Recycle to cover the empty space

During these months when the pandemic made it impossible to carry out new productions, two revised tiers appeared on the broadcast platforms. We know them and are touring great works returned around the world.

Walter Geringer *

With the cinemas closed, two new films for 2020 have been hugely publicized on broadcast systems: “Rebeca” based on Daphne Du Maurier and “Life before Yes” on Roman Gary’s play Life Ahead, written under the pseudonym Emile Partially Open.

Nonsense and unnecessary.

“Rebecca, An Unforgettable Woman” (Rebecca, 1940) is a classic romantic movie by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Lawrence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders and Judith Anderson as Mrs. Danvers. The Oscar-winning Best Picture is the story of a shy young woman who marries a wealthy master who mysteriously becomes a widow, and in the stately Manderley Mansion where they will live, no one can forget the late Rebecca … (1)

Eighty years after the Hitchcock classics, Ben Wheatley “Rebecca” (2020) was recently aired, starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristen Scott Thomas as Mrs. Danvers. Ñoña and unnecessary, this version is beautiful but empty like the exaggerated looks of its protagonists. It’s definitely not intended for cinema, and the original is still unprecedented.

At the beginning of 1978, Moshe Mizrahi’s “Madame Rosa” (1977) with Simon Senoret won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film about France, and in June it was shown in Argentina. Madame Rosa lives on the sixth floor without an elevator. She is a retired prostitute, Jewish and survivor from Auschwitz, and an adoptive mother to the children of other prostitutes. Momo is a young Algerian woman who is raising her and will accompany her until the last days of her life.

This year, Edoardo Ponti is directing the new Italian version called “Life before Yes” (La vita davanti a se, 2020) with his main mother, Sophia Loren, as Mrs. Rosa. At 86 years old, she has given us a personality that will definitely lead her to nominations at the Academy Awards and other international film festivals as well. In addition to the fact that some of the conflicts are not very advanced in television, the performances of Lauren, Young Brahima Gay and April Zamora as Lola are phenomenal.

We did it again.

Remaking (2) is a term used to remake a cinematic work. It began with audio copies of silent films, continuing with copies of the folklore of foreign cinema, or, as the years went by, a new version for a new audience. For example: “Quo Vadis” has five versions, silent (1902, 1912 and 1925) and two voices (1951 and 2001); Bin Hoor (1907, 1925, 1959, 2016) “Little Women” Five (1917, 1933, 1949, 1994, and 2019). “The Ten Commandments” (1923) had its phonetic version, with striking colors and effects in 1956. “Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens” (1922, by F.W. Murnau) was honored by Werner Herzog in 1979’s “Nosferatu, a vampire” with Klaus Kinsky.

“El Cuento de las Weadrejas” (2019) the great patriotic film of Juan José Campanella is a remake of Jose A. Campanella’s “Boys Before They Didn’t Use Arsenic” (1976). Martinez Suarez.

Great titles.

Among their folklore releases, successful content and films from one country may have their own version in other countries, for example: “Primo, Prima” (France, 1975) had a new American edition with “A Touch of Infidelity” (1989)) With Jeff Bridges and Norma Allandro. As “La caula de las locas” (France, 1978) was “a bird cage” (USA, 1996) and its continuation. “An Elephant with a Huge Trunk” (France, 1976) had a new American hit, A Red-Hot Girl, in 1984.

“Abre los Ojos” (Spain, 1997) was “Vanilla Sky” (2001) in the United States; Infernal Affairs of Hong Kong (2002) had its version, directed by Martin Scorsese: “The Departed” (USA, 2006).

American reproduction of Argentine songs: “9 Reinas” (2000, Argentina) with Ricardo Darin and Gaston Pauls, and was “Criminal” in 2004, with John C. Riley and Diego Luna; Oscar winner “El Secreto de sus Ojos” (2009) became “Secretos de una Obsesión” (2015) and “Elsa y Fred” (Argentina / Spain, 2014) with China Zorrilla: “Elsa & Fred” (2014) with Shirley MacLean.

“Inseparables” (2016), the successful national comedy with Oscar Martinez and Rodrigo de la Serna, is a remake of the French movie “Amigos intocables” (Intouchables, 2012); She also has an American version with Kevin Hart, Brian Cranston and Nicole Kidman: “The Upside-Amigos por siempre” (2017).

The Mexican book “No Return Is Accepted” (2013) was published in three international copies: “Two from a family” (France, 2016); Sen Benim Her Şeyimsin (Turkey, 2016), Não Se Aceitam Devoluções (Brazil, 2018) and another on the way.

