Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise: From Carmen to Ripley

169 Pages·2006·9.21 MB·English

by  Anat Zanger

HC omslag Film Remakes 05-05-2006 15:46 Pagina 1
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Date: 2006.05.05 15:53:11 +02'00'
FilmRemakesasRitualandDisguise

Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise
From Carmen to Ripley
Anat Zanger
Frontcoverillustration:carmen(),directedbyCarlosSaura
©EmilianoPiedro/TelevisionEspañola
Backcoverillustration:bizet’scarmen(),directedbyFrancescoRosi
©EmilianoPiedro/TelevisionEspañola
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isbn- (hardcover)
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©AmsterdamUniversityPress,Amsterdam
Allrightsreserved.Withoutlimitingtherightsundercopyrightreservedabove,nopart
ofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinorintroducedintoaretrievalsystem,ortrans-
mitted,inanyformorbyanymeans(electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingor
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thebook.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 9
StructureandContent 
Chapter1 Psycho:InsideandOutsidetheFrame 13
TheCinematicInstitution 
TheDynamicofRepetitions 
Psycho,FetishismandPleasure 
Part One First Variation: Carmen
Chapter2 TheGameBegins 29
I Versions 
II IntertextualSources 
III Variability 
IV Carmen’sChain 
Chapter3 MutedVoices 43
I Olympia 
II Re-Significations 
III Carmen’sTransgression 
IV FilmingtheHabañera 
V TheTransformationsofCarmen 
Chapter4 Masks 55
I BorrowingObjectiveDiscourse 
II TheTraveller’sGaze:IndirectCharacterization 
III PlacingandRe-PlacingEthnicity 
IV SpaceandtheSmugglingGesture 
V Conclusionor“WilltheMarvelous,BeautifulStoryofCarmen
LiveForever?”(Chaplin) 
6 FilmRemakesasRitualandDisguise
Part Two Second Variation: Joan
Chapter5 TheGameAgain 69
I Histories 
II UnattainableMythemes 
III RegimeofDiscourses 
Chapter6 HearingVoices 85
I Image,BiographyandHistoryorLetUsNowPraise
FamousMen 
II TheAmbiguityofHistoricalImages 
III TheVoicesasanAnxiousSign 
IV AnIntertextualDialogue 
Chapter7 Disguises 101
I DiscoursesandDetours 
II VersionandMeta-Version 
III DisguisedVersions 
IV Repetition,CulturalMemoryandTrauma 
Conclusion
Chapter8 RepetitionsasHiddenStreams 119
I LookingBack 
II RepetitionsandVariations 
III FetishismandExorcism 
References 131
Filmography 147
Credits 151
Index 153
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the French Government (-),
Prof. Nilly Cohen, former Rector of Tel Aviv University, Prof. Nurith Kenaan-
Kedar, former Dean of the Faculty of the Arts and the Tel Aviv University Re-
searchAuthorityforresearchgrants(-)thathavemadethisbookpos-
sible. My research was carried out in archives and libraries of the British Film
Institute and the Huntley Archives (London), La Cinémathèque Français, BiFi –
BibliothèquedufilmandLaBibliothèque-Muséedel’OpéraNationaldeFrance(Paris),
CentreNationaldelacinématographie,ArchivesduFilm,Boisd’Arcy,CentreJeanne
d’Arc (Orléans), France, Filmmuseum (Amsterdam) and The Film Archives at
Overveen (Netherlands), the UCLA Archives (Los Angeles), the MOMA Ar-
chives (New York), The Library of Congress (Washington, DC) and the Israeli
Cinematheque (Jerusalem) and the Anda Zimand Film Archive Film & Televi-
sionDepartmentatTelAvivUniversity.Iwouldliketothankallthesearchives
andlibrariesfortheuseoftheirfacilities.
My first meeting with the subject of repetition in films came about during
researchformyPh.D.dissertationattheSchoolofCulturalStudiesatTelAviv
University. My doctoralworkwas supervisedby Prof. Brian McHale(formerly
ofTelAvivUniversity,nowofOhioStateUniversity,Columbus)towhomIowe
a deep debt of gratitude for his illuminating comments and for his consistent
interest and encouragement. I would also like to thank Prof. Edward Turk,
Prof.HenryJenkinsandProf.PeterDonaldsonoftheDepartmentofMediaStu-
diesatMIT,where Icontinuedmyresearch.ManythanksarealsoduetoProf.
Daniel Dayan, Prof. Linda Dittmar and Prof. Vivian Sobchack, of CNRS
(France), UCLA, and University of Massachusetts (Boston), respectively, for
theircommentsandencouragementintheearliestphasesoftheproject.
