificant moments in whose power a part of the power of the film rests” what he terms “the ordinary” or “the missable”. On screen, any detail – however brief or small – may hold, in Andrew Klevan’s words, “a wealth of significance [and] may adjust our way of seeing everything else in the film”.
This paper takes takes inspiration from Cavell’s film-philosophy, examining the performances of Isabelle Huppert via the actress’s shoes. In many of her films, Huppert’s shoes are a distinctive feature of her costuming, revealing something about her characters before she utters a word of dialogue. One might think of the roller skates she sports in Heaven’s Gate and Home, the PVC boots in Elle, discreet ballet pumps in La Pianiste, strappy flat sandals in White Material and sensible yet stylish leather espadrilles in L’Avenir. Watching Huppert on screen I am often stopped by her shoes, given pause to ask, in the words of Cavell: why did they think to do it like that? That is: why does it matter? What are the implications of the footwear for our understanding of the films in which she stars and their motivations more broadly? In short, what can we learn – about stardom, performance, and cinema in general - from Huppert’s shoes?
About the speaker
Catherine Wheatley is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at King’s College London and a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine. Her books include Stanley Cavell and Film: Scepticism and Self-Reliance at the Cinema, Michael Haneke's Cinema: The Ethic of the Image, the BFI Film Classics book on Caché, and, with Lucy Mazdon, Sex, Art and Cinephilia: French Cinema in Britain. She has recently edited the book Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear on Film, due for publication with EUP later in 2020
Are you interested in studying film?
Home to a renowned arts scene and the longest continuously running film festival, the Edinburgh Internatonal Film Festival, the city offers excellent art house cinemas, galleries, theatres, a vibrant film culture and many job opportunities. The academic staff in Film Studies are published researchers with a focus on film theory, film-philosophy and national cinemas, while Film, Exhibition and Curation staff combine critical expertise with extensive experience in curating and making film. We offer one year taught Masters degrees in either Film Studies or in Film, Exhibition and Curation. The MSc in Film Studies is designed for students particularly interested in theory, film-philosophy and art house cinema, while the MSc in Film, Exhibition and Curation combines critical and project based approaches to screening film and developing audiences.
