Translation and nation : Hollywood remakes of French films, 1980-1996

Abstract

The remake has played a significant role in Hollywood production since the 1930s and yet it is frequently dismissed as a straightforward vertical trajectory from the 'high art' of French cinema to the 'debased commercialism' of Hollywood. Despite the numerous remakes produced since 1980, there has been little sustained analysis of the practice. The thesis begins by establishing a clear framework in which to discuss the remake. Using debates surrounding practices of translation and cross-cultural transposition, it posits a genealogical approach to the remake which avoids the sets of binary oppositions typically used to underwrite much discussion of adaptation. Chapter Two provides an account of the history of the remake, from 1930 to 1980. Through an analysis of Franco-American political, cultural and cinematic relations during this period, it describes the reasons behind the expansion of the process from 1930-1950 and its near disappearance from 1950-1980, concluding with a case study of a pair of films which illustrates the theoretical and empirical conclusions drawn.

Chapter Three puts the remakes of the 1980s and the 1990s into context through an examination of the French and American political economies of that time, the political and cultural relations between the two countries, and the material practices surrounding their respective cinematic production. Thus it explains both the reasons for the proliferation of the remake during this period and the discourses which surround and penetrate the critical condemnation of the process. Chapter Four analyses the construction of national cinemas, national audiences, and high and popular culture, concepts central to much discussion of the remake. The chapter suggests that these alter according to the position and the cultural capital of the individual spectator, thus demonstrating the difficulties inherent to any attempt to define films as hermetic structures, and problematising the notion of transposition, going on to illustrate these arguments through two case studies.

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