Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Crosscultural Remakes

This news item is a year old, so maybe it's already lost in development hell, but in light of Sebnem's talk today, I couldn't help be reminded of the announcement that NBC is remaking Krzysztof Kieslowski's brilliant "Decalogue" miniseries that was broadcast in Poland in 1989. Although each one of its ten episodes focused on one of the Ten Commandments, it's far from a religious series, striking a much more existential/philosophical tone and bolstered by some of Poland's best cinematographers. As the article says, it was really a landmark of post-Communist drama (Stanley Kubrick wrote a fawning introduction in the published English screenplay). I can't imagine how any U.S. network remake could possibly compare, especially if the Polish and cultural elements are removed to make it more "palatable" a la "Les Revenants/The Returned." And the article says it will have worldwide distribution, which seems like an even worse idea, echoing Sebnem's question about who is the intended audience of such ventures. But since there are no other news items since then about this NBC project, let's hope it's just a bad joke for cinephiles.

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