‘Remakes’ as Forking Path Narratives: ‘Retold’ stories illustrate the cultural and social context in which

they were made and show how cinematic effects and the spectator’s ability to comprehend have evolved

Alaina Piro Schemppalainapiro@gmail.com

Student # 6246761Universiteit van Amsterdam

Description of the proposed project

Description of the proposed project

• A focused method of film studies by systematic analysis of the ‘remade’ narrative as a ‘forking path narrative’

• Compares two or more films consisting of the same narrative, made in different times, locations, languages

• Compares the cinematic effects in each film to understand the contextual spectator’s ‘film comprehension level’

What’s the ‘remade’ narrative?

What’s the ‘remade’ narrative?

• Not just a ‘remake’

What’s the ‘remade’ narrative?

• Not just a ‘remake’• A film deriving from either a previous film

or novel (or both)

What’s the ‘remade’ narrative?

• Not just a ‘remake’• A film deriving from either a previous film

or novel (or both)• A story told over again, perhaps in a

different way

What’s the ‘remade’ narrative?

• Not just a ‘remake’• A film deriving from either a previous film or

novel (or both)• A story told over again, perhaps in a different

way• Examples range from “extreme makeovers”

and popular myth (Superman is the story of Moses), to remakes (The Nutty Professor 1963 Jerry Lewis; , 1996 Eddie Murphy), reboots (Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk and Louis Leterrier’s 2008 The Incredible Hulk)

Focus: the ‘remade’ film

• A film deriving from either a previous film or novel (or both)

Focus: the ‘remade’ film

• A film deriving from either a previous film or novel (or both)

Focus: the ‘remade’ film

• A film deriving from either a previous film or novel (or both)

What’s a ‘forking path narrative’?

• Jorge Luis Borges, The Garden of Forking Paths, 1941 short story

• David Bordwell 2002 “Film Futures”• Edward Branigan 2002 “Nearly True”• Kay Young 2002 “That Fabric of Times”

What’s a ‘forking path narrative’?

• Kay Young 2002 “That Fabric of Times:”

Bordwell’s description of our film watching/ comprehending tendencies—to reason from a single cause, rely on first impressions, predict a particular rescue outcome because we desire it— suggests a cognitive portrait of the film viewer that makes us by nature quite shaky in our encounters with ambiguity, resistant to understanding things over time and form multiple, perhaps conflicting, perspectives, and desirous of solving problems by arriving at a happy ending.

What’s a ‘forking path narrative’?

David Bordwell “Film Futures” SubStance, Issue 97 (Volume 31, Number 1), 2002, pp. 88-104 (Article)

1. “Forking paths are linear.2. The fork is signposted.3. Forking paths intersect sooner or later.4. Forking-path tales are unified by traditional

cohesion devices.5. Forking paths will often run parallel.6. All paths are not equal; the last one taken

presupposes the others.7. All paths are not equal; the last one taken, or

completed, is the least hypothetical one.”

“All paths are not equal; the last one taken, or completed, is the

least hypothetical one.”

• This presupposition could illustrate how remade films tend to have the ‘final say’ on the telling of the film

What’s Alaina’s definition of a ‘forking path narrative’?

• Any story or retelling of the same story which can go off into multiple directions (but does not necessarily do so)

What’s Alaina’s definition of a ‘forking path narrative’?

• Any story or retelling of the same story which can go off into multiple directions (but does not necessarily do so)

Thesis questions

• 1) Why do we endlessly retell the same narrative?

Thesis questions

• 1) Why do we endlessly retell the same narrative?

• 2) By comparing the differences of each “retelling” what can we understand about the context in which that film was retold?

Thesis questions

• 1) Why do we endlessly retell the same narrative?

• 2) By comparing the differences of each “retelling” what can we understand about the context in which that film was retold?

• 3) What are the cinematic differences that shape each film; is it possible to discern the contextual spectator’s ‘film comprehension level’?

Thesis questions

• 1) Why do we endlessly retell the same narrative?

• 2) By comparing the differences of each “retelling” what can we understand about the context in which that film was retold?

