**Simone de Beauvoir on independence, freedom, and happiness: Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2016).**

Presented by Professor Marguerite La Caze.

The University of Queensland's School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry invites you to join us for the 2025 School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry Annual Lecture delivered by Professor Marguerite La Caze.

Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex contends that in considering women’s emancipation, we should not take happiness to be the aim, as it is a confining emotion. Instead, using the perspective of existentialist ethics, we should aspire to freedom. In this lecture Professor La Caze examines how Beauvoir’s distinctions between happiness, independence and freedom illuminate Mia Hansen-Løve’s film Things to Come and how the film’s portrayal of a philosophy teacher’s, Nathalie Chazeaux, existential crisis enhances understanding of these ideas’ potential and relations. Nathalie’s husband Heinz ends their long marriage, her mother dies, and her book series is cancelled. Rather than despairing, Nathalie continues to pursue her projects and claims to be experiencing total freedom for the first time. We might see Nathalie as an example of what Beauvoir calls the independent woman and possibly even a free woman able to live without her ex-husband. Professor La Caze argues that closer analysis of the film does not support the view of Nathalie as completely free or happy. This interpretation of Things to Come shows how Beauvoir’s insights have contemporary relevance and throws light on the ambiguous situation of an independent woman.

About the presenter

Professor Marguerite La Caze’s research interests include European philosophy, philosophy and film, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of the emotions.

Professor La Caze holds a BA (UQ); MA (Melbourne); and PhD (UQ) and is an Australian Research Fellow 2003-2007. She held an ARC Discovery Grant 2015-2018 on ‘Ethical Restoration After Oppressive Violence: A Philosophical Account’ and was a visiting Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland in 2022.

Her current research projects include:

European political cinema
Ontologies of force: Violence, non-violence, and resistance
Indigenous Australian Documentary
Beauvoir and the films of Mia Hansen-Løve

Marguerite has successfully supervised 32 PhD and Master’s students on a wide range of topics and is currently supervising students on projects including analogy and philosophical reasoning, on Hannah Arendt and Simone de Beauvoir on political judgment, on non-violence and resistance in Australian and Indian texts, on women’s friendships, on Moniquie Wittig and deconstruction, on critical phenomenology and abortion, and on forgiveness in Jacques Derrida’s and Paul Ricoeur’s work.

Event details

Date: Thursday 23 October 2025

Time: 5:15pm for 5:30–6:30pm lecture. Followed by a reception 6:30–7:30pm.

Venue: Room 358, Physiology Lecture Theatres (Building 63), UQ

RSVP: Monday 20 October 2025

Enquiries: engagement@hass.uq.edu.au

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