Hollywood loves a sequel, but in a pinch, a remake will do. American audiences can be forgiven their feeling of deja vu while watching such films as ”Cousins,” ”The Woman in Red” or ”Kiss Me Goodbye,” as each is based on a popular foreign film.
Why remake a foreign film? Perhaps because, like a sequel, it has a pre-sold audience of those who have seen the original. A remake may also attract the no-subtitles crowd that would prefer an English-speaking Ted Danson to Frenchman Victor Lanoux.
”Cousins,” recently released on videocassette, duplicated the phenomenal success of ”Cousin, Cousine,” the irresistible 1975 French romantic comedy of love and infidelity. Danson and costar Isabella Rossellini are as winning a couple as their French counterparts, Lanoux and Marie-Christine Barrault.
Most interesting is the change in attitudes at the heart of both films. In ”Cousin, Cousine,” Lanoux`s character can express a laissez-faire attitude toward his wife`s extramarital affair. ”It`s my respect for other people`s freedom,” he explains.
Danson`s character in ”Cousins,” is not allowed to be quite so blase. At a crowded market, he loses his reserve and cleaves a fish in two.
”Three Men and a Baby,” the remake of ”Three Men and a Cradle,” also benefits from ideal casting. Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg charmed the diapers off audiences as the three bachelor fathers.
Several classics of world cinema have translated to critical acclaim and box-office gold. Marcel Pagnols` ”Fanny Trilogy” inspired Joshua Logan`s 1961 best-picture nominee, ”Fanny,” starring Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier and Charles Boyer.
Paul Mazursky transplanted Jean Renoir`s 1932 anarchic comedy, ”Boudu Saved From Drowning” to southern California for his hit ”Down and Out in Beverly Hills.” George Lucas did not exactly remake ”The Hidden Fortress,” but he has cited Akira Kurosawa`s monumentally entertaining adventure as the force that inspired the original ”Star Wars.”
Two other American-influenced Kurosawa classics were themselves the inspiration for a pair of renowned westerns. ”Seven Samurai” became ”The Magnificent Seven,” and Sergio Leone`s adaptation of ”Yojimbo” made ”A Fistful of Dollars” for its star, Clint Eastwood.
”Reflections of Murder” is a splendid made-for-TV adaptation of the aptly titled French suspense chiller, ”Diabolique,” about a wife who teams up with her husband`s mistress to murder the cad.
Some remakes, though, lose something in the Americanization. ”The Virgin Spring,” Ingmar Bergman`s Oscar-winning drama about a father`s revenge against his daughter`s murderers, was the basis for Wes Craven`s controversial shocker ”The Last House on the Left.”
Some landmarks of world cinema cast long shadows. Richard Gere was a poor substitute for Jean-Paul Belmondo in the 1983 remake of Jean-Luc Godard`s classic of the French New Wave, ”Breathless.” Slapstick-meister Blake Edwards tread heavily in Truffaut territory when he remade ”The Man Who Loved Women.”
Louis Malle`s ”Crackers,” which stars Donald Sutherland and Sean Penn, was a bungled adaptation of the hilarious Italian caper comedy, ”Big Deal on Madonna Street.” ”Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands,” the spicy Portuguese sex farce starring the incendiary Sonia Braga, became the bland ”Kiss Me Goodbye,” starring Sally Field.
Speaking of offbeat casting, Edward G. Robinson starred as a mild-mannered man lured into a life of crime in ”Scarlet Street,” Fritz Lang`s 1945 remake of Jean Renoir`s ”La Chienne.”
Judging by appearance, one would think Gene Wilder ideally suited to roles originated by French comic actor Pierre Richard, the frazzle-haired star of ”The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe” and ”The Toy” (”Le Jouet,”
not available on video). But it was now-”Big” star Tom Hanks who became
”The Man With One Red Shoe” and Richard Pryor who wound up as ”The Toy.”
Wilder did direct and star in ”The Woman in Red,” his successful adaptation of the hit French comedy, ”Pardon Mon Affair.”
Another French comedy, ”One Wild Moment,” went Hollywood as Stanley Donen`s ”Blame it On Rio,” starring Michael Caine as a man who is seduced by his best friend`s precocious daughter. (Trivia buffs may note that in both films, Joseph Bolgona assumes roles originated by ”Cousin, Cousine” star Victor Lanoux).
If you can`t beat them, join them. Francis Veber, the writer of ”La Cage Aux Folles,” remade his own comedy, ”Les Fugitives,” as ”Three Fugitives,” starring Nick Nolte and Martin Short. It will be released on videocassette in November.
The trend continues. Jane Fonda reportedly will star in a remake of last year`s art-house hit from Spain, ”Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown.”
It is, as with wine, a matter of taste. The video connoisseur can enjoy a wide choice of foreign or domestic vintage.
