Thursday 4 November 2010

The same thing in a different colour

I haven't seen Let Me In. And the more I hear about it, the less I want too. The problem is that it's, apparently, not rubbish. It's not a travesty. It's a 'shot-for-shot remake' of Let the Right One In. Now, I'm not about to review a film I haven't seen, but the thing that troubles me here is the term 'shot-for-shot remake'. What happens if the same film is made in a different language, just so a new audience of the subtitles-scared can watch it? It's a copy, so does that make it worse, better, or exactly the same as the original? Let's even forget about Swedish vampire films for a second. There are only a few things that can change in a 'shot-for-shot remake'. If the script is the same and the shots are the same, what's left? The acting, the score, the location. And other things I haven't thought about. What if these things are better the second time round? Is the original automatically better? When a book is translated into English by a different writer some of the words lose their meaning, some phrases get shifted around, but it's still the same book. If a sentence is a camera shot, it can be rearranged into different words but still mean the same thing. If that shot is of a girl in a dark room saying 'I've been twelve for a very long time', it still must work in a different language, in a different place, with more expensive cameras. It's in Sweden, it's blue. It's in New Mexico, it's red.

More importantly though, it makes me sad that such a thing is necessary. If a different bunch of people remake a film and turn it into something else, then at least it's different. It's doing its own thing. To copy something exactly is pointless. Who are these people who won't watch a film with subtitles? Where are they? I hope that Let Me In is different. I hope that it's better. I hope that it's worse. Just don't make me watch a new film I've seen before. It's weird. We'll see how it goes.

4 comments:

  1. I was thinking of seeing it for Richard Jenkins. But I have similar questions...so much stuff these days is just trying to mine every last bit of magic from something old instead of new creativity, it seems the mark of a civilization in decline.

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  2. Even Gus Van Sant's "Psycho" isn't a "shot for hsot remake." Quitcher bitchin' and go. You might even find things you admire in it.

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  3. I'm not that bothered about Let Me In. It was more of a blind theoretical mini-rant. It happens now and again.

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  4. Interesting, though. Just seen the remake reviewed on 'The Review Show' (does what it says on the tin). It was 33% for, and 66% against (couldn't be bothered to put the .33 recurrings in). Recurring.

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