Last year Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes surprised everybody by beating off competition from A Prophet and The White Ribbon to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The film detailed the quest of a retired legal counselor who, whilst in the process of writing his memoirs and dealing with his love for his ex-boss, attempts to bring to resolution some old homicide cases from his past. It is a moving thriller, populated with interesting characters that has something to say regarding the nature of punishment. It was directed by Juan José Campanella, who made his name through various directorial jobs on American TV (he has worked on House, Law & Order and 30 Rock) and yet there is little about The Secret in Their Eyes which feels American.
That hasn’t prevented Hollywood from tackling a remake. Indeed, it seems as though Hollywood are no longer content with simply remaking classic horror movies and are now taking their inspiration from critically lauded foriegn language films as well. Akira and Oldboy have been in the works for quite some time whilst Let Me In, the remake of Swedish vampire flick Let The Right One In, is scheduled for release soon.
According to the The Hollywood Reporter Billy Ray, the man behind Shattered Glass and Breach, is scheduled to direct the English language remake of The Secret in Their Eyes. Although we generally tend to roll our eyes at the release of another Hollywood remake, Matt Reeves, director of Let Me In (currently at 87% on RottenTomatoes) has recently proven that if a remake is not just treated as a cash-cow, and the director is granted a certain degree of creative-freedom, then it can become a decent film in its own right. At this stage we’ll just have to cross our fingers.
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I’ll continue to roll my eyes for the time being. I can understand remaking films that don’t work the first time around but The Secret in Their Eyes is the best film I’ve seen at the cinema so far this year -I don’t see why they ‘need’ to remake it. Although it doesn’t make a lot of the historical context, it is also quite specific to time and place, so presumably it will keep the original setting?
I will take comfort in the fact that the proposed remake of The Lives of Others seems to have disappeared and will hope this ‘idea’ follows.