Anthology Film Archives

AUTO-REMAKES

March 18 – March 31

Remakes are never better than the originals – or so goes the common movie wisdom. They’re a desperate cash-in, a feeble attempt to recapture the glory of a classic with a new (inevitably lesser) director at the helm. But what happens when great filmmakers get a ‘second take’ on the same basic starting material, the opportunity to…remake themselves?
This winter, Anthology surveys the history of auteurs who – per Ken Jacobs – returned to the scene of the crime. Whether out of dogged perfectionism, playful abandon, or, yes, monetary gain, they changed their own films from black-and-white to color, from documentary to reenactment, from tragedy to comedy, from silent to sound, from noir to Western, from video to celluloid – reimagining the same stories, characters, or ideas with new collaborators, technologies, and formal strategies. Presenting a diverse selection of films (from Hitchcock, Ford, Hawks, Lubitsch, and more) alongside their “auto-remakes”, we’re offering a one-of-a-kind chance to watch these artists in dialogue with themselves.
Programmed in collaboration with C. Mason Wells. Special thanks to Ken Jacobs, Trent Harris, Kate Brokaw, Brian Belovarac (Janus Films), Brian Block (Criterion Pictures USA), Paul Ginsburg (Universal), Ross Klein (MGM), Anne Morra & Mary Keene (MoMA), Caitlin Robertson (20th Century Fox), Rob Stone (Library of Congress), and Marilee Womack (Warner Bros).
All film descriptions by C. Mason Wells.
Please note: separate admission will be charged for each film in this series.

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