This is a Call For Paper for an Issue of Film Journal to be published in 2027, it will focus on the relationship between Britain and Hollywood during the classical period (from the 1920's to the 1960s) including mutual aesthetic influences and economic collaborations and competition. This issue will explore these exchanges and how they have shaped both film industries and their respective aesthetic orientations, especially in regard to an allegedly dominant classical norm. 

Argument

This Issue of Film Journal aims to revisit the complex network of influence, collaboration, competition and economic dependency that bound British Cinema and Hollywood during the classical period (from the 1920s to the 1960s), highlighting how these dynamics have shaped both film industries and their respective aesthetic orientations, especially in regard to an allegedly dominant classical norm. 

The 1927 British film Shooting Stars (Anthony Asquith, A.V. Bramble) opens with the shooting of what appears to be a Western on the set of a contemporary British film studio. Although its central tragic love triangle of wife, lover and husband belongs to melodrama, Shooting Stars as a movie-about-the film industry is also a slightly take on British silent cinema and its reliance on cheap Hollywood imitations. The male lead (Brian Aherne) is an actor whose athletic performance in Western and swashbuckers recalls that of Douglas Fairbanks; his female partner and wife is reminiscent of Mary Pickford; and the lover is a comedian whose film are obviously derived from Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. The early example of Shooting Stars crystallizes the ambivalent relations of British Cinema to Hollywood, both as an artistic model and a dominant and invasive competitor. Shot around the passing of the Cinematograph Film Act of 1927, an attempt by the British Parliament to protect the British film industry from Hollywood hegemony (Street, 2009: 8-10), Shooting Stars's "mise en abyme", with its elaborate settings and cinematography, can be seen both as a celebration of the industry's newfound creativity and economic expansion, but also as an ironic commentary on Hollywood's hold on popular expectations of what films should be. 

In ther landmark study The Classical Hollywood Cinema Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960 (1985), David Bordwell, Janet Staiger and Kristin Thompson note that, by the end of the 1920s, British cinema, like most film industries across the world, appeared to offer a variation of the classical mode of filmmaking as it developed in the Hollywood study system form 1917 to the 1960s (1985: 378). Although the label "classical" has been used to describe the dominant mode of narrative cinema across the world preceding the emergence of so-called "cinemas of modernity" (such as Italian neo-realism after World War II or the various "New Waves" of the 1960s), this dominance has been often linked to Hollywood economic and cultural hegemony. Sometimes described as a "Hollywood outpost" (Gomery, 2005: 9), British cinema offers an example of such influence and ambivalence during the classical era, with many producers and studios being dependent on partnership with Hollywood majors, while at the same time trying ot assert the idea of an independent national cinema. 

A shared language and history certainly helped shape a sense of cultural proximity, facilitating exchanges between the two countries. Although Hollywood has always attracted and integrated forein talents, the formation of classical cinema could be seen in part as a product of such a "cultural comunity". The development of the classical narrative mode has been linked ot British literaty and scenic traditions such as Dickensian novels (Smith, 2003) and Victorian melodrama (Mayer, 2018). Ian Scott, in his 2010 book From Pinewood to Hollywood: British Filmmakers in American cinema, 1910 to 1969, offered a reassessment of previously neglected British contributions to classical Hollywood. Alongside famous names such as Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Laughton, Vivien Leigh or Claude Rains, Scott emphasizes the influence of British studio "Moguls" like Alexander Korda, Michael Balcon and Sam Spiegel and the roles of early pioneers J. Stuart Blackton and David Horsley in early US-American cinema and the foundation of Hollywood (2010: 12-16). In turns, US-American directors suc has a Bernard Vorhaus, Edward Dmytryk and Joseph Losey made significant contribution to British cinema. 

