Sex and Sexuality in Modern Screen Remakes examines how sexiness, sexuality and revisited sexual politics are used to modernize film and TV remakes. This exploration provides insight into the ever-evolving—and ever-contested—role of sex in society, and scrutinizes the politics and economics underpinning modern media reproduction. More nudity, kinky sex, and queer content are increasingly deployed in remakes to attract, and to titillate, a new generation of viewers. While sex in this book refers to increased erotic content, this discussion also incorporates an investigation of other uses of sex and gender to help a remake appear woke and abreast of the zeitgeist including feminist reimaginings and ‘girl power’ make-overs, updated gender roles, female cast-swaps, queer retellings, and repositioned gazes. Though increased sex is often considered a sign of modernity, gratuitous displays of female nudity can sometimes be interpreted as sexist and anachronistic, in turn highlighting that progressiveness around sexuality in contemporary media is not a linear story. Also examined therefore, are remakes that reduce the sexual content to appear cutting-edge and cognizant of the demands of today’s audiences.

For a long time now, women have struggled for the vindication of their rights and for their visibility. This struggle may seem a story of success, maybe not complete or equal for all women, but at least one which slowly but surely carries with it the promise of equality for all women. However, a closer look reveals that in various fields of culture the representation of women frequently undergoes a manipulation which makes the image of women lose the intention initially attempted. This is often the case with adaptations of literary texts to the screen, when the initial literary message is changed because of, for example, marketing demands or some ideological stance. Rarely do we find the opposite case where the indifferent or emasculated original female characters are turned into guardians and/or apologists of feminine power. The present volume focuses precisely on the way in which the image of women is modified in films and TV series, when compared with the original literary texts.

From the inception of cinema to today’s franchise era, remaking has always been a motor of ongoing film production. Hollywood Remaking challenges the categorical dismissal in film criticism of remakes, sequels, and franchises by probing what these formats really do when they revisit familiar stories. Kathleen Loock argues that movies from Hollywood’s large-scale system of remaking use serial repetition and variation to constantly negotiate past and present, explore stability and change, and actively shape how the film industry, cinema, and audiences imagine themselves. Far from a simple profit-making exercise, remaking is an inherently dynamic practice situated between the film industry’s economic logic and the cultural imagination. Although remaking developed as a business practice in the United States, this book shows that it also shapes cinematic aesthetics and cultural debates, fosters film-historical knowledge, and promotes feelings of generational belonging among audiences.

By comparing different screen adaptations of the story of Rómulo Gallegos’s notorious villainess, Doña Bárbara Unleashed reveals how over the years subversively strong female characters have become increasingly accepted by society and welcomed by audiences.

In Remaking Gender and the Family, Sarah Woodland examines the complexities of Chinese-language cinematic remakes. With a particular focus on how changes in representations of gender and the family between two versions of the same film connect with perceived socio-cultural, political and cinematic values within Chinese society, Woodland explores how source texts are reshaped for their new audiences. In this book, she conducts a comparative analysis of two pairs of intercultural and two pairs of intracultural films, each chapter highlighting a different dimension of remakes, and illustrating how changes in gender representations can highlight not just differences in attitudes towards gender across cultures, but also broader concerns relating to culture, genre, auteurism, politics and temporality.

Now in its sixth edition, this essential guide for students provides accessible definitions of a comprehensive range of genres, movements, world cinemas, theories and production terms. This fully revised and updated book includes new topical entries that explore areas such as film and the environmental crisis; streaming and new audience consumption; diversity and intersectionality; questions related to race and representation; the Black Lives Matter movement; and New Wave Cinemas of Eastern European countries. Further new entries include accented/exilic cinema, border-cinema, the oppositional gaze, sonic sound and Black westerns. Existing entries have been updated, including discussion of #MeToo, and more contemporary film examples have been added throughout. This is a must-have guide for any student starting out on this fascinating area of study and arguably the greatest art form of modern times.