ABSTRACT
If, as the cliché would have it, ‘travel broadens the mind’, there may be things to be learned about British cinema, particularly popular British cinema, from its travels across the Atlantic. In what follows, I map the journey of British films on several levels – personal, pedagogical and scholarly. My essay is not a conventional treatment of a subject that has, over the last decade, begun to engage scholars and film critics. My emphasis is largely anecdotal, singular and impressionistic. Two questions in particular underpin the expedition. First, is there a British national cinema and, if so, in what ways is it recognized abroad? And second, how might such a transatlantic journey alter conceptions about past and present British cinema?
