Double Takes: Culture and Gender in French Films and Their American RemakesDuring the past decade or more the American remake has increasingly characterized Hollywood's relationship with the French cinema, as films ranging from classics like A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) to contemporary comedies like Trois Hommes et un Couffin (Three Men and a Baby) and La Cage aux Folles (Birdcage) are adapted for US screens. In this comparative, interdisciplinary study Carolyn Durham shows how the remake phenomenon reveals striking differences not just in film theory but also epitomizes larger issues of competition, political and economic tensions, and social, gender, and aesthetic constructs. Durham establishes the metaphor of Euro Disney, which American investors envisioned as the quintessential transcultural entertainment but many French denounced as "a cultural Chernobyl," and then applies it to a close analysis of the films, showing how significant changes between original and remake further our understanding of national identity in both countries. France's belief in its own cultural superiority, she writes, leads to a perceived duty to "disseminate French culture worldwide in the guise of civilisation itself," an attitude that clashes with Hollywood's filmmaking hegemony and its "openness to new ideas, including the foreign." While the central concern is the meaning of cross-cultural differences, this engaging and incisive book also outlines an ongoing battle between a nation convinced of its aesthetic and cultural patrimony and an American industry driven by its own sense of global destiny. |
Contents
Disneyland Comes Home to Paris | 1 |
Alain Resnaiss I Want to Go Home | 25 |
Remaking JeanLuc Godards Narrative of Gender | 49 |
Serreaus Original Nimoys Remake and Ardolinos Sequel | 70 |
Where Feminism and Sexism Intersect | 91 |
InFidelity in Family and Film | 114 |
ReVisions of Feminism and Film Theory in François Truffauts and Blake Edwardss The Man Who Loved Women | 141 |
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Common terms and phrases
aimait les femmes American film American remake American version Ardolino's Baby Bertrand Bout de souffle Breathless Cage aux folles Cahiers du cinéma character characterizes clearly comedy context contrast couffin Cousins critics cross-cultural David Depardieu Edwards's Elsie Euro Disney example explicitly fantasy father female feminism feminist film feminist film theory film theory film's foreign France France's Francis Veber Franco-American François François Truffaut French film French in Action French original Fugitifs Gauthier gender Gérard Depardieu Go Home Godard's hero heterosexual Hollywood identify Jean-Pierre Joey L'Homme qui aimait La Femme Nikita language Larry Les Compères Les Fugitifs Loved Women lovers Ludovic male Maria Marthe masculinity McBride's metaphorically Michel Moreover mother movie narrative Nimoy's nonetheless Paris particular Rainer relationship Resnais Resnais's role scene Schumacher's Screenplay sequence Serreau's sexual Silver Surfer Similarly specific stereotypical story structure Tacchella's textual tion Tish traditional Trois Hommes Truffaut Veber visual Want to Go woman