One of the things that makes the Sitges Festival such a special event is the conversations, whether with friends or complete strangers, that take place in the screening queues. Talks that, in each edition, bring out what ends up being labeled “the film of the year”; a tape that everyone talks about and strongly recommends watching before the conclusion of the contest.
In 2018, that hidden gem that turned the stalls on the coast of Sitges upside down was the wonderful ‘One Cut of the Dead’. A humble Japanese production turned into a phenomenon thanks to his enormous intelligence, his hilarious sense of humor, his brilliant narrative structure and, above all, a deep love for the art of storytelling in images; components that turned each projection into a real party.
Four years later, and after rising as an atypical opening title at the Cannes Film Festival, his French remake ‘Corten!’ arrives in our theaters, in which the Oscar-winning Michel Hazanavicius —’The Artist’— mercilessly photocopy the original; seasoning it with small additions that are not enough incentive for connoisseurs of the Japanese film, but that will surely delight those who come across it without knowing absolutely nothing about its content.
French Copy-Paste
Following the release of the bland new version of ‘Goodnight Mommy’, I reflected on the nature of the remake, the replicas without soul and the traces with intention. On one side of the scale are the listless productions that limit themselves to copying without adding, while on the other we find tapes in which their condition of almost exact replica forms part of their thesis. ‘Cut!’ plays in a kind of limbo between the two.
On the one hand, Hazanavicius’s feature film skilfully plays its cards by pulling on self-awareness and crafting a lucid discourse on the current film industry and the dubious art of the remake —I won’t go into details to keep any potential surprise intact—; justifying the imitation of Shinichirô Ueda’s work by infiltrating it in several layers and exploiting its metacinematographic aspect with mordacity.
Unfortunately, those who have enjoyed ‘One Cut of the Dead’ will soon discover that the vast totality of the bulky footage of ‘Cut!’ it limits itself to imitating the referent by shooting scenes and dialogues —re-adapted for Western palates—, with the occasional commendable extra, such as the hilarious participation of Jean-Pascal Zadi.
‘Cut!’ bet on the largest – its budget is around four million euros compared to the 30,000 of the original – and the longest – specifically, a quarter of an hour – to mold an experience that will change radically depending on whether or not you have enjoyed its predecessor. If they did, the lack of magic and freshness will more than weigh down the set but, being among the neophyte sector, laughter is guaranteed.