“A boyfriend for my wife” (Argentina, 2008) three: “Un fidanzato per mia moglie” (Italy, 2014); “Um Namorado para Minha Mulher” (Brazil, 2016) and “Wanted a boyfriend … for my wife” (Chile, 2017). And on the podium “Corazón de León” (Argentina, 2013): “Corazón de León” (Colombia, 2015); Un homme à la hauteur (France, 2016); “The Great Lion” (Peru, 2018) and “My Great Little Man” (Mexico, 2018).

There are new versions with other genres such as “Yujimbo” (Japan, 1961), Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece has a Western version: “For a Fistful of Dollars” (Italy, 1964) by Sergio Leone, and another group at that time the ban in the twenties of the last century in the state Texas: Ben Narain (USA, 1996) with Bruce Willis. “The Seven Samurai” (Japan, 1954) also for Kurosawa, from Japan in the 16th century to western North America with “The Magnificent Seven” (1960) which had three sequels (continuation): “Return of the Seven” (1966), “The Seven Men Return “(1969) and” The Fury of the Magnificent Seven “(1972), a television series, and in 2016 a new American version of 1960 for New Generations, directed by Antoine Fuqua.

From horror to drama.

“Das Phantom der Oper,” a 1916 German production directed by Ernst Mattray and “The Phantom of the Opera,” an American from 1925 with Lone Chaney, was the first horrifying film version of Gaston Lero’s work, “El fantasma de opera”. Phantom in Heaven (1974) by Brian de Palma with Paul Williams, and Phantom of the Opera (2004) by Andrew Lloyd Webber are two musical versions.

A long list of dramas has turned into comedies, melodramas to science fiction and more recently from animation classics to live action (live action) with real actors or actors.

Also on TV: “Homeland” is the American version of “Hatufim” (Israel), “Betty la fea” (Colombia) and “Mujeres Asesinas” (Argentina) have copies in different countries. “Murder” is the new US version of “Forbrydelsen” (Denmark / Norway), among many.

Other types of releases.

I should mention “reboot”, which is also called “re-imagination”, and it is a kind of remake that differs in that it is a re-release of a recognized character in plots or contexts different from its previous releases. And “director’s cut – director’s version”, is the re-release of a movie with footage length, or a rearrangement of scenes that were not at that time, due to commercial or censorship decisions or their duration, included in his passage through theaters. Or improve special effects or add ones that were difficult to achieve at the time, output re-mastered or restore it. So we were pleased to see again, among other things: “Sed de Mal”, by Orson Welles, released in 1958 and re-released in 1998; “A Tramway Called Desire” (1951): In 2012 the controlled footage was found in a warehouse and was added for re-launch that year. Stanley Kubrick’s film “Spartacus” (1951) was restored in 1991 and censored scenes were added. The Exorcist (1973) was re-released worldwide in 2002 with “scenes never seen before”; As “Apocalypse Now Redux” (1979/2001); Blade Runner (1982/1992); Spielberg’s “ET The Extraterrestrial” (1982), scenes with new effects added and others improved; Amadeus (1984/2002); Cinema Paradiso (1988/2005). “JFK” (1991, reissued in 2001) by Oliver Stone. And a new version of “The Godfather III” (see separately).

Notes:

(1) In addition to the 2020 release, there were two TV series, one in 1997 and one Italian in 2008 based on the book. It was the only first Oscar that Hitchcock had ever had. Color data: “rebeca” in Spanish is the type of jacket that Joan Fontaine wears in the film. And “Rebecca syndrome” in psychology called jealousy towards the former partner of the current partner. The names are taken from the novel and the 1940 film.

(2) The word “Remake” (pronounced: ríméik) is commonly used and can be used in the Spanish “new version” or “new amendment”. A “reboot” (pronounced ríbut) will be a “rewrite” of the original content or a “replay” of the content.

The aforementioned films are for illustrative purposes, it is impossible to mention everything remade in the world in this note, but you can search for it in the Internet Movie Encyclopedia: Internet Movie Data Base. Are there the dates of perception and the original names in this note, or as it is known in our country in case you want to search for it?

* Film Programmer

The Godfather III version

Thirty years after the premiere, and 80 years later, Francis Ford Coppola did it again: retouching one of his jewels that make up the “Godfather” saga. This time, it was the turn of “The Godfather Part III”, which was released in 1990. The new version is titled “The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone,” which, according to Coppola, was the first title of the third film. The new version has a different start and ending, and some changes to the version (this time there are fewer Don Altobello, played by Eli Wallach). I won’t reveal the rest of the changes, but the movie looks the same, although the new ending drastically changes things. Likewise, the movie remains the younger sister of the two giants that preceded it. (Eduardo Urbia)