Hollywood's "anglophilia" also expressed itself especially in the 1930s and 40s through "British" films  (Glancy, 1999), with an important cycle of Empire films such as The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (Henry Hathaway, 1935),  The Charge of the Light Brigade (Michael Curtiz, 1936) and Gunga Din (Georges Stevens, 1939); gothic melodrams like Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) and Gaslight (George Cukor, 1944), a remake of the Brtisih film of 1940 by Thorold Dickinson; literary adaptations from nineteenth century classics like David Copperfield (George Cukor, 1935) and Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939), and of contemporary novelists such as James Hilton whose popular works served as the basis of many films during that period from Lost Horizons (Frank Capra, 1937) to Random Harvest (Mervyn LeRoy, 1942) and Goodbye Mr Chips (Sam Wood, 1939). Hilton also served as a screenwriter of film such as the wartime melodrama Mrs Miniver (William Wyler, 1942) on the life and resilience of a British Housewife during World War II.

British cinema during the classical periode share with Hollywood an emphasis on genre films, with categories such as the "woman's film", "family melodrama" and "film noir" as staples of both industries and sites of tensions revealing bridges and gaps between them. While Hollywood had its own cycle of Empire films, this particular genre has also often been considered as a British equivalent of the American Western (Landy, 1991: 97; Chapman, Cull, 2009:7), highlighting the importance of imperial narratives and ideology within classical cinema. Alongside these interactions, critical discourse in Britain, especially after World War II has often emphasized "realism" as a distinctly British quality against the escapism associated with Hollywood genres (Ellis, 1996). Although they mostly followed the classical pattern of a pathologically motivated, goal-oriented narrative with four to five act structure, films such as The Demi-Paradise (Anthony Asquith, 1943), The Way Ahead (Carol Reed, 1944), Brief Encounter (David Lean, 1945) and Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947), were applauded for their restraint and documentary authenticity against those that followed the "Hollywood path of lavishness and extravagance" (Ellis, 1996: 71) like Rank's '"prestige films" such as Caesar and Cleopatra (Gabriel Pascal, 1945), or the Gainsborough costume melodrama like The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943) or The Wicked Lady (Leslie Arliss, 1945) and the self-consciously artificial worlds of Powell and Pressburger. 

While these oppositions, including the ideas of a dominant realist norm against anti-realist margins have long been challenged (Murphy, 1992), revisiting the notion of realism may help us explore the possibility and the aesthetic specifities of a British "classicism", as well as reflect on Hollywood's own versions of realism. Finally, the perceived stylistic and narrative excess of productions such as the Gainsborough melodrams and Powell and Pressburger's films rather than an imitation of Hollywood "lavishness and extravagance", may be viewed as challenging the idea of a dominant classicism usually characterized by harmony, transparency and balance. 

This issue of film Journal thus welcomes articles on the relationship between British and Hollywood cinemas during the classical period. Possible topics include but are not restricted to: 

• The works and careers of actors, directors, producers, writers and technicians who worked in both industries. 
• The structures of the British film industry and its relations to Hollywood major. 
• Transnational productions between Great Britain and Hollywood during the classical era. 
• The influence of British literary and theatrical traditions on the elaborations of classical Hollywood narrative from Victorian novels and melodramas to the the British Music Hall tradition.
• The Hollywood "British" Films of the 1930s and 1940s including Empire films, literary adaptations, gothicc melodramas and wartime propaganda.
• Comparison between important genred in both Hollywood and British cinemas such as the Empire films and the Western, meldorama and the woman's film, film noir or the social problem film. 
• Realism, romanticism, gothic and escapism, British contributions and challengnes to the classical norm.

Submission guidelines

Please send your proposals for articles (about 500 words) along with a brief bibliographical note, by September 1, 2026 to Hadrien Fontanaud hadrien.fontanaud@umpv.fr. The results of the selection process will be communicated by mid-September.

Full papers to be submitted by November 30, 2026. 

Guest Editor

Hadrien Fontanaud, Doctor in film studies from the University of Montpellier Paul Valéry (France), Associate researcher at the RIRRA21 (University of Montpellier Paul Valéry).

Email: hadrien.fontanaud@umpv.fr

Evaluation procedure of Film Journal 

• The guest editors collect the articles and assess their suitability.
• The guest editors send the selected articles to the editorial committee, which appoints the reviewers, contacts them and collects their reports.
• The reports are then forwarded to the guest editors, who in turn forward them to the authors.
• Based on the reports’ recommendations, authors are invited to revise their article before sending a revised version.
• The new version is then evaluated by the guest editors to ensure that it meets the recommendations of the reports.
• Authors are invited to proofread their article before it has been put online.
• After review by the guest editors and the editor-in-chief, the associate editor puts the article online.

