Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1543164
46 C I N E M O N T A G E B O O K R E V I E W By Peter Tonguette I n the present environment, Hollywood seems to undertake remakes in a fairly frivolous manner. As long as a studio or streamer controls the intellectual proper- ty of a project, a remake can be considered — even if the film being remade is undis- tinguished, was an outright bomb, or has recently been remade or rebooted. The profusion of remakes in the present envi- ronment, however, risks obscuring the fact that numerous films have been remade with care and a clear rationale — some- times multiple times. "A Star Is Born" is something of a best- in-class example of how a strong property ANOTHER LOOK 'A STAR IS BORN' HAS PROVEN TO BE RELEVANT ACROSS GENERATIONS. A NEW BOOK EXAMINES WHY. can stand up to multiple remakes that span generations. The film can date its origins to a project that bore another title: George Cukor's 1932 film "What Price Hollywood?" starring Constance Bennett as Brown Derby waitress (and, in her own mind, future actress) Mary Evans, who makes her way to Hollywood in the company of a fast-declin- ing director, Max Carey (Lowell Sherman). Under the title "A Star Is Born," the story has been told, with adjustments and refine- ments, no fewer than four times, each with a different actress playing the equivalent of the Bennett part: in 1937 with Janet Gaynor; in 1954 with Judy Garland; in 1976 with Bar- bra Streisand; and in 2018 with Lady Gaga. That each film has its defenders — indeed, that each speaks to the particular epoch in which it was made — reflects the resiliency of the basic material. Film scholar and journalist Rober t Hofler evokes the rich history of "A Star Is Born" (and "What Price Hollywood?") in his deeply researched, jauntily written new book that drags only in its mouthful of a subtitle: "A Star is Reborn: Gaynor & Garland & Streisand & Gaga — The Most Filmed Hollywood Story of Love Found and Lost." In the introduction, Hofler describes the real-life Tinseltown couple who provid- P H OT O : P H OT O F E S T NAME YOUR PRICE: Neil Hamilton and Constance Bennett in "What Price Hollywood?"