American Remakes of European Films
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I don't want to come in and sound like a giant American jerk, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the American film industry is by far the largest, most varied, and most important one out there - not perhaps by volume, but definitely by influence. Whereas someone from Estonia probably can't get by only watching Estonian films, the breadth and width of the American movies allows us to sometimes get a little hermetic. I think that people from other countries that don't have quite the same variety don't understand that. Obviously every country has a nice selection of home-grown films, but the American industry is just awesome at pumping out every conceivable genre, from really great indie flicks to shitty romantic comedies to big CGI explosionfests at a breakneck pace, for better or for worse. So Americans don't have a big interest in foreign films because we have so many thousands of options for AMERICAN films every year that a lot of people don't see the need to "travel," so to speak, somewhere else.
Speaking of which, it's a lot like the general European criticism that Americans don't travel often. Most Americans never leave the country more than once or twice, but that's because we have such a large, varied country that we often don't see the point. Why ski in France, visit a beach in Spain, or tour the wilderness in Sri Lanka when we have mountains, beaches, and forests here? It's a bit of a simplification, but "America" is such a giant, incredibly heterogeneous community that simply exploring our one country is often work enough. The same can be said about foreign music or film - those who aren't American can't understand how incredibly diverse our selection of entertainment is, and so when they see our understandable preoccupation with just getting a handle on our own shit, they think it's a willful rejection of any other cultures. It's not that way at all.
So when it comes to our rather odd-to-outsiders habit of remaking foreign films for American audiences, it really isn't a rejection of the other culture or an unwillingness to read subtitles. It's more that we have a culture that can easily take and mold a story to fit somewhere in our heterogeneous landscape. You probably couldn't take a searing drama about a gay cowboy in Texas and remake it in France, but there's enough "wiggle room" in our culture to find an "American spot" for a Swedish vampire film. Does that make sense? I don't mean to have an oversimplified view of any foreign culture, but I think it's fair to say that the American cultural landscape is far more varied across our rather large country than it is in most other places that have a historical or geographical binding. That means that we have a somewhat unique ability, for better or for worse, to find American parallels with almost any work of art from another culture; obviously a lot will be lost in that translation, but as I said before, it's a lot easier to find an American correlate to a Russian film than it is to find a Russian experience inside an American film.
I personally love foreign films and I'm not one for remakes, but I hope this helps explain a little about our love for remakes.
Speaking of which, it's a lot like the general European criticism that Americans don't travel often. Most Americans never leave the country more than once or twice, but that's because we have such a large, varied country that we often don't see the point. Why ski in France, visit a beach in Spain, or tour the wilderness in Sri Lanka when we have mountains, beaches, and forests here? It's a bit of a simplification, but "America" is such a giant, incredibly heterogeneous community that simply exploring our one country is often work enough. The same can be said about foreign music or film - those who aren't American can't understand how incredibly diverse our selection of entertainment is, and so when they see our understandable preoccupation with just getting a handle on our own shit, they think it's a willful rejection of any other cultures. It's not that way at all.
So when it comes to our rather odd-to-outsiders habit of remaking foreign films for American audiences, it really isn't a rejection of the other culture or an unwillingness to read subtitles. It's more that we have a culture that can easily take and mold a story to fit somewhere in our heterogeneous landscape. You probably couldn't take a searing drama about a gay cowboy in Texas and remake it in France, but there's enough "wiggle room" in our culture to find an "American spot" for a Swedish vampire film. Does that make sense? I don't mean to have an oversimplified view of any foreign culture, but I think it's fair to say that the American cultural landscape is far more varied across our rather large country than it is in most other places that have a historical or geographical binding. That means that we have a somewhat unique ability, for better or for worse, to find American parallels with almost any work of art from another culture; obviously a lot will be lost in that translation, but as I said before, it's a lot easier to find an American correlate to a Russian film than it is to find a Russian experience inside an American film.
I personally love foreign films and I'm not one for remakes, but I hope this helps explain a little about our love for remakes.
This is what happened with the swedish film Let The Right One In, one of my favourite films. They had to go and make an american remake only a few years after its release, with no point to any of it and it being in the end a worse film.
