Shoe Reels 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd i 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd iiii 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM Shoe Reels The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film Edited by Elizabeth Ezra and Catherine Wheatley 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd iiiiii 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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). 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd iivv 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd v 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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 inMarnie 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 inI, 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 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd vvii 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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 tting 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 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd vviiii 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd vviiiiii 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM 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. 66592_Ezra592_Ezra & WWheatley.inddheatley.indd iixx 222/10/202/10/20 110:130:13 AAMM Notes on contributors Lucy Bolton is Reader in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London. She is the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Th inking Women, and Contemporary Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch, as well as the co-editor of Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure. She is currently working on an anthology of feminist fi lm philosophy and a monograph on philosophy and fi lm stardom. Malgorzata Bugaj is a teaching fellow of Film Media and Contemporary Cultures at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Open Learning. She teaches courses on twentieth century avant-garde fi lm, European cinema, fi lm theory, female fi lmmakers and cinema and the fi ve senses.