Film Remakes
'In this groundbreaking study, Constantine Verevis explores an aspect of commercial film production interesting to the scholar and movie enthusiast alike: remaking. Film Remakes can be profitably viewed from a number of perspectives, and this book provides an intriguing and revealing anatomy of the phenomenon. Verevis writes with verve and insight; an important feature of Film Remakes is the series of individual analyses that sparkle with revealing and intelligent comment as they clarify general points about remaking. Though theoretically informed, this book is wonderfully accessible to the general reader.' R. Barton Palmer, Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University
Film Remakes Constantine Verevis
FILM REMAKES Copyright r :) Constantine Vcrevis, 2005. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever \\ ithout written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2005 by Edinburgh University Press Ltd. First Published in the United States in 2005 by PALGRAVE ivlacmillan 175 Fifth Awnue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan I -td. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-7428-0 ISBN 978-1-137-08168-1 (ebook) DOl 10.1007/978-1-137-08168-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I Transferred to Digital Printing 2008.
Contents Preface Acknowledgements VB IX Introduction: Remaking Film Part I Remaking as Industrial Category Commerce 2 Authors 37 58 Part II Remaking as Textual Category 3 Texts 4 Genres Part III 5 Audiences 6 Discourse Remaking as Critical Category Conclusion: Remaking Everything References Index 81 105 129 151 173 179 195
Preface I see an endless film with sequences signed by vanous authors in a complex game of quotations, influences, remakes, variations and references. (Bernardo Bertolucci, in Ungari, 1987) This book seeks to provide a broad and systematic approach to the phenomenon of cinematic remaking. Drawing upon recent theories of genre and intertextuality, Film Remakes describes remaking as both an elastic concept and a complex situation, one enabled and limited by the interrelated roles and practices of industry, critics and audiences. This approach to remaking, outlined in the book's introduction, is developed across its three parts. The first of these, Remaking as Industrial Category, deals with issues of production, including commerce and authors; the second, Remaking as Textual Category, considers genre, plots and structures; and the third, Remaking as Critical Category, investigates issues of reception, including audiences and institutions. The film remake emerges from this discussion as a particular case of repetition, a function of cinematic and discursive fields that is maintained by historically specific practices, such as copyright law and authorship, canon formation and media literacy, film criticism and re-viewing. That is, while cinematic remaking belongs to the entire history of cinema and can refer to any number of technological, textual and cultural practices, this book contributes to an understanding of how the film remake is maintained as a separate yet connected phenomenon. Film Remakes seeks to address some of the central critical issues around the concept of remaking, striving to deliver a broad theoretical approach to provide both an understanding of the phenomenon of cinematic remaking and of individual film remakes. This book takes an interest primarily in the industrial and institutional conditions of remaking in contemporary Hollywood cinema, and acknowledges that more and different work needs
Vlll FILM REMAKES to be undertaken through comparative studies that reach across other historical moments, national cultures and cross-cultural transactions. Additionally, this book seeks to introduce a wide readership to the concept of cinematic remaking and to the various issues - industrial, textual and critical-attending it. Accordingly, it works to provide an overview of existing approaches, to simplify theoretical concerns and to make its arguments through well-known and readily available film examples. Finally, the ideas presented in Film Remakes have been developed in a number of places and with the assistance and support of many people. In particular I would like to thank: Paul Coughlin, Sarah Edwards, John Frow, Matt Holden, Sonya Jeffery, Jane Landman, Julie Palmer, Barton Palmer, Lesley Stern and Deane Williams.
Acknowledgements Material contributing to this book appeared in earlier versions in the following publications and is reprinted here with the permission of the editors. 1. 'Through the Past Darkly: Noir Remakes of the 1980s', in Alain Silver and James Ursini (eds), Film Noir Reader 4. New York: Limelight, 2004, pp.307-22. 2. 'Remaking Film', Film Studies, no. 4 (2004), pp. 87-103. 3. 'Television Features: A Survey', Metro, no. 123 (2000), pp. 34-41. 4. 'Re-Viewing Remakes', Film Criticism, vol. 21, no. 3 (1997), pp. 1-19.
For Julie, Zoi and Mia And in memory of Emmanuel and Irene Verevis