Encore Hollywood: Remaking French Cinema

The remake is a prominent feature of contemporary Hollywood production. Of remakes, a very high proportion originate from France.This book considers the implications of the remake in terms of its effect on the construction of a national cultural identity by examining in particular key remakes of French films in Hollywood over the past twenty years and highlighting the increased importance of culture in political discourse of the 1980s as a fundamental reason for the negative reception of remakes in France. The 1980s saw a new wave of films such as La Cage aux Folles (1978)/The Birdcage (1996), Trois hommes et un couffin (1985)/Three Men and a Baby (1987) and Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982)/Sommersby (1993) reconstructed and transformed through the remake process. The author considers whether the remake can be considered as a positive form of cross-cultural exchange or if in fact it threatens the very identity of the originals. Incorporating a unique historical overview of the remake with analysis of the transformation process, Encore Hollywood: Remaking French Cinema provides a lucid analysis of a controversial topic. -- Provided by publisher.