Film Studios in Britain, France, Germany and Italy

Sarah Street is Professor of Film at the University of Bristol, UK. Her publications include Colour Films in Britain: The Negotiation of Innovation 1900-1955 (2012) and Deborah Kerr (2018). She was the Principal Investigator on the ERC Advanced Grant STUDIOTEC (2019-25), collaborating with this book’s co-authors.Tim Bergfelder is Professor of Film at the University of Southampton, UK. His publications include Stars and Stardom in Brazilian Cinema (2018) and The German Cinema Book (2020).Richard Farmer is Lecturer in Film and Media at University College London, UK. His publications include The Food Companions: Cinema and Consumption in Wartime Britain, 1939-45 (2011) and Cinema and Cinema-going in Wartime Britain, 1939-45: The Utility Dream Palace (2016).Eleanor Halsall is a Visiting Academic at the University of Southampton, UK. She has previously contributed to The German Cinema Book (2020) and Die Kamera im Fokus (2024).Sue Harris is Professor Emerita of Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, UK. Her publications include Bertrand Blier (2001) and An American in Paris (2015).Morgan Lefeuvre is an independent film historian and lectures at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Her publications include Les Manufactures de nos rêves, les studios de cinéma français dans les années 1930 (2021). She recently undertook a research project on Marcel Pagnol.Carla Mereu Keating is Honorary Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, UK. She is the author of The Politics of Dubbing (2016).Catherine O'Rawe is Professor of Italian Film and Culture at the University of Bristol, UK. Her publications include Stars and Masculinities in Italian Cinema (2014) and The Non-Professional Actor: Italian Neorealist Cinema and Beyond (2024).

This innovative and multi-prismatic volume offers an ambitious reordering of how we might understand European film history during the classical era. Instead of merely seeing the film studio as a series of static compartments facilitating the stable rectangle of the screen image, the authors animate a dynamic and transnational site of collaboration, social experience and political possibility. Just as the contours of the fictional film frame mobilise the conjunction of time and space for narrative ends, so this book too understands the scaled temporal-spatial potential of the film studio as a site of ongoing cultural meaning. Blending archival documentation, poly-vocal argumentation and conceptual acumen, this impressively researched work is going to reset the study of European cinema for a generation.

• IntroductionPart 1: Historical overview of studio developments in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, 1930-601. Britain (Richard Farmer and Sarah Street)2. France (Sue Harris and Morgan Lefeuvre)3. Germany (Tim Bergfelder and Eleanor Halsall)4. Italy (Carla Mereu Keating and Catherine O’Rawe)Part 2: Thematic explorations5. Geographical locations, physical environments and infrastructures6. Film Studio Architecture and Design7. Negotiating New Technologies in Film Studios8. Transnational Collaborations and Film Studios9. The Impact of politics and key events on Film Studios10. Labour in the Film Studios11. Time and Leisure in the Studios12. Film Studios captured on FilmConclusionTables and Appendices: Key datasets.