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I'm looking for two words
1) something that's maybe more specific than 'genre', but maybe a little more broad than 'remake.' 'Retelling' is almost the word.

2) a word describing an partial enumeration of such sets . (This is the main thing I'm interested in.)


Examples of item 1
a. The movie Roxeanne is a retelling of Cyrano Debergerac.
b. The Magnificent Seven is a retelling of The Seven Samurai.

However, I want to include things like:
c. Heist is very similar to The Score is very similar to Oceans Eleven which is a remake of a movie by the same name.
d. The Ring is a remake Ringu.
e. The Prime Gig is vaguely similar to The Grifters is vaguely similar to The Sting. (Connection is a little less firm than the previous cases.)

Possible:
f. Brother Cadfael is kinda similar to The Name of the Rose. (Even more tenuous association.)

The relation COULD BE, BUT NEED NOT BE broad enough to include
g. Cryptonomicon is similar to The Flanders Panel (in that both books describe events that happen in different times but are somehow connected).
h. Is Alien the same story as The Thing?

I'm looking for name-of-relation(A1, A2, ..., An) where Ai is a book or movie and 'name-of-relation' can be 'is kinda similar to' or 'is a remake of'.

Context. I'm trying to look up things that are similar to other things since I'd like to watch those movies with my kids - but I'm not sure what to call the thing I'm looking for. Something like the listing on Amazon where it says, "Customers who bought this, also bought this," except I want a bit of a stronger connection.

Obviously the items in the same sets above are generally in the same genre, but they don't need to be. I don't think The Magnificent Seven is the same genre as The Seven Samurai.

It seems to me the people who like movies would almost certainly have a name for item 2, the list of sets that are similar like this. I asked at a local blockbuster and the guys told me they thought such a thing would be useful, but they didn't think it existed.

k



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I think your retelling and remake both work well for reasons you gave. Can't add another word that will get you closer to the genre term you're seeking.

I checked Google and found both terms freely used in many artcles about films and movies.

Would you include 'revisionist' remaking when a movie is made to retell a story, but with a distinctly new point of view?


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revisionist

Revisionist has, I fear, taken on a negative connotation from those who would have their histories as they learned them and we don't want our heroes besmirched thank-you-very-much.


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how about reiterate it does mean repeating, but also retelling..
West Side Story reiterates the old story of love and loss, as classicly told in Romeo and Juliette...


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Reiteration works for me. Even if not in common use among afficionados, it seems apt. Not too broad. Not too general. This leaves me with the more important question of "Does there exist a list of such reiterations and, if it does, where does one find it?"


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The recent Psycho was a shot-by-shot remake of the Hitchcock original (*Some things should just be left alone, and I think Hitchcock is one of them, but...) And I believe this was the only time this shot-by-shot remake technique was ever attempted, and, so, I think that precludes the connotation of remake, since a remake necessarily involves some reworking of the original to qualify as a re-make. That's why I think the new Psycho needs its own new term. (I'm not saying all old classics shouldn't be touched...just certain ones...I enjoyed the Jeff Goldblum version of the SF classic, "The Fly," as much as I liked the Vincent Price original, for instance--and the Jessica Lange King Kong was an interesting treatment. But there's been recent talk of remaking Casablanca, and I say, 'no!no!no!...leave that one alone!' And, for instance, how could you redo The African Queen without Hepburn and Bogart?...why bother? And a stage adaptation of a movie is one thing, like The Wiz, from The Wizard of Oz, and that's fine...but I've heard new whispers about an Oz film remake...oh, no, they wouldn't dare, would they?...perish the thought...shudder.

But as far as a term, FF, I've always heard remake...then there's "a reworking", and sometimes you'll hear, "an updated version." Sometimes retelling. But I can see the nuance you're attempting to capture here, and it's a bit evasive to put a finger on.

And many theatre classics have been restaged...in the theatre it's a restaging...Shakespeare, of course, being the foremost example. I recall there was even a famous production of Hamlet staged in business suits in a modern setting (might've been an Olivier production, but I'm not sure)...but it was still Hamlet.


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This is from the film glossary at http://allmovie.com, FF...found it while looking for a list:

>Film Glossary

Remake

When a motion picture covering a particular subject matter is produced again with the same narrative and subject matter. "The Jazz Singer" was originally produced in 1927 with Al Jolson. It was produced in 1953 with Danny Thomas and again in 1980 with Neil Diamond.<



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Here's a page from the same site, "The All Movie Guide", FF, with extensive "movie maps" of all the genres. Interestingly enough, on such a comprehensive film site, there seems to be no link specifically for remakes. Perhaps the webmasters there would come up with a "remake map" if it were suggested to them.

http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=U0


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heya! I've already got something cool from that site. didn't realize there were more than two "thin man" movies. I love those!

great pointer, thanks,
k



#101995 05/01/03 07:41 PM
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Hey. They cranked them babies out one a year for a long time. Neat sucker trivia question: Who played the title role in the first Thin Man movie?


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