Product Description

Transatlantic Crossings is the first major study of the distribution and exhibition of British films in the USA. Charting the cross-cultural reception of many British films, Sarah Street draws on a wide range of sources including studio records, film posters, press books and statistics. While the relative strength of Hollywood made it difficult for films that crossed the Atlantic, StreetÆs research demonstrates that some strategies were more successful than others. She considers which British films made an impact and analyzes conditions that facilitated a positive reception from critics, censors, exhibitors and audiences.Case studies include Nell Gwyn (1926), The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), The Ghost Goes West (1935), Henry V (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), Ealing comedies, The Horror of Dracula (1958), Tom Jones (1963), A Hard DayÆs Night (1964), Goldfinger (1964), The Remains of the Day (1993), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Trainspotting (1996).Against a background of the economic history of the British and Hollywood film industries, Transatlantic Crossings considers the many fascinating questions surrounding the history of British films in the USA, their relevance to wider issues of Anglo-American relations and to notions of "Britishness" on screen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1954501 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-27
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .81" h x 6.24" w x 8.98" l, 1.12 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"[Street negotiates her way through the complexities of financial deals, censorship, publicity, reviews, and box office figures extremely well...The book is groundbreaking and nearly comprehensive...Highly recommended. All collections."
--Choice, March 2003

About the Author
Sarah Street is Reader in Screen Studies at the University of Bristol. Her publications include Cinema and State: the Film Industry and the British Government 1927-84 (with Margaret Dickinson); as sole author British National Cinema (1997) and British Cinema in Documents (2000). She has also co-edited Moving Performance: British Stage and Screen, 1890s-1920s (2000, with Linda Fitzsimmons) and European Cinema: an Introduction (2000, with Jill Forbes). She is an editor of the Journal of British Cinema and of Screen.