The Vanishing
The Vanishing
When a foreign film is remade the director tends to change things like the characters, relationships between the characters, organization of the plot, symbols, and the theme to appeal to American audiences. Why is that? Maybe it’s because “[Americans] just haven’t overcome the language barrier” or that “[foreign] films move at a much slower pace than [American movies]” like Fred Hift states in his article “Film – European movies: Looking for an American audience.” Often time’s American film audiences are too inept to understand the meaning of a foreign film or a film in general without everything being laid out in front of them, they also tend to be a little bit ignorant when it comes to other cultures besides their own – which is why foreign films are becoming more Americanized. This is exactly the case in George Sluizer’s French film Spoorloos, directed in 1988, and the American remake he did titled The Vanishing, directed in 1993. When directing the remake George went on to change multiple things in order to make it more American friendly. Spoorloos’ main characters were named Rex, Raymond, Lienke, and Saskia. While The Vanishings main characters were named Jeff, Barney, Rita, and Diane. Already you can see a stark difference in the French and American names. Sluizer most likely changed the names because of the pronunciation – I don’t know many people who can pronounce Lienke and Saskia. By changing the names to something like Rita or Diana there’s a comfort factor to the people watching the film, your neighbor can be named Rita and the person who bags your groceries can have the name Diane. When you can relate to a character, or at least a character’s name, it opens up the door for the viewers to feel relaxed. Name changes were not the only difference between the two films regarding characters; they also acted different, or had different personalities. Rex was more calm and collected – he thought things out rationally instead of acting on
When a foreign film is remade the director tends to change things like the characters, relationships between the characters, organization of the plot, symbols, and the theme to appeal to American audiences. Why is that? Maybe it’s because “[Americans] just haven’t overcome the language barrier” or that “[foreign] films move at a much slower pace than [American movies]” like Fred Hift states in his article “Film – European movies: Looking for an American audience.” Often time’s American film audiences are too inept to understand the meaning of a foreign film or a film in general without everything being laid out in front of them, they also tend to be a little bit ignorant when it comes to other cultures besides their own – which is why foreign films are becoming more Americanized. This is exactly the case in George Sluizer’s French film Spoorloos, directed in 1988, and the American remake he did titled The Vanishing, directed in 1993. When directing the remake George went on to change multiple things in order to make it more American friendly. Spoorloos’ main characters were named Rex, Raymond, Lienke, and Saskia. While The Vanishings main characters were named Jeff, Barney, Rita, and Diane. Already you can see a stark difference in the French and American names. Sluizer most likely changed the names because of the pronunciation – I don’t know many people who can pronounce Lienke and Saskia. By changing the names to something like Rita or Diana there’s a comfort factor to the people watching the film, your neighbor can be named Rita and the person who bags your groceries can have the name Diane. When you can relate to a character, or at least a character’s name, it opens up the door for the viewers to feel relaxed. Name changes were not the only difference between the two films regarding characters; they also acted different, or had different personalities. Rex was more calm and collected – he thought things out rationally instead of acting on
Cited: Spoorloos. Dir. George Sluizer. Perf. Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Johanna ter Steege, Gene Bervoets. Argos Films, 1988. DVD. The Vanishing. Dir. George Sluizer. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Bridges, Nancy Travis. 20th Century Fox, 1993. VHS. King, Stephen. “Why We Crave Horror Movies.” Lindley, Rachel. “The Art of Entertainment.” Nared, Ken. “Language of Film 2: The End.” Hift, Fred. “Film – European movies: Looking for an American audience.”