Rob Marshall (director of Chicago) and Daniel Day-Lewis, two-time Academy Award winner (Best Actor: My Left Foot and There Will Be Blood) have teamed together to “re-imagine” Frederico Fellini’s masterpiece, ’8 1/2′, into a musical with a new title – Nine.
As a Fellini fan (studied him extensively in film school) I was upset to see that once again Hollywood has decided to remake a classic, modernist film and put their own misguided and deluded spin on what they think will improve the original version beyond what even Fellini himself envisioned.
There are several classic films, both foreign and domestic, that should never, ever be remade. Why? Because the elements that affected the creation of the originals (societal times, studio involvement, etc…) allowed for far more creativity then we have now – in Hollywood we simply through money at a film (e.g. Michael SFX Bay and Jerry Boom Boom Bruckheimer).
So that being said I’m reluctant to even consider seeing ‘Nine’. And while the cast is impressive (Danie lDay-Lewis,Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Sophia Loren, and Fergie) I just can’t imagine this film as a musical. Granted there is definitely a music-esque theme to certain portions of the original and it would be fitting to the “circus theme” that is notorious in all Fellini films, I still can’t picture seeing Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale or even Anouk Aimee singing and dancing to a story about a respected filmmaker who slowly descends into absurdity on the set of his lastest film.
I wondery how this film would fair in Italy? Would Fellini lovers from “the boot” appreciate an Americanized version of an Italian classic? Would they even care at this point? I would hope so and if they didn’t I’m sure they would if Hollywood decided to remake ‘La Dolce Vita’ into a musical – that would definitely cause an uproar (or at the very least it should!)
Still… I saw the trailer and while it looks like a carbon copy, line-for-line remake of the original, I can’t help but be impressed with the interpretation that Rob Marshall has given this 1963 classic. Maybe I’ll let this one grow on me, see what the critics say and take the plunge this November to see it. Who knows…