American film companies have been consistently doing this recently and its pissing me off, they're just trying to steal credit from foreign film makers because they can actually make genuinely original idea's whilst these american companies can't make any new or decent. I don't mind remakes if they happen many, many years after the original came out.
American film companies have been consistently doing this recently and its pissing me off, they're just trying to steal credit from foreign film makers because they can actually make genuinely original idea's whilst these american companies can't make any new or decent. I don't mind remakes if they happen many, many years after the original came out.
Total LOLige said:rhizhim said:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) vs. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
http://www.imdb.com/list/7BwQPhB8edA/
so for the future, if you see something that has been already made, it has been done for the sake of profit.[/QUOTE]
Have you seen that remake? It's not that bad, I haven't seen the original or read the book. I don't think I could have sat reading subtitles for almost three hours and still have understood the plot.
It is for financial gain but sometimes the films can be quite good. If a foreign film makes mega bucks a studios first thought is to remake it and get a huge payday. On the upside it can give the originals films and original works more exposure.[/quote]
Just to give my 2 cents: That remake is in a very elite club of remakes that are actually good. Allow me to present my worst remake:
[spoiler=A Sami historical drama, based on a legend, in which a young Sami boy tricks a band of invading Chudes.][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/96/Veiviseren.jpg[/spoiler]
Basically, having grown up with subtitles, I find they don't distract from the movie experience at all. I'd much rather watch a good film in Ubykh with subtitles, than a mediocre movie in Norwegian or English.And they made it to be Vikings vs Indians because some hollywood bigwig thinks Americans can't learn about more than 3 different cultures. And they made the hero WHITE.
So, in 40 years, we've gone from "Let's shoehorn American voices into this movie so that Americans will actually watch it!" to "Let's shoehorn American actors into this so that Americans will actually watch it!"
Hollywood is implying several things about my intelligence and cultural awareness, none of them very positive.
Hollywood is implying several things about my intelligence and cultural awareness, none of them very positive.
Well, most of the lower-brow demographic Americans can't relate to anything than other Americans in America. And they've got a lot of dosh to burn, usually.
But sometimes, it can be fairly nessesary. Like Let the Right One In. That story is very rooted down into its time and place, which I imagine can be a bit difficult to relate to at times. While it might sound odd, few places are as claustrophobic and depressing as a mid-winter Stockholm concrete suburb with no internet to flee to. Even more with the threat of a Soviet invasion in the background. It really did lift the story for me, and it was basically what made a "Modern Vampires, oh noes!"-story slightly interesting to me for a change. While I'm sure most of the audience would be able to figure it out and gain a feel for the enviroment, it's less of a risk for publishers to just set it back home and spare them the hard work.
Plus, it's apparently such an inhuman chore to read subtitles.
Still... Why Trollhunter? It can't be too difficult to understand, can it?
EDIT: We've got a perfect example of what I mean right in my post, actually. For an American reader, the word "Suburb" is more likely to invoke a mental image of neatly arranged villas and small houses, while the poverty is concentrated in the inner city slums. But most cities in Europe is arranged the other way, with the inner city being fairly posh, and most of the poverty and lower class housing concentrated in concrete-built suburbs.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Tensta_1971b.jpg
Pretty much the setting for Let the Right One In right there.
But sometimes, it can be fairly nessesary. Like Let the Right One In. That story is very rooted down into its time and place, which I imagine can be a bit difficult to relate to at times. While it might sound odd, few places are as claustrophobic and depressing as a mid-winter Stockholm concrete suburb with no internet to flee to. Even more with the threat of a Soviet invasion in the background. It really did lift the story for me, and it was basically what made a "Modern Vampires, oh noes!"-story slightly interesting to me for a change. While I'm sure most of the audience would be able to figure it out and gain a feel for the enviroment, it's less of a risk for publishers to just set it back home and spare them the hard work.
Plus, it's apparently such an inhuman chore to read subtitles.
Still... Why Trollhunter? It can't be too difficult to understand, can it?
