Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film

313 Pages·2021·19.655 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Ezra, Catherine Wheatley

Shoe Reels
Film and Fashions
Series editor Pamela Church Gibson
Th is series explores the complex and multi-faceted relationship between
cinema, fashion and design. Intended for all scholars and students with an
interest in fi lm and in fashion itself, the series not only forms an important
addition to the existing literature around cinematic costume, but advances the
debates by moving them forward into new, unexplored territory and extending
their reach beyond the parameters of Western cinema alone.
edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/faf
Shoe Reels
The History and Philosophy of
Footwear in Film
Edited by Elizabeth Ezra and
Catherine Wheatley
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish
academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social
sciences, combining cutt ing-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to
produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website:
edinburghuniversitypress.com
© editorial matt er and organisation Elizabeth Ezra and Catherine Wheatley, 2020
© the chapters their several authors, 2020
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
Th e Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in 12/1 4 Arno and Myriad by
IDSUK (Dataconnection) Ltd,
and printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 5140 6 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5142 0 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 5143 7 (epub)
Th e right of the contributors to be identifi ed as authors of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Contents
List of fi gures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on contributors x
Foreword xiv
Introduction: foot notes 1
Elizabeth Ezra and Catherine Wheatley
1 Max’s stylish shoes 18
Margaret C. Flinn
2 A girl and a shoe: Marcel Fabre’s Amor pedestre 26
Malgorzata Bugaj
3 ‘An intensive study of – feet!’ in two fi lms by Lois Weber:
Shoes and Th e Blot 38
Pamela Hutchinson
4 Magic shoes: Dorothy, Cinderella, Carrie 49
Elizabeth Ezra
5 Th e ruby slippers at the V&A: an odyssey 62
Keith Lodwick
6 Blood-red shoes? 68
Ian Christie
7 Th e two textures of invisibility: shoes as liminal questionings
in Sullivan’s Travels 78
Kelli Fuery
8 How to see through a shoe: the fashion show sequence in
How to Marry a Millionaire 94
Ana Salzberg
9 Frenetic footwear and lively lace-ups: the spectacle of shoes in
Golden Age Hollywood animation 103
Christopher Holliday
vi Contents
10 Ferragamo’s shoes: from silent cinema to the present 125
Eugenia Paulicelli
11 Feet of strength: the sword-and-sandals fi lm 136
Robert A. Rushing
12 Men in boots: on spectacular masculinity and its desublimation 148
Louise Wallenberg
13 ‘Th e brunett e with the legs’: the signifi cance of footwear in Marnie 166
Lucy Bolton
14 Th e sole of Africa: shoes in three African fi lms 180
Rachael Langford
15 Slippers and heels: In the Mood for Love and sartorial investigation 198
Tyler Parks
16 Sex, corruption and killer heels: footwear in the Korean
corporate crime drama 213
Kate Taylor-Jones
17 It’s gott a be the shoes: Nike in the Spike-o-sphere 229
Jeff Scheible
18 ‘Nice shoes’: Will Smith, mid-2000s (post) racial discourse
and the symbolic signifi cance of shoes in I, Robot and
Th e Pursuit of Happyness 248
Hannah Hamad
19 ‘Whoa! Look at all her Louboutins!’ Girlhood and shoes in
the fi lms of Sofi a Coppola 261
Fiona Handyside
20 Isabelle’s espadrilles, or les chaussures d’Huppert 279
Catherine Wheatley
Index 293
Figures
I.1 Th e pile of empty shoes in Nuit et brouillard 7
I.2 Lee Daniels and Fred Astaire in Th e Band Wagon’s
shoeshine number 8
I.3 Chaplin eats his boots in Th e Gold Rush 9
I.4 A stilett o heel drips blood in Single White Female 12
3.1 Eva draws her tatt ered shoes out of sight in the park 42
3.2 One of the Olsen children plays in the yard wearing
$18 high heels 44
3.3 Th e hungry cat gives away the secret of Rev Gates’
goose-grease shoe polish 45
4.1 All wrong for the witch 52
4.2 Dorothy and her new friends 59
5.1 Th e ruby slippers 63
7.1 Th e valet presents Sully the shoes with the hidden identity card
in the sole 82
7.2 Th e replacement shoes left to Sully by the homeless man 88
8.1 Behind the scenes 100
8.2 Th e fashion show 101
9.1 Th e spectacle and musicality of collective labour in
Th e Shoemaker and the Elves 107
9.2 Comedic performance and slapstick shoe production in
Holiday for Shoestrings 109
9.3 Mammy Two Shoes’ ill-fi tt ing footwear, A Mouse in Th e House 119
10.1 Décolleté, 1959–60, upper and heel covered by Swarovski
crystals; designed for Marilyn Monroe 132
10.2 Salvatore Ferragamo, sandal, 1938, heel and platform
covered by suede; created for Judy Garland 133
viii Figures
10.3 Rainbow Future, Fall/Winter Collection 2018–19, handmade,
crocheted sandal in organic cott on, heel and platform in wood
covered with the same material 134
11.1 Hercules 137
11.2 Th e Fury of Hercules 142
11.3 300 146
12.1 Hal’s leather boots, inherited from his father, in Picnic 153
12.2 Joe Buck’s decorative cowboy boots in Midnight Cowboy 156
12.3 Cooper, Tone and Cromwell desublimising normative
masculinity in Th e Lives of a Bengal Lancer 159
13.1 Th e shoe as tool, disposing of Marion Holland’s key 172
13.2 Th e shoe as traitor, threatening to expose Marnie’s crime 173
13.3 Th e boot as surrender, buckling in the grip of Rutland patriarchy 174
15.1 Homely pink slippers are contrasted with dark angular heels 203
15.2 Mrs Chan’s woven-toed pumps suggest a relaxation of the rigid
boundaries of her identity 208
16.1 Na-mi’s strappy designer footwear contrasts with the basic black
stilett os the maids wear 217
16.2 Eva is unable to fi ght back against the vengeful Geum-ok 223
17.1 Mookie with Oscar, in hang time pose 230
17.2 Mars Blackmon introduced in She’s Gott a Have It 234
17.3 Mars standing on Jordan’s shoulders, Hang Time Air Jordan III
commercial 236
18.1 and 18.2 Blackness and masculinity are collapsed into the
sartorial signifi er of Del Spooner’s Chuck Taylor Converse
All Stars in I, Robot 252
18.3 ‘Where’s my shoe?!’ Chris Gardner loses a key signifi er of his
‘bootstrap’ aspirationalism 257
19.1 and 19.2 Th e Bling Ring’s sequence shows cast members’ names
superimposed over shoes 263
19.3 Marie Antoinett e’s lavender blue Converse high-tops sit
alongside Manolo Blahnik-designed high heels 267
20.1 Huppert at Cannes, 2015 285
20.2 Nathalie wears brown espadrilles while teaching in the park 287
20.3 Nathalie’s shoes bear her forward 288
Acknowledgements
Th e editors of the book would above all like to thank Gillian Leslie for her
unwavering enthusiasm and support for the project from its inception. Our
thanks also go to Pamela Church-Gibson for her encouragement, Zoë Ross
for her eagle-eyed copy-editing and Richard Strachan for steering the book
through to completion.
Shoe Reels has been a terrifi cally fun book to edit. But when we were plott ing
this book in sunny Gothenburg, sporting sandals and sneakers, we had no idea
that we would be fi nishing the fi nal edits from our respective homes, outdoor
shoes long abandoned, feet entrenched in well-worn slippers. We are grateful
to all our contributors for their professionalism and good humour, even during
a global pandemic.