• 3) What are the cinematic differences that shape each film; is it possible to discern the contextual spectator’s ‘film comprehension level’?

• 4) Do we get a more progressive view with each new retelling?

Central aims/issues

• Propose a systematic way of analyzing films reworking the ‘forking path narrative’ concept

• Take into consideration narratives that are as close as possible to one another

• Disentangle the subtle differences • Make sense of why those differences occur • Gain a better understanding of the

contextual spectator’s ‘film comprehension level’

Methods

• Select an oeuvre not from a specific time period, culture, or auteur but by similarity of narrative

• Examine a cross-cultural, cross-generational selection

• Can be done with either remakes (narrative copies, Diary) or theme similarities (young woman in love, dying old man, empty-nest syndrome woman)

Objects of research

• A selection of case studies to illustrate how this line of theory could operate

Objects of research

• A selection of case studies to illustrate how this line of theory could operate

• Sample case study: Diary of a Chambermaid

Sample case study

Diary of a Chambermaid

• 1900 French novel by Octave Mireau• 1946 Hollywood film by Jean Renoir• 1964 French film by Luis Buñuel

Le Journal d'une femme de chambre

• French novel by Octave Mirbeau• First published as a serial between 1891-

1892• Published as a novel in 1900• Amidst the ‘Dreyfus affair’• Depicts domestic service as modern

slavery• Illustrates 19th century anti-Semitism,

sexual perversion, bourgeois hypocrisy

The Diary of a Chambermaid

• 1946 Hollywood film• Directed by Jean Renoir• Starring Paulette Goddard (Célestine), Burgess

Meredith (Captain Mauger), Francis Lederer (Joseph, the Valet), Hurd Hatfield (Georges Lanlaire)

• Rearranges the original novelto have a classic Hollywood plot

• At it’s heart, a ‘dark comedy’

Le Journal d'une femme de chambre

• 1964 French language film• Directed by Luis Buñuel• Starring Jeanne Moreau (Célestine),

Daniel Ivernel(Captain Mauger), Georges Géret (Joseph, the Valet), Michel Piccoli (Monsieur Monteil)

• Rearranges the original novel to illustrate the brewing FrenchNationalist sentiment that will usher in WWII

• At it’s heart, a ‘drama’ ?

Problem Plays

Problem Plays

• Late 19th century term• Characters & plot depict current social

tensions• Meant as social critique

Clips!

• Two versions of the same scene• Analyze Célestine’s ‘choices’

Comparison

≈ In Mirbeau’s version, Célestine becomes a bourgeois café hostess

Comparison

≈ In Mirbeau’s version, Célestine becomes a bourgeois café hostess

≈ In Renoir’s version, Célestine sheds her selfishness, chooses love (and presumably his anti-bourgeois lifestyle)

Comparison

≈ In Mirbeau’s version, Célestine becomes a bourgeois café hostess

≈ In Renoir’s version, Célestine sheds her selfishness, chooses love (and presumably his anti-bourgeois lifestyle)

≈ In Buñuel’s version, Célestine marries the old libertine captain and becomes something close to a bourgeois housewife herself

Conclusion

• Are these versions all that different?• With each retelling do we get a better

sense of the context in which the films were made?

• Is it possible to retell a story with a different ending?

• Call to task Bordwell’s ‘Convention #7” Does the ending (the last film made) trump the other versions’ endings?

Works Cited

• Bordwell, David. “Film Futures.” SubStance, Issue 97 (Volume 31, Number 1), 2002, pp. 88-104 (Article).

• Branigan, Edward. “Nearly True: Forking Plots, Forking Interpretations: A Response to David Bordwell’s ‘Film Futures.’” SubStance, Issue 97 (Volume 31, Number 1), 2002, pp. 105-114 (Article).

• Durgnat, Raymond, Luis Buñuel, University of California Press: 1977

• Loy, Victoria. “Diary of a Chambermaid,” Senses of Cinema: 2005

• Young, Kay. “That Fabric of Times”: A Response to David Bordwell’s “Film Futures,” SubStance, Issue 97 (Volume 31, Number 1), 2002, pp. 115-118 (Article)

Thank you.