Directed by Jim McBride • 1983 • United States
Starring Richard Gere, Valérie Kaprisky, Art Metrano
Remaking Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave landmark (itself an homage to American gangster films) was surely one of the more audacious cinematic gambits of the 1980s, but director Jim McBride (DAVID HOLZMAN’S DIARY) approaches the challenge with a postmodern sensibility that makes for a fascinatingly self-reflexive, deliriously stylized update. Richard Gere plays the dirtbag Las Vegas car thief obsessed with comics and ’50s rock ’n’ roll who hightails it to a neon-dreamland LA after killing a cop. There, he hooks up with his French lover (Valérie Kaprisky) for a sexed-up crime spree that quickly spirals out of control.
Up Next in ’80s Remakes (and Their Originals!)
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Breathless
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard • France • 1960
Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, Daniel BoulangerThere was before BREATHLESS, and there was after BREATHLESS. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspi...
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D.O.A.
Directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton • 1988 • United States
Starring Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Charlotte RamplingTime is running out for university professor Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid). He has just twenty-four hours to unravel the bitter truth surrounding his own poisoning. In his despe...
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D.O.A.
Directed by Rudolph Maté • 1949 • United States
Starring Edmond O’Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther AdlerNoir fatalism is at its most potent in this tightly wound thriller about a man on a quest to solve his own murder. After he discovers he’s been poisoned, California accountant Frank Bigelow (Edm...
