Hollywood likes remakes “, the “ reboots and, above all, the aftermath. In the eyes of the major studios, these represent safer values than any original proposal. As a rule, suites are produced quickly, just to strike the iron while it is hot. However, there are also late sequels, which are rarer. Showing this Friday, Top Gun: Maverick (VF) thus appears 36 years after its predecessor. For the occasion, here is a top 5 sequels released decades after the original.
It should be noted that long-term sagas such as Star Wars, Alien, Rambo, terminator Where madmax (the excellent Fury Road belonging to the rest rather reboot), as well as cycles like the Antoine Doinel, by François Truffaut, or the Before…by Richard Linklater.
5. Return to Oz (Oz, an extraordinary world1985), released 46 years later The Wizard of Oz (The Wizard of Oz1939)
Back in Kansas, young Dorothée thinks only of the wonderful land of Oz, to the great dismay of her uncle and aunt, who entrust her to the care of a psychiatrist focused on electroshock. There is even talk of a lobotomy. Yes, it is indeed a question here of a film for children, the most glaucous that the Disney studio would have produced. Fairuza Balk, later noticed in The Craft (Black magic, 1996), succeeds Judy Garland and proves to be excellent. Directed by Walter Murch, an exceptional picture editor and sound winner of three Oscars (including for Apocalypse Now), Return to Oz was conceived at a time when Disney was trying to reinvent itself with films for young audiences with darker content, such as Something Wicked This Way Comes (The Dark Fair, 1983), after Ray Bradburay. Unfortunately, these attempts ended in commercial and, in this case, critical failures.
In a reassessment published in 2021 in The GuardianRick Burin celebrated his “cruel and gripping worlds”, writing: “In my eyes, Return to Oz constitutes the most elusive of cinematic creatures: the superior suite. The film has flaws, sure, but also dizzying ambition and a searing central performance. »
4. The Color of Money (The color of money1986), released 25 years later The Hustler (the scammer ; 1961)
In 1962, Paul Newman received his second Oscar nomination as Best Actor for The Hustler, published the previous year. The star played Fast Eddie Falson, a billiards ace trying to reach the major leagues. But it wasn’t until 25 years — and four other nominations in the same category — later that Newman won the coveted statuette for his role as…Fast Eddie Falson. Directed by Martin Scorsese and also starring Tom Cruise, The Color of Money is both a tribute to Robert Rossen’s classic, and a “real” film from the director of Taxi Driver.
To the magazine Movie How, Scorsese confided in 1988: “Even when I try to make a Hollywood film, there is something in me which says, ‘Go in the other direction.’ With The Color of Moneyin collaboration with two large stars, we tried to make a Hollywood movie. Or rather, I tried to make one of my films, but with a star Hollywood: Paul Newman. It was mainly about making a film about this American icon. »
3. Psycho II (Psychosis 21983), released 23 years later psychology (Psychosis1960)
Alfred Hitchcock’s film is one of his most iconic. As a shy motel manager who lives under the thumb of a tyrannical (and homicidal) mother, Anthony Perkins delivered the performance of his career. However, one of the beautiful surprises of the sequel is precisely the often poignant composition of the actor, who we find in the skin of Norman Bates at the end of two decades of internment. A student of Hitchcock, director Richard Franklin signs a reverent and effective staging enhanced by excellent cinematography by Dean Cundey (Halloween, Jurassic Park) and melancholic music by Jerry Goldsmith (deliberately at odds with the terrifying music of Bernard Hermann). The film is above all very ingeniously written by Tom Holland, whose screenplay functions as both an old-fashioned mystery and a slasher contemporary. This part probably explains the mixed reviews at the time.
In a subsequent rereading, John Kenneth Muir advanced in his work Horror Films of the 1980s : ” There where psychology attempted to confuse and shock through narrative innovations […], Psycho II takes a different strategy. Although it has its fair share of surprises, Psycho II is admirably frank and sincere about its main characters. […] Franklin’s insistence on making it a character study gives cinema’s most notorious serial killer a bigger dimension than shown in the original. »
2. Saraband (2003), released 30 years later Scenes from married life (1973-1974)
In Scenes from married life, perhaps one of the best titles ever found, the spouses Marianne and Johan quarreled and reconciled endlessly for 10 years. After the television version broadcast in 1973, Ingmar Bergman prepared a montage for the cinema the following year. Rebelote 30 years later with Saraband, a sequel to the marital tribulations of Marianne and Johan first broadcast on television, then presented in theaters. Separated for a long time, the exes reunite – not without clashes – while Marianne visits Johan, who has retired from the world.
When the film was released in Quebec, colleague Odile Tremblay wrote: “From the prologue, we understand that everything will be both said and hidden on cello tunes, that Bergman’s lucid ferocity will flow naturally. Hatred and love, reconciliation and revenge, take over here through interposed performers, all of whom are remarkable. »
True: the mere sight of Liv Ullman and Erland Josephson inhabiting those roles again is enough to move you. Just like the fact that Sarabanda work of minimalism and purity, proved to be Bergman’s testament.
1. blade runner 2049 (2017), released 35 years later blade runner (1982)
In 1982, blade runner received a lukewarm reception and garnered disappointing revenues. Ten years later, a version closer to director Ridley Scott’s original vision made it possible to gauge the film differently. Now considered a masterpiece, this tale of a bounty hunter who specializes in tracking down humanoids with limited lifespans continues to have immense influence, especially for its retro-futuristic atmosphere combining film noir and manga. Chosen to direct the surprise sequel, Denis Villeneuve not only showed himself up to the challenge, but he also managed to create an incredibly rich work, both in terms of content and form.
At the time of release, these pages wrote: “With a brilliant screenplay that enriches the existentialist questioning of the first film with unexpected evolutionary considerations (the original’s co-screenwriter, Hampton Fancher, is back), Denis Villeneuve develops more of an abundant universe of which it reveals unsuspected aspects. Fans will also be delighted to learn that there are mysteries that this sequel has had the good idea to leave unsolved. »
The films mentioned are available in VOD on several platforms