I’m working on my review of Let The Right One In, the Swedish vampire movie I saw at Fantastic Fest, and I’ll let you in on my first line:
Let The Right One In is a masterpiece.
Boo ya! Anyway, I fucking loved this movie and I’m going to be interviewing the director in a few days, but now there’s a question I don’t need to ask him: what he thinks of the remake. Talking to MovieZine (via Shock Til You Drop, who translated), Tomas Alfredson said:
Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good, that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong… I’m very proud of my movie and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of an other opinion. The saddest thing for me would be to see that beautiful story made into something mainstream.
Some commenters took me to task for my last article about this film, where I bemoaned Matt Reeves of Cloverfield directing the remake. They pointed out statements I’ve made in the past about remakes, where I said that the original still exists. Here’s the difference between a remake of an old movie and a remake of a new foreign movie, though: nobody sees the original. With an old movie, which is owned by some studio or other, there’s a push to rerelease it on DVD or otherwise tie in the remake. It’s all about the money. But for the remakes of the new foreign films, the impetus is to suppress the original so that the remake – which will not be sold as a remake – seems fresher and more original.
And here’s the other thing: Reeves cannot improve upon this film. I am depressed by the idea of Nacho Vigalondo’s Time Crimes being remade, but the fact that a genius like David Cronenberg has expressed interest make me less afraid. At least we’ll get a film with a personality. But hiring the Cloverfield guy to remake a movie about a 12 year old falling in love with his (pyhsically) 12 year old vampire neighbor – this is lose/lose. The remake will suck and the original will not get seen by the masses as it should.
Let The Right One In opens in New York and LA on October 24, followed by a multi-city rollout. I don’t know how wide this is going, but I will tell you that I believe this movie is worth a trip to see on the big screen. Do yourself – and the movies – a favor by making an effort to catch this film.
UPDATE: It’s playing tonight in LA. Go see it!
15 comments
Okay, so the director says remakes should only be made of bad films, then goes on to praise his own film. Now, I'm not going to say his film is crap (going to see it tonight thanks to your update), but of course the director of any original is going to say the same thing. Besides, Devin gave The Departed a 9.5 out of 10, but I'm sure a lot of people (including the filmmakers) would argue that Infernal Affairs is better and didn't call for such a fast remake.
In all cases I think you're right that the original is a masterpiece. And while I will almost inevitably prefer the original, I can't discount Matt Reeves just yet. After all, if Reeves was capable of directing a big-budget throwback to Godzilla that directly evoked post-9/11 fears, then perhaps he may not flinch at keeping the stars young and not shying away from the moments that unconsciously or not evoke Columbine.
i still can't believe any studio would spend money producing a re-telling of an acclaimed film (in this case, a universally acclaimed film) when the profit margin's actually quite a bit higher in just buying the rights and doing a dub track. Hell, put it out on DVD with the option of subtitles for the nit-picky. Good dubs ARE do-able… It just seems so beyond common sense that i wish someone would just hand me a few million dollars to make stupid decisions with. 😉
Devin, your logic is faulty. You don't support remakes of new foreign films because the original will be suppressed. This movie is getting a nationwide release. How do you justify this disconnect? Or are you just bitching for the sake of bitching?
It's playing as part of the Vancouver Film Festival Sunday October 5th and other days too. I'm fucking there dude.
http://www.viff.org
devin, that logic was pretty shitty…if i wouldnt have seen the departed, i would have never picked up infernal affairs (even with my unhealthy obsession with tony leung!) like the above poster mentioned. In fact, i would bet all of my left nut that infernal affairs has been seen 500 times more since its remake won the best fucking picture at the academy awards! And yes, infernal affairs is much better, but i appreciated scorese's take on the material and making it his own. I have absolute confidence that this remake will bring more people outisde of beautuful sites like this to see this movie that im pissing myself to see. Again, good movie suggestion dev, yet shitty logic disregarding remakes
How dumb are you people? infernal affairs came out years before the departed. that's not what tubby is talking about.
I am not one of these anti remake guys. I don't make it a blanket rule. I take it film by film. But I do prefer that they let the original reels cool down from the printing factory before they remake them. This film is a masterpiece as devins says. It is my favorite film so far this year and I cannot see it being knocked off.Another thing I can;t see is a remake in anyway shape or form having anything new to add or make any kind of improvement over what is a truly unique wonderful film. The only good that can come of a remake is hopefully that brings attention to this gem of a film. Basically to sum it all up fuck this remake. Let the original get some kind of release before you do a hollywood jig on its still warm (or in this films case cold) corpse
did that ignorat f**k SugarChigurh just call Infernal Affairs a Departed remake. thats US for you !
No, SugarChigurh did not call Infernal Affairs a Departed remake. If you take a moment to put aside your unfounded, hyperbolic outrage and actually read the comment, it clearly refers to IA as the original, superior version of the story. The point being made is that The Departed was the unneccessary remake so soon after the original. Now get your panties out of their bunch and look for your next opportunity to become mistakenly outraged.
chud should create 2 talkbacks per article. One to shit on devin with and the other for stuff related to said article.
Imagine my frustration in not knowing when, if ever, this much-hyped film will come to Australian screens. Oh well… guess I'll have to wait for the remake.
The Departed wasn't a rush remake, it had fucking Scorsese behind it.
The Departed was much, much, MUCH better than the Hong Kong original. Infernal Affairs was a been-there, done-that undercover cop movie. For God's sake, Tony Leung basically played the same character in IA that he played in John Woo's Hard-Boiled! And yes, I have probably seen more Asian/Hong Kong crime movies than everyone on this board combine, so let me assure you that I know what I'm talking about. Having said that, Infernal Affairs 2 was such a blatant rip-off of The Godfather, that I wanted to fly to Hong Kong and punch the directors in the face for making me sit through 3 hours of manufactured, "Make money" crap that barely had anything to do with the original film.
I agree with you and with the director of the original, masterful Let The Right One In. A limited release (5 or 6 theatres) is what this great film gets, and the remake will be plaster like projectile vomit on a thousand screens.
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