Co-Editors in chief of Film Journal

• Nicole Cloarec (University of Rennes, France)
• Cristelle Maury (University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, France)

Associate Editor

• Patrick Adamson (University of St Andrews, UK)

Bibliography

Barefoot, Guy. Gaslight Melodrama: From Victorian London to 1940's Hollywood. London, New York: Continuum, 2001.

Bergfelder, Tim; Cargnelli, Christian, (ed.). Destination London, German-Speaking Emigrés and British Cinema, 1925-1950. New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2008. 

Berthomieu, Pierre. Hollywood Classique, Le Temps des Géants. Pertuis: Rouge Profond, 2010.

Bordwell, David; Staiger, Janet; Thompson, Kristin. The Classical Hollywood Cinema, Film Style and Mode of Production to 1960, London, New York: Routledge, 1985. 

Bourger, Jean-Loup. Sir Alfred Hitchcock, cinéaste anglais. Paris: Classique Garnier, 2021. 

Bourget, Jean-Loup; Nacache, Jacqueline. (dir). Le classicisme hollywoodien. Rennes: Presse Universitaire de Rennes, 2009. 

Chapman, James; Cull, Nicholas J. Projecting Empire: Imperialism and Popular Cinema. Londres: IB Tauris, 2009. 

Cook, Pam. Gainsborough Pictures. Londres, New York: Continuum, 1997. 

Cowie, Elizabeth. "Storytelling, Classical Hollywood cinema and classical narrative" in Neale Steve, Smith Murray, (ed.). Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. London, New York: Routledge, 1998. 178-190. 

Ellis, John. "The Quality Film Adventure: British Critics and the Cinema, 1942-8" in Higson, Andrew, (ed.). Dissolving Views. Londres: Bloomsbury, 1996. 66-93. 

Gomery, Douglas. The Hollywood Studio System: A History. London: BFI Publishing, 2005. 

Glancy, H. Mark. When Hollywood Loved Britain, The Hollywood "British Film", 1939-45. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999. 

Gledhill, Christine (ed.). Home is Where the Heart Is, Studies in Melodrama and the Woman's Film. Londres: BFI Publishing, 1987. 

Hill, John (ed.). A Companion to British and Irish Cinema. Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2019. 

Landy, Marcia. British Genres, Cinema and Society 1930-1960. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Lapointe, Julien. "Hollywood Cinema and Baroque Companionship: An Analytic Critique of David Bordwell's 'Classical Paradigm'", Film Journal [Online], 3, 2016, Online since 01 July 2016, connection on 27 April 2026. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/filmj/1488

Macnab, Geoffrey. J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry. Londron, New York: Routledge, 1993. 

Mayer David. "Melodrama in Early Film". in Williams Carolyn. The Cambridge Companion to English Melodrama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018: 224-244.

Mayer, Hervé; Roche, David, (ed.). Transnationalism and Imperialism, Endurance of the Global Western Film. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2022. 

Murphy, Robert. Realiism and Tinsel, Cinema and Society in Britain, 1939-49. London, New York: Routledge, 1989.

Murphy, Robert. "British Film Noir", in Spicer, Andrew, (ed.). European Noir. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007. 84-111. 

Murphy, Robert, (ed.).  The British Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute-Palgrave Macmillan, 1997, 2009.

Richards, Jeffrey. The Age of the Dream Palace. Cinema and Society in Britain 1930-1939. Londres: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. 

Scott, Ian. From Pinewood to Hollywood, British Filmmaker in American Cinema, 1910-1969. Basingstoke, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 

Smith Grahame. Dickens and the Dream of Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003. 

Street, Sarah. British National Cinema. London, New York: Routledge, 1997, 2009. 

Stubbs, Jonathan. Hollywood and the Invention of England: Projecting the English Past in American Cinema, 1930-2017. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.