Re: [tlug] [not Linux related] Why Hollywood does break foreign films ?

[Bruno Raoult <braoult@example.com>]

On Mon, Aug 12, 2013 at 1:18 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull <stephen@example.com> wrote:

Bruno Raoult writes:

 > How could it be possible to break what was good films at first ?

It's not possible to "break" a film.  You can even watch the original
ones in most cases.

I think "Le Grand Bleu" was broken, with both music and happy end.
I think "Nikita" was broken. "La marche de l'Empereur" too.

You are right, you can watch them, I suppose, in US. But on your TV when you buy
the DVD. If Columbia did not want to show "Leon" after testing in LA, for some reasons
that people could call "American puritanism" (yes, this could be a troll, sorry), it was not
possible outside your own home.
 

Most Hollywood films are a different genus.  They're about escape and
about celebrity actors and producers, aka "vehicles".  (Celebrity
directors are a different genus altogether, but how many of those do
you see on the current Hollywood scene?)  The story and its adaptation
to the screen and the cast are secondary.

This cannot apply to "Le Grand Bleu" and "La Marche de l'Empereur" and "Leon", as directors and actors
were kept. Changes in music, changes in the storyline for some obscure reasons.
But what you say applies to others: Japanese "The Ring", French "Nikita", and tons of others.

My initial question was just about this: New music, different -happy- end, or even total re-make.
At least Mozart was not rewritten :-)
 

 If you don't like that,
there's a simple solution and an exceedingly difficult one.

The simple solution is "don't watch them because you can be pretty
darn sure what's coming."

:-)
But to compare, I had to watch the different versions. If I did not, I would never have started this thread.
I guess you did too.
 

The difficult solution is to educate mass taste to prefer what you
consider "good".

I don't think "mass taste" is correct here. Nor L.A. (for Leon) nor US represent a mass taste. Powerful industry,
yes, of course. Different, no ?

So my feelings changed since last emails: Hollywood checks US citizens tastes, and, as they have huge
power to distribute worldwide, their versions, after changes/rewrites can become a de-facto standard :

A guy must be saved at the end by dolphin instead of going to the dark? OK.
Some foreign music does not seem to be good enough (Simon and Serra are obviously not good composers) ? OK.
We can make a new "Nikita"? No problem, we just copy everything. OK.
Too (only) many Asian people in "The Ring". Well, we do a new one. OK.

Ce n'est pas bon...

br.

--
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.