Perfect Adaptations. Perfetti sconosciuti (2016) Between Remake, Translation, Adaptation and Tradaptation
Co-Editors: Gianluca Fantoni and Armando Rotondi
In a piece that appeared on Cinecittà News on 8 January 2023, Laura Zangarini emphasised how the 2016 Paolo Genovese’s Perfetti sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) had shattered all records by becoming the film with the most remakes in history: “the Icelandic adaptation was made available on Netflix on 6 January, and a Danish version has been announced. Perfect Strangers, however, is already available in Greek, Spanish […], Turkish, Indian, Mexican, French, Armenian, Russian, and Hungarian”. In the conclusion of her article, Zangarini pondered: “What made Perfect Strangers a global phenomenon?”. Just a few days before, an article published in The Economist headlined “Why an Italian Film Has Become a Valuable Piece of Intellectual Property”. It tried to account for the transnational success of Paolo Genovese’s film by briefly discussing the producers’ inescapable interest in a movie that can be produced with practically any available budget, from very low to very high, as well as the subject’s cultural ubiquity and its easily adaptable plot.
By analysing the various adaptations of Genovese’s film and discussing them both independently (i.e. in connection to the national context in which they were produced) and in comparison to the original version, the “Perfect Adaptations” project seeks to provide answers to the questions above.
The outcome will be an edited volume curated by Gianluca Fantoni (Nottingham Trent University) and Armando Rotondi (Institute of the Arts Barcelona), published by Intellect in the book series Trajectories of Italian Cinema and Media, edited by Flavia Laviosa (https://www.intellectbooks.com/trajectories-of-italian-cinema-and-media)
Contributions may be devoted to a particular remake or version of Perfetti sconosciuti, to numerous versions studied concurrently, or to general reflections on the script and narrative structure of the movie. Authors may choose to examine the film and its many adaptations using a variety of approaches, including but not limited to film studies. In fact, we welcome contributions by scholars in different fields engaging with the film from different perspectives such as:
- Interlingual translation and full translation applied to cinema
- Staging narrative recontextualization and character development in the target culture
- Audience and critical reception of a specific version of Perfetti sconosciuti
- Translation and adaptation studies
We are looking for contributions of around 7,000 words. The edited volume will be complemented by interviews with the writers of the original Italian version of the film: Filippo Bologna, Fabio Costella and Paolo Genovese (also the film’s director).
We welcome contributions in the form of interviews with writers, directors and producers of the film’s many adaptations.
Interested authors are invited to submit an abstract of their proposed contribution (maximum 400 words), along with a brief biographical note (maximum 150 words), including academic title and affiliation and contact details, to:
perfectadaptationsproject@gmail.com
Deadline for abstract submission: 15 December 2024.
Notification of accepted abstracts will be communicated by 15 January 2025.
Submission of the complete contribution (maximum 7,000 words) is due by 15 June 2025.
Please note that both abstracts and full contributions must be submitted in English.
These are the existing adaptions of Perfetti sconosciuti:
- Greece – Teleioi ksenoi (Τέλειοι ξένοι) (2016)
- Spain – Perfectos desconocidos (2017)
- Turkey – Cebimdeki Yabanci (2018)
- India – Loudspeaker (2018)
- Belgium/France – Le jeu (2018)
- South Korea – Intimate Strangers (2018)
- Hungary – Búék (2018)
- Mexico – Perfectos Desconocidos (2018)
- China – Kill Mobile (2018)
- Russia – Gromkaja svjaz’ (Громкая связь) (2019)
- Armenia – An Unknown Subscriber (2019)
- Poland – (Nie)znajomi (2019)
- Germany – Das perfekte Geheimnis (2019)
- Vietnam – Tiệc trăng máu (Blood Moon Party) (2020)
- Japan – おとなの事情 スマホをのぞいたら (Adult’s Situation) (2021)
- Romania – Complet Necunoscuți (2021)
- Netherlands – Alles op tafel (2021)
- Israel – Zarim Mushlamim (זרים מושלמים) (2021)
- Czech Republic/Slovakia – Známi neznámi (2021)
- United Arab Emirates/Egypt/Lebanon – Messaggi e segreti (2022)
- Norway – Full Dekning (2022)
- Indonesia – Perfect Strangers (2022)
- Azerbaijan – Geri Dönənlər (2022)
- Iceland – Villibráð (2023)
- Denmark – Hygge! (2023)
- India – Khel Khel Mein (2024 – Official Remake)
- Finland – Tuntemattomat (In production)
Gianluca Fantoni is a historian specializing in the public use of history and on the relationship between cinema and history. He has published extensively in prestigious journals, including Contemporary European History and Modern Italy. His recent works include Italy Through the Red Lens: Italian Politics and Society in Communist Propaganda Films (1946-79) (Palgrave, 2021), and articles such as “The Revolution Will Be Televised: The Italian Communist Party, Public Television Broadcasting and the ‘Free Television’ Experiment” (2022), and “Representations of ‘Italian Populism’ in Films” (2022).
Armando Rotondi is a Full Professor and leads the MA in Creative Performance Practice at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona (validated by Liverpool John Moores University). He is a Film Studies researcher in the ‘Screening Social Changes’ project at Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania. He has worked across the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Romania, Germany, and Slovakia. Rotondi serves on the executive committee of the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance, among other roles on various editorial and scientific boards. He is author of several academic publications including: 11 authored/edited books; more than 50 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals; more than 50 papers at international conferences; 4 keynote papers.