A few years ago, I watched Perfect Strangers 2017 (Perfectos desconocidos), a Spanish movie by Alex de la Iglesia, one of my favorite directors. Little I knew at the time that the film I liked was actually based on another one, released in 2016, and written by a bunch of Italians including Paolo Genovese, who also directed. So, the original was named Perfetti sconosciuti, and it is the movie with the most foreign replicas ever. I’m watching the original as I’m writing about it, right now. It is the fifth version I’m looking at, but there are a lot more around, and even some more to be released before 2022. I have watched first the Spanish, second the Korean (Intimate Strangers, 2018), after that the German (Das perfekte Geheimnis, 2019), then the French (Le Jeu 2018), and only right now, the Italian, the “framework”. I’m glad I inadvertently watched them in this order, because now I know which is the best, and I’ll explain why, below.
From left: Belén Rueda, Eduardo Noriega, Juana Acosta, Ernesto Alterio, Eduard Fernández, Dafne Fernández, and Pepón Nieto
[source of both pics: imdb]
General Plot
The story is made around four longtime friends, in their forties, who knew each other since their third grade. Three are married, one of them quite recently with a young veterinarian, the fourth is divorced, but apparently in a new relationship. The wealthiest couple, a pair of doctors, hosts a dinner at their luxurious apartment in the country’s capital center. Their daughter of 16 wants to go out the same evening. The first couple arrives and starts to gossip about the others, then the newlyweds arrive and all are curious about the fourth who apparently met someone else. Through their disappointment, the fourth, the plumpest of them, came solo. They all drank wine and became comfortable around the table. The male host, a plastic surgeon, cooked the dinner, a surprise.
In all five versions, when the chat slips around secrets, and the importance of mobile telephone (“the little black box”) in their lives, one of the ladies, proposes a game. All of them had to put their phones on the table and answer all calls on speaker, and read the received texts aloud, without exception. No secrets during dinner, since they all are so “intimate” friends and have nothing to hide. Outside, during a full moon, there will be a total eclipse which plays part in the game. Shortly, that’s the essence.
Favorite Perfect Strangers
Except for the German, all versions respect more or less the Italian screenplay. The Germans are aesthetic, with the solo guest (a teacher) quite appealing. The outcome is different, which makes this version my second favorite.
The Italian, Korean, and French versions, keep a sort of a standard. The actors are boring, and the males over fifty. The host ladies, Kasia Smutniak (in the Italian) and Bérénice Bejo (in the French) are too weak for their roles of bitchy mothers of teens.
All versions are improvements of the original Italian one, except the Korean, perhaps. They used a cute actress for the youngest, the veterinarian, but she’s extremely annoying. The Italian freshly wed is not only annoying, but she’s also ugly and weak. Not that the male partner is different, he at least looks forty-ish.
This makes Alex de la Iglesia’s Perfectos desconocidos the best of all versions: beautifully acted, wonderful actors, funny, the best put-together screenplay, with a nice switch in the final, with imperceptible gliding from the original. Instead of the moon eclipse, a blood-red moon happens, which gives the movie a horror-ish nuance.
Spanish Cast
Belén Rueda is Eva, the host, a psychiatrist. Eduard Fernández is Alfonso, the male host, a plastic surgeon. Ernesto Alterio is Antonio, a lawyer. Juana Acosta is Ana, Antonio’s wife. They have little kids and live together with Antonio’s mother. Eduardo Noriega is Eduardo, a taxi driver, the best looking of them. Dafne Fernández is Blanca, the young veterinarian, the funniest of them. Pepón Nieto is Pepe, a teacher, a little overweight, and unemployed. Beatriz Olivares is Sofía, the 16 year old hosts’ daughter.
Trivia, No Trailer
I found an 11 minutes trailer with five or six versions, but very revealing, which is no fun. The end of the movie is a surprise, what happens during “the game” is a surprise, even if sometimes is predictable. I like surprises in the movies, in the books.
Perfect Strangers – The German team, from left: Frederick Lau, Jella Haase, Florian David Fitz, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Jessica Schwarz, Elyas M’Barek, Karoline Herfurth
It seems the first to remake Perfect Strangers are the Greeks, in 2016. Then came the Spaniards, in 2017. Turks (Cebimdeki Yabancı – Stranger in My Pocket) made a version in 2018, followed by the French, and then the Indians, with an unofficial release, which by looking at the trailer, seems just loosely based on the original. Doesn’t look very funny. South Koreans, Hungarians, and Mexicans follow with close remakes. The Chinese version’s trailer looks very interesting, I wish to watch the movie asap. There are also Russian and Polish versions, released in 2019, like the German. I don’t know how many more are in post-production, but it’s insane. Only my two favorites are close to a nine out of ten, the others I watched are a maximum of 6. I’m curious about the Chinese, as I said.
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Did you happen to see the Mexican version, starring Mariana Treviño? It appears to be a copy of the Spanish version.
I haven’t, but it’s a legal ‘copy’; it’s a franchise of which the Italian version is the original. Paolo Genovese is credited in all the other versions, over ten at least. Of course, local elements are included in everyone of them, the food, the fashion, etc…
I have seen only one version of Perfect Strangers and enjoyed it very much. But once I found out about all the other versions of this story in German, Russian, Korean etc etc, I would have liked to have made some comparison. Did you find the national stories largely identical ? Did you prefer some more than the others? Once you have seen one film, do the subsequent films become a bit redundant?
Thank you for the link
Hels
Art and Architecture, mainly
The article is self explanatory, Hels, it answers all your three “questions”.