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A European in Hollywood – Name the Man and the Shift of Production Systems 41
the shift between two production cultures. This shift, also evoked in the title of
the chapter, takes on a double significance, as it of course refers to Sjöström’s
own shift from one production system to another – but also to a historical shift
between two systems, which, however, seems to have taken place gradually
and with considerable overlappings.
The differences between the European versus the American system of production
may thus be traced in general through the different production practices,
as well as through the different perspectives on production revealed
among other things by the recycling of plots in Hollywood, but also through
the different degrees of acclimatization of European directors, or through the
various stereotypes, expressed not least in the press, about European and US
cinema.
These conclusions, in turn, point in two directions. From an American perspective,
Hollywood – as Kristin Thompson puts it –“could simply imitate this
[the Pan-European] style itself and sometimes do a better job of it”, in other
words: through the directors imported from Europe, Hollywood turned international
and sometimes more European than the Europeans themselves. 43 From
a European point of view, however, it is also clear that this internationalization
to an important extent qualifies the Hollywood monolith.