Gosford Park (2001)
The Accusation: Robert Altman's drama about shenanigans between aristocracy and servants during a weekend away in a country home drew plenty of plaudits, including a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Julian Fellowes, but isn't it basically an unacknowledged remake of Jean Renoir's classic La Regle Du Jeu ?
The Spark Of Originality: Where Renoir's film ends in a tragic accident, Altman and Fellowes p🎐lace a murder at the centre in order to create a satirical whodunnit.
Star Wars (1977)
The Accusation: George Lucas didn't hide the fact he was stealing from WWII dogfight movies, Westerns, sci-fi serials and even Nazi propaganda pic The Triumph Of The Will . Even so, anybody who sees Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (about two peasants - the models for C-3PO and R2-D2 - who help to rescue a princess) will be struck by the parallels. Even the word Jedi is derived from🅷 the samurai genre, known to the Japanese as j༒idai-geki.
Toy Story (1995)
The Accusation: Toys that can come alive? The boss toy fearing the arrival of a rival? The incoming space toy deluded into believing that they're a real person? Isn't that the plot of the Jim Henson-produced TV special The Christmas Toy ?
The Spark Of Originality: The existential trauma of obsolescence, so moving it defined Toy Story 's equally brilliant sequels.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
The Accusation: Strip away the disco gear, and doesn't John Badham's story of a Catholic kid in New York who yearns from escape from his trouble-causing pals look an awful lot like Scorsese's Mean Streets ?
The Spark Of Originality: Mean Streets has ꦫone of cinema's greatest rock and roll soundtracks, but it doesn't define an era in quite the same way as the Bee Gees do here.