Partial and early versions of the second chapter of the book on the multiple
versions of Carmen were presented at international conferences and lectures at
the MIT Department of Media Studies (), the Second International Confer-
ence of the Film and Television Department of Tel Aviv University (), the
Popular Music and the Media Conference at the University of Sheffield, UK
(), and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (). The findings
werepublishedinAssaphKolnoa:StudiesinCinema&Television():-().
ApartialversionofChapterwaspresentedattheSCSConferenceatLaJolla,
California () and published by the Porter Institute of Tel Aviv University
().Chapterisbasedonanarticleentitled“DesireLtd:OnRomanies,Wo-
8 FilmRemakesasRitualandDisguise
men,andOtherSmugglersinCarmen”publishedinFramework’sspecialissueon
cinematic images of Romanies. Guest editor Dina Iordanova () : -, Fall,
. I wish to thank the respective publishers and editors for publishing my
essaysandforallowingmetoreprinttheminthisbook,ineachcaseinasome-
whatalteredorrevisedform.
IowespecialthankstoProf. FreddieRokem,Dean oftheFacultyoftheArts
andtomycolleaguesandfriendsattheFilmandTelevisionDepartmentatTel
Aviv University, especially Prof. Mihal R. Friedman, Prof. Nurith Gertz, Prof.
Yehouda (Judd) Ne’eman, Dr. Dubi Rubenstein and OrnaErez who supported
andencouragedmeduringdifferentphasesofthisproject.
IwouldliketoexpressmydeepestgratitudetoChayaAmirandRuthRuzga
for copy-editing this manuscript with great care and insightfulness. Finally, I
wouldliketoexpressmyappreciationtomymother,Hedva(Maimon)Zanger,
andmylatefather,KopelZanger,fortheirsupportandencouragement,andto
mydaughterTalwho,fromthetimeshewastwoyearsold,sharedwithmeall
of my travels, endless sessions in archives and libraries, and who sat through
manyofthevideoversions;shewas,morerecently,responsibleforthegraphic
sideofthemanuscript.
AnatZanger
TelAviv,December
Introduction
Thetraditionalhistoryofculturetakesintoconsiderationforeachchrono-
logicalsectiononly“new”texts,textscreatedbythegivenage.Butinthe
realexistenceofculture,textstransmittedbythegivenculturaltraditionor
introducedfromoutsidealwaysfunctionsidebysidewithnewtexts.
(JuriLotman,)
CinemaasasocialinstitutionknowswhatScheherazadeseemstohaveknown
all along: to narrate is to triumph over death. Hence, in an ongoing ceremony
thatoccursinthedarknessofthemovietheater(andlasts,ultimately,morethan
nights),societyconstantlydeliversitsencodedmessages.Theconstantre-
petition of the same tale keeps it alive in social memory, continually transmit-
ting its meaning and relevance. It is in this context that I suggest that the pre-
sence of repetitive chains of remakes can be identified as “hidden streams”
(Bazin’sterm,)intheimaginaryarchiveofthecinema.
The tendencyof cinema to produce a “remake” that retells a previously suc-
cessful story has to be accounted for in the light of the medium’s unique capa-
city for reproduction. Given the fact that recorded versions alreadyexist, what
is the purpose of re-addressing and re-articulating the same story time and
again?Theaimofthisbookistotracetheculturalandaestheticinstrumentalities
ofthechainsofremakesandtolocatetheremakeaspartofthecinematicinsti-
tutionthathasshapedandreshapedcollectiveimaginationthroughthesitesof
itspleasures,fearsandtraumas.
The relationship between original and version encapsulates the dialectic of
repetition,thedialecticbetweenoldandnew,beforeandafter,desireandfulfill-
ment. Using the tales of Psycho, Carmen and Joan of Arc as its navigators, Film
RemakesasRitualandDisguiseexploresthephenomenonofmulti-versionsasone
thatilluminatesthepreferencesandpoliticsofthecinematicapparatusthrough
itschoicesofrepetitionanddifferentiation.
One of the most popular series that the cinema has produced stems from
AlfredHitchcock’sfilmPsycho().Cinema(andculture)embracedPsycho
and endowed it with a “cult” status, complete with quotations, allusions, ho-
mages, and direct andindirect transformations.Threesequels havesofar been
made – by Richard Franklin (), Anthony Perkins (), and Mick Garris
(). Homage was paid to Psycho with pastiches like Tobe Hooper’s Texas
ChainsawMassacre(),JohnCarpenter’sHalloween()andBriande