Performing Ethics Through Film Style: Levinas with the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader

Emmanuel Levinas’s ethical philosophy has had a significant influence on film theory in recent years. Proposing a relationship between Levinasian ethics and film style, and bringing it into a productive dialogue with theories of performativity, this book explores this influence through three directorial bodies of work: those of the Dardenne Brothers, Barbet Schroeder and Paul Schrader. Discussing a range of films – including the Dardennes’ Le Fils and The Kid with a Bike, Schroeder’s Maîtresse and Reversal of Fortune and Schrader’s American Gigolo and The Comfort of Strangers – Edward Lamberti demonstrates how film styles can perform a Levinasian ethics.