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A DISLIKE OF SUBTITLES OR DUBBING IN THE US AND UK MEANS SOME FRENCH FILMS GET RECREATED IN ENGLISH – FOR BETTER OR WORSE US (and to some extent UK) viewers are notoriously reluctant to
watch foreign language films because they have to be either dubbed or subtitled. If a French film has success at the box office, Hollywood’s reaction is not to heap praise on it but remake
it in English, as if all good films should be in the vernacular of Shakespeare. Sometimes the remake is better than the original. Sometimes it is the other way around. Occasionally, the two
versions are as good as each other. Here are five examples of comedies that were filched from the French and remade in America. READ MORE: TEN FRENCH FILM TITLES THAT DIFFER (WIDELY) FROM
ENGLISH ORIGINALS 1. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959, DIRECTED BY BILLY WILDER) The film is based on_ Fanfare d’amour_ (1935). In the remake, two musicians on their uppers, Tony Curtis and Jack
Lemmon, finally manage to get work – but only by dressing as women. They run into Marilyn Monroe who treats them like two more of the girls, putting the dampers on any romance. The
English-language film is a classic; no one remembers the French original. READ MORE: THE PARIS THEATRE SAVED BY MARILYN MONROE MEMORABILIA 2. THREE MEN AND A BABY (1987, DIRECTED BY LEONARD
NIMOY, OF STAR TREK FAME) The film recreates _Trois hommes et un couffin_ (1985, Three Men and a Cradle). The title says it all: a trio of bachelors are left to care for an infant dumped on
their doorstep by the lover of one of them. A hard call as to which is the better film. 3. TRUE LIES (1994, DIRECTED BY JAMES CAMERON) The remake is an action comedy starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. It is based on _La Totale_ (1991). Harry Tasker is a spy who’s perfect cover is to have a boring life. Even his wife, Helen, thinks he is boring and she
is bored too because of his constant absences “for business trips”. A plot twist leads to Harry kidnapping Helen and sending her on a mock mission. The baddies disrupt this and Harry and
Helen have to go into action together. The US film has the advantage of a much bigger budget that includes a sequence using a Harrier Jump Jet. 4. THE BIRDCAGE (1996, DIRECTED BY MIKE
NICHOLS) It is a remake of the Franco-Italian production _La cage aux Folles _(1978), based on the French play of the same name. The plot stays the same – openly gay owners of a drag club
must entertain the ultra conservative parents of their son’s fiancée – but the setting moves from St Tropez to South Beach, Florida. Both films are equally good. 5 DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS (2010,
DIRECTED BY JAY ROACH) The film recreates _Le dîner des cons_ (The Dinner Game), directed by Francis Veber, 1998. A group of sophisticated metropolitans amuse themselves by holding dinner
parties to which each must bring someone idiotic to mock. Things go awry when a pet idiot invites a tax inspector to the apartment to a smug tax evader. The American version is a brave
attempt but there’s something indescribably Gallic about the concept of a ‘_con_’. RELATED ARTICLES PARAMOUNT + LAUNCHES IN FRANCE, INCLUDING US AND FRENCH CLASSICS WATCH: FRENCH CULTURE
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