Hollywood Musical Conventions

The Hollywood musical was long a staple of the film industry, at least from the beginning of the sound era to the early 1970s, and the form continues to reappear from time to time. It has fallen into disfavor in recent years because it is viewed as artificial and unrealistic, given that orchestras play where there are no orchestras and people break into song in lieu of dialogue when the mood strikes them. Filmmakers always accepted the conventions and made use of them, but with Bob Fosse's film version of Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972), the trend in filmmaking turned away from the conventions of the musical in the belief that audiences would no longer accept them. Cabaret presented all of its musical numbers in a naturalistic way so that they took place as they would in life--on stage, for instance, or as part of a public rally. People no longer broke into song simply to express their inner feelings or to advance the plot, and many filmmakers shied away from the musical altogether because it was viewed as an artificial form in an increasingly naturalistic cinema. The American film Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952) is a good example of how the conventions were treated through most of the history of the musical, while the British miniseries The Singing Detective (Jon Amiel, 1986) makes a different use of some of the conventions while standing as a very different sort of film.

Hodsdon (1996) points out that the conventions of the Hollywood musical were for

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t be realistic, but there was always a strong fantasy element in the musical, as there would have to be given that it is not realistic for people to sing and dance whenever and wherever the fancy strikes them. These elements can be seen in the film Singin' in the Rain, a musical comedy that deals with the beginning of the sound era in motion pictures. The acting style fits the fairy-tale quality of the movie, which does not try to be realistic in its portrayal of the period or the developments in the industry and which instead tries to create an image of Hollywood in the 1920s as part of the fairy tale of the waitress-turned-star. The fairy tale element is carried through the film in every facet, from the sets and costumes to the way the actors relate to one another and the material. The acting style is natural but somewhat exaggerated. These are not complex characters but represent types that have to be made individual enough to be real. The female movie star with the tiny voice projects one image when she is acting in silent films, such as we see in the early part of the picture, and a different image when she is seen off-screen and speaks. The sound of her voice has to be grating and comical without making her any less

Category: Film - H