Originality versus proximity: an explorative study of audience reactions to monolingual film remakes

Striving for a more holistic approach of the field that studies film remakes, this article analyses the reception context of the monolingual film remake practice in the Low Countries. Instead of assuming how audiences define, perceive, experience, and evaluate Dutch-Flemish film remakes, this article explores these aspects empirically by analysing data from four focus groups. Given the cultural proximity between the Netherlands and Flanders, the study equally inquires if (and why) Dutch and Flemish audiences prefer their local film versions. It is found that participants do not share a common definition of the artefact and understand the label differently from scholars or people working in the industry. Participants were highly critical of film remakes and generally preferred the local version. However, it appeared that the latter depended on whether they knew which version was the ‘original’.