1. See Gerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies, 5th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 547.

2. See Roger Ebert's Movie Home Companion, 1993 ed. (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1992); Leonard Maltin, ed., Leonard Maltin's TV Movies and Video Guide (New York: Signet, 1992); Steven H. Scheuer, Movies on TV (New York: Bantam, 1987).

3. Unless a readaptation of a literary work refers to the previous adaptation(s) and not directly to the written source, the readaptation should not be considered a remake. Thus, Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear (1991) and Werner Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night (1979) are remakes, but Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (1996), or any other recent Shakespeare production is not.

4. Ibid., 1254.

5. A shocking variety show of vengeance, elaborately schemed and painstakingly executed, is one of Craven's trademarks, seen, for example, in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Deadly Friend (1986), and Shocker (1991). God left Craven's world, and left it without a blueprint; the revenge with shaving cream spread on the floor, invisible strings attached to murderous hammers, chain saws, short circuits, etc., is the only plan possible in the total chaos.

6. Narrative, verbal, stylistic, casting, and other references to the source are precisely what should decisively distinguish a remake from a "rip-off" (Maltin). Thieves conceal and pretend to not have taken what they took—something that neither Wes Craven, nor any other true remaker, credited or uncredited, ever does.

7. No one could claim the absence of differences between the classical and the pop culture for reasons other than polemical. Thus, for example, the authorship of the popular myth is more "anonymous" than that of the classical myth. Orestes continue

belongs to Aeschylus and 007 to . . . well, not exclusively Ian Fleming, but maybe because of this James Bond is even more mythical than Orestes. Myths emerge from the existential anonymity and, having passed the stage of individual expression, should lead back to anonymity, this time cultural.

8. Between 1992 and 1995, several Hollywood remakes of the relatively recent European productions— Scent of a Woman ( Profumo di donna, Italy, 1975), Sommersby ( The Return of Martin Guerre, France, 1982), The Vanishing (Netherlands, 1988), Point of No Return ( Nikita, France, 1990), and my Father, the Hero ( Mon Père, le Héro, France 1992)—were released; several more are currently in production. While a short temporal gap is caused directly by the "exploitation" aspect of remaking a successful (or potentially commercial) feature, these remakes could not have been done if the source films did not originate overseas. A scenario in which Joe Dante, John Carpenter, or Walter Hill are remaking a Jim Jarmusch, a Jon Jost, or a Henry Jaglom picture yet remains in the realm of fantasy. break