Transition and Transformation: Victor Sjöström in Hollywood 1923-1930 (Amsterdam University Press - Film Culture in Transition) - Softcover

Florin, Bo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9089645047 ISBN 13: 9789089645043

Publisher: Amsterdam University Press, 2013

Synopsis

In 1923, the film director Victor Seastrom (né Sjöström), then Sweden’s most renowned filmmaker, was recruited to Hollywood by Goldwyn Pictures, where he made eight silent pictures and one talkie in seven years, among them a 1926 version of The Scarlet Letter. What elements of Swedish cinema did he bring with him to the States, and how were these techniques transformed by Hollywood? This is the first book-length study dedicated to the films of Sjöström (1879–1960) and how he functioned in the studio system of 1920s Hollywood.  Bo Florin explores the ways the director applied his austere and naturalistic film style in a radically different context and discusses how his films were received in Hollywood.  

About this title

About the Author

Bo Florin is associate professor of cinema studies at Stockholm University. 

Review

"Victor Sjöström is unquestionably one of the filmmaking giants of the silent era, though most modern film scholars and fans know his work through only a small handful of classics. A systematic study of his Hollywood period is most welcome. Apart from knowing his subject thoroughly, Bo Florin combines traditional auteurism with more sophisticated historiographical methods to provide an impressive analysis."  (Kristin Thompson University of Wisconsin-Madison)

"In this compact study of Sjostrom's Hollywood career, Bo Florin fleshes out this story through a close examination of the surviving films--some newly discovered--and revealing internal documents pulled from long-neglected studio files."

  (Richard Koszarski Rutgers University)

About this edition

• Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 9089645047
• ISBN 13: 9789089645043
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 164