Stop creating foreign remakes

The first time (and only) I've seen a foreign film was Amelie because I was curious with the person's smiling face and how it turns out to be a huge movie classic in this century of films. Amelie became one of my favourite movies and this made me think non-English movies are better than the opposite films in the 2000s.

Don't take the smile away. Why do we have foreign remakes?

But this time there is a growing trend in Hollywood with foreign remakes. Movies originally made outside America and are really well made and shows great magnificance. I don't know why remake movies that are so great but remaking foreign movies for any kind of logic is like remaking classic movies like Godfather, Citizen Kane and Gone With The Wind or Breakfast with Tiffany because today's people never heard of these films.

One movie I like that was a foreign remake was The Departed which is not a surprise for many Hong Kong action fans where it is a remake of Infernal Affairs in which the film became a franchise for Hong Kong's cinema. The Departed, which is directed by Martin Scorcese and stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon was about two people on a cat and mouse chase. One of them is a cop, the other a criminal. It was crippling good and Scorcese deservedly won his first ever Best Director Oscar (which would have gone to him a long time ago with Goodfellas) as well as a Best Picture for 2007. It shows not only that it was the first foreign remake to win this presitigious award, but proves that foreign remakes actually work in Hollywood.

Foreign remakes are currently one of the main principles of Hollywood and with that principle filmmakers would think "OK. How about remaking a movie and we'll make some money". Movies that are foreign remakes and will come out include Let Me In, which is from Sweden's Let The Right One In and Death At A Funeral which was from England's original movie with the same name. Both seems really bad once you will get to see both of them unless you would actually enjoy one of them (possibly you would enjoy Let Me In because Death is turned into this African American comedy with no sense.)

It came to my notice when The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is about to begin filming where they did not sign up Scarlett Johansson (a sigh of relief comes up) for the main role. I mean seriously, it was a foreign movie, it was great, but why remake it? I don't know. Maybe the people making this movie would need bunches of profits. Or a need for money?

As foreign remakes tend to become more undemanding, more people who are so bankable auditioned for these kinds of movies, originality now's forgotton and it will force non Hollywood filmmakers to revive them. Try asking Wes Anderson or Sofia Coppola if you wish.

For example if you try to remake Amelie but in English mode, you would look for people like Anne Hathaway, who is one of my favourite actresses, because she looks similar to Audrey Tatou. It wouldn't be the same if Hathaway plays Amelie because no matter how she does, well or over the top, it's like if the character many French people would feel their hearts towards had an unwanted cosmetic surgery of the nose.  

The reasons why I begin to despise this trend and one more would make me hate it, is because it's not original and even though people get to be granted permission by the original filmmakers to "remake", it is just plagiarism and no one would know about it.

So when Casablanca was shown in colour mode, a historian made a quote comparing it to giving arms to the Venus De Milo. It's a masterpiece for god's sake, it's supposed to a pure movie. Can't we keep World Cinema as it is because what that kind is giving us how important film is in many countries whose official languages are not English.

Foreign remakes. Quite literally bullshit.