EDIT: We've got a perfect example of what I mean right in my post, actually. For an American reader, the word "Suburb" is more likely to invoke a mental image of neatly arranged villas and small houses, while the poverty is concentrated in the inner city slums. But most cities in Europe is arranged the other way, with the inner city being fairly posh, and most of the poverty and lower class housing concentrated in concrete-built suburbs.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Tensta_1971b.jpg
Pretty much the setting for Let the Right One In right there.
If there's something you should never do it's dub a live-action movie. It's a death sentence to immersion.rhizhim said:
Even if it's an unnecessary remake, it's actually very good. It's incredibly well shot and acted. Case in point being Lisbeth Salander who when you describe her character comes off as rather pandering (bisexual, motorcycle riding, genuis hacker, goth girl), but Rooney Mara plays her so well that the acting outshines her nerd fantasy characteristics and she becomes a real believable person.
And you can't tell me that the original movies weren't made for profit's sake seeing how popular the books were in Europe.
If they remake The Inbetweeners in the USA, they?re just going to turn it into another generic American Pie-style teen comedy. I think part of the reason is because of such differing styles in humour. Not that The Inbetweeners is at all known for dryness (it?s pretty outrageous), but a lot of the stuff is just so intrinsically British that it couldn?t possibly work in the USA. Same with Misfits.
Also, seriously, is it really that hard to read subtitles? I know many anime fans who dislike inaccurate dubs that basically shit all over the original product, so what, are they just going to sit through a bastardization because they don?t want to suffer having to multitask looking at a screen and reading words at the bottom of the screen at the same time? No, they?ll fucking watch the original and enjoy it!
The only good thing about the majority of Hollywood remakes is that it actually encourages people to go out and watch the original for themselves, so they can see how much better it is.
Also, seriously, is it really that hard to read subtitles? I know many anime fans who dislike inaccurate dubs that basically shit all over the original product, so what, are they just going to sit through a bastardization because they don?t want to suffer having to multitask looking at a screen and reading words at the bottom of the screen at the same time? No, they?ll fucking watch the original and enjoy it!
The only good thing about the majority of Hollywood remakes is that it actually encourages people to go out and watch the original for themselves, so they can see how much better it is.
I think part of the problem is that a lot of Americans hear the words "foreign film" and instantly think pretentious boring drama. That's because the Oscars are the only place in the country where you actually hear about foreign films... and the award always goes to some boring mood piece in French 
Because you can't expect a country that consists on the mash up of dozens of different cultures to assimilate even more about foreign countries.
Also, monheis.
Also, monheis.
Wait. Both are based on a book. A very popular one. I don't think it's a remake of a film, it's just a different adaptation.rhizhim said:
Dubs on a movie that is not for kids/not animated are the spawn of the devil. The day I hear Jason Statham talking in Portuguese with an Azorean accent I will set the screen on fire.rhizhim said:
The 'why' is simply money. The 'how' is a better question. Trolls have been a mad part of Norwegian mythology for centuries. So unless the US version is also going to be based in Norway, I can't see how they'd make an even remotely believable version.Soviet Heavy said:
Quarantine, the remake of [REC], was not bad. Not as good as the original, but still well done. Especially considering the covering of the building, the allowing of everyone to die, etc, has been in US media (I.E. Movies, TV series, etc) for decades. The only reason I have a problem with it is that as a decent movie as it was, the final few seconds were ruined by Jennifer Carpenter having smaller breasts than the Spanish chick (Whose name I don't know).
In the end, it doesn't overly matter. I took a single viewing of the remake of Death at a Funeral trailer and then put the remake from my mind, knowing the original was better, British and white (Looooool!). But I was somewhat miffed when I saw the Millennium trilogy one year, and then less than six months later, see a trailer for the US version. Which took place in the same country, and was almost exactly the same except for the actors.
whoa, that is just plain lazy. what was peter (the dwarf) thinking? "yeah, doing the same movie again is cool. i already know the part."IamQ said:The only remake I can think of is the brittish comedy Death at a Funeral.
2007
Saw this at the movies when it came out. Loved it.
2010
It's funny, cuz they're black!
They even have the same guy play the dwarf for christs sake. Put a little effort into it.
it does annoys me, because it feels like the Americans don't even bother with stuff from europe or else. so they get a remake from their land and suddenly it is watchable? so the original creators are not getting the credit at all.