As a new generation of movie-mad directors emerged in the 1980s, they drew direct inspiration from the films they grew up watching and obsessing over. The result was a striking run of idiosyncratic Reagan-era remakes in which filmmakers such as John Carpenter (turning the Cold War sci-fi classic THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD into a glacial descent into existential terror), Paul Schrader (transforming the shadowy horror landmark CAT PEOPLE into a hypnotic vision of erotic obsession), and Jim McBride (reimagining Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave bombshell BREATHLESS as a neon-soaked rock ’n’ roll reverie) breathed new life into familiar stories. Viewed side by side, these films reveal a decade in provocative dialogue with the past, infusing timeless originals with the aesthetics, politics, and cultural permissiveness of a new era.

Remakes:
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (Bob Rafelson, 1981)
CAT PEOPLE (Paul Schrader, 1982)
THE THING (John Carpenter, 1982)
BREATHLESS (Jim McBride, 1983)
THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (Blake Edwards, 1983)
AGAINST ALL ODDS (Taylor Hackford, 1984)
NO WAY OUT (Roger Donaldson, 1987)
D.O.A. (Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, 1988)
WE’RE NO ANGELS (Neil Jordan, 1989)*

Originals:
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (Tay Garnett, 1946)
CAT PEOPLE (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (Christian Nyby, 1951)
BREATHLESS (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (François Truffaut, 1977)
OUT OF THE PAST (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
THE BIG CLOCK (John Farrow, 1948)
D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1949)
WE’RE NO ANGELS (Michael Curtiz, 1955)*