Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Figurative Economies
- Part II Adventures of the Classical Body in Modern Cinema
- Part III New Abstractions in Figurative Invention
- Part IV Summonses: Figures of the Actor
- Part V Image Circuits
- Part VI Theoretical Invention
- Epilogue: The Accident
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 7 - Short Circuit: Michael Cimino’S Heaven's Gate
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Figurative Economies
- Part II Adventures of the Classical Body in Modern Cinema
- Part III New Abstractions in Figurative Invention
- Part IV Summonses: Figures of the Actor
- Part V Image Circuits
- Part VI Theoretical Invention
- Epilogue: The Accident
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
In Heaven's Gate, Isabelle Huppert is pink, ginger and milky white, a gentle balance between a sweet and a sugary candy. The cakes that she excels at baking for her lovers have essentially one ingredient: Nestor Almendros’ lighting, collecting and objectifying its sentimental effects. “I have never loved you so much! I had oceans of cream in my soul” (Flaubert, letter to Louise Colet). The nudes of Isabelle Huppert date to the nineteenth century, the period when unclothed bodies were found on ornaments and in images. The twentieth century enters the film with the appearance of Christopher Walken (a creature imposes itself from the void that haunts her). When the two characters embrace, we are moved the way we are before cathedral facades that feature juxtaposed figures that do not belong to the same chisel, time period or world.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- On the Figure in General and the Body in ParticularFigurative Invention In Cinema, pp. 71 - 72Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2023