In the late 1970s, when Hollywood was in the middle of its most seismic transformation since the collapse of the studio system (namely, the creation of blockbuster fundamentalism), there was a much-talked-about trend that seemed to fit all too snugly into the new world order. That was the arrival of hotshot British movie directors who had honed their craft in the rarefied world of English TV commercials (which, we were always told, were works of supreme techno-visual virtuosity compared to their American counterparts).