Transition and Transformation
Victor Sjöström in Hollywood 1923-1930
Distributed for Amsterdam University Press
164 pages
|
30 halftones
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6 x 9
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.
Kristin Thompson | University of Wisconsin-Madison
"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."
Richard Koszarski | Rutgers University
"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."
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