Disturbia/Paranoiak

Paranoid with some weird spelling.

I started writing a post about an article I read on the BBC website.

The post title was: Rear Window v Disturbia - Disturbia Wins???

And it read: “A US judge has dismissed a claim that Shia LaBeouf's thriller Disturbia stole the plot of short story Rear Window. Read more here.

Despite my non-attraction to Shia as discussed here, I quite liked it.

I thought of the plot similarities between both films and had assumed that it was some sort of homage - well maybe it is.

I also have discussed the oddity of similar plots for films coming out at the same time here, and I should add to this list the Korean Ditto and the American Frequency, but I am not too sure about films with that much difference between them. Surely, if the plots are so similar, someone had to cheat?

According to the wiki page, even Roger Ebert (who should lay off the fatty foods)  has refered to the resemblance!

What made me laugh was this:

"The main plots are similar only at a high, unprotectible level of generality," judge Laura Taylor Swan wrote in her ruling dismissing the complaint.

"Where Disturbia is rife with sub-plots, the short story has none.

"The setting and mood of the short story are static and tense, whereas the setting and mood of Disturbia are more dynamic and peppered with humour and teen romance," she added.

Whatever!”

I noted later that the Guardian also covered this, and someone commented that “The court ruling is a nice surprise. Nice because I never like to see these type of lawsuits, they're very unnecessary. Also, they never seem to be sucessful. Further examples can be seen with the Dan Brown Da Vinci Code, the Chilli Peppers beef with the tv show Californication, etc. It's also a surprise because it is so clearly the same plot."And someone else "Disturbia was even marketed in the States as a "modern day Rear Window." So I just don't get how the judge could rule against this suit? "

A bit before I was going to proof the post and potentially publish, I decided to be conscientious and all, so I checked the French title for the film - and discovered that it was yet another of these "translations" that make me angry.

I first thought of Disturbia as a clever play on words and a reference to dystopia or utopia, where the main characters are disturbed by something going on.

In another word, it's a state. A bit like paranoia.

Ah, see what I did here? The French title being Paranoiak, there was only 1 step, or 3, between Disturbia and Paranoia. 

But why not call it paranoia which is a perfectly acceptable word and make it a spelling howler and be about the main character of the film and not the state of mind he's in?

God knows.

I would have called the film Dérangie, but that's just me...

Not the same stuff????????????? Really???????????????You are kidding me, right?