Transition and Transformation

Victor Sjöström in Hollywood 1923-1930

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by Bo Florin

Type

Studies

Subject

Director > Victor Sjöström

Keywords

Victor Sjöström, immigrant directors, 1920s

Publishing date

2012

Publisher

Amsterdam University Press

Collection

Film Culture in Transition

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 164 pages
6 x 9 inches (15 x 23 cm)

ISBN

978-90-8964-504-3

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Book Presentation:
In 1923, Victor Sjöström (1879-1960) got an offer from Goldwyn Pictures to come to Hollywood. This was nothing unusual for a successful European director: “Metro’s bring - ing them in by car load”, as Photoplay stated in 1926. At the time, Sjöström was Sweden’s most renowned director, who had become world famous for his austere and naturalistic film style. Sjöström stayed in Hollywood for seven years and made nine films. What happened during those years to the characteristic style that he had developed in Sweden? How was it transformed by Hollywood? Did he maintain any of his stylistic particularities from the Swedish period? How were his Hollywood films received by the American and Swedish critics? This portrayal of a European in Hollywood reveals how Sjöström, in adapting to the new production system, integrated and developed various stylistic elements from the Swedish years in a radically different context. Transition and Transformation is the first book-length study dedicated to the films of Victor Sjöström made in Hollywood, which also nuances the picture of the American production system.

About the Author:
Bo Florin is Professor of Cinema Studies at the Department for Media Studies, Stockholm University, Sweden.

Press Reviews:
"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

See the publisher website: Amsterdam University Press

See the complete filmography of Victor Sjöström on the website: IMDB ...