https://docs.google.com/document/d/19BvTPqHrxFDmjBJ5Zdlab0YMaCi4yGB1BStPrDHfRbs/edit
Any film created is produced under a genre that distinguishes itself from other films based on certain components that define itself into a category. According to Film: A Critical Introduction by Maria Pramaggiore and Tom Wallis, a genre “refers to a group of films that share a set of narrative, stylistic, and thematic characteristics or conventions” (382). Though not all movies of a specific genre will inherit every characteristic of their particular class, it is important to remember that each director has the artistic freedom to stray from the norms. Overall, with the development of technology in the past two centuries, musicals have moved to the Hollywood film industry to demonstrate the changes in theme in correlation with their socio-political context. The evolution of the musical genre can be seen in the 1965 American musical film The Sound of Music and the 2012 rendition of Les Misérables. Though the narratives in both films are similar in the sense that they surround a post or pre-war time period, their styles are different due to the fact that they were produced in different time periods and the socio-political tensions the film is focused on. The Sound of Music recalls a true story of an Austrian family just before World War II, and Les Misérables follows the French Revolution and begins just before the Paris Uprising of 1832.
Both films open with an establishing shot, distinct from one another, that sets the themes and the tone for the rest of its plot. In The Sound of Music, Maria, opens with “The Sound of Music” in the iconic scene where she sings and twirls on a hill. The scene is filled with vibrant colors, much like the protagonist’s personality, and complements the song. Evidently, the rest of the film has this motif of displaying landscape and hopefulness in song despite the oncoming political tensions. The ambiance of Austria being so vast and green is juxtaposed with the underlying tensions of the Anschluss, a challenge that is not present until halfway through the film. In addition to the setting, the use of steady and panned shots express a sense of ease as the plot unfolds. On the other hand, Les Misérables introduces a sense of misery with the use of dull lighting where prisoners endure hard labor, accompanied by a melancholy, staccato-like song that is like a chant or a cadence. In the rest of this film, much of its plot is shot with shaky camera movements and close-ups, especially when the characters are singing. Unlike the vibrant colors of The Sound of Music, this film immerses the audience in darkness which can be attributed to the fact that the time period after the French Revolution was an era of difficulty. As the plot follows two characters with no absolute direction of their lives, the film captures the pain, anger, or grief the characters feel and impose it on the audience to feel as well.
Despite the obvious differences in film execution, the two films share the most important aspect of the musical genre: the music. Both films are considered integrated musicals, for the implementation of each song contributes to the narrative plot (399). What is special about the two films is that each musical number is shot with live-singing; this idea is more-so surprising with the 2012 Les Misérables film because of its modernized technology of “dubbing.” Director Tom Hooper specifically conducted the film this way to further express the character’s distressed emotion. In The Guardian article that interviews Hooper, it says that “Live singing is what makes the film” (Kellaway). In particular, in “I Dreamed a Dream,” sung by Anne Hathaway, Kellaway says that “her face becomes the song.” The entire scene of that number was shot with a close-up of Hathaway’s face to capture every moment of emotion that her character Fantine may have felt in the storyline. In Les Misérables, each song is like a battle, expressing a man versus man conflict, a man versus self conflict, or a man versus society conflict. Majority of the film is expressed through music and singing, that there is not a moment that feels triumphant until the turning point of the film in “One Day More” and “Do You Hear the People Sing?”. In contrast, songs like “Do Re Mi” and “My Favorite Things” in The Sound of Music help the character development of the Von Trapp children in which Maria introduces, again, a hopefulness in song and challenges the children to go beyond their father’s set limits. The use of music in this film helps to separate moments of seriousness of political tensions from moments where song serves as a relief from present issues. There is not one song that expresses grief or pain in this movie; this is to show the power of Maria’s strength in faith of optimism and power of love through adversity.
The motives for the production of these two musical films convey two powerful messages through the use of narrative and music in genre. Each film has an “access to a culture’s approach to complex social issues” says Film: A Critical Introduction. In other words, the film is an attempt to digest social issues in response to what the society needs: Consequently, genres evolve by making adjustments to convention and altering characteristics that apply to the demands of the people. The success of Maria Von Tapp and the Von Trapp singers inspired the making of The Sound of Music (The Sound of Music). In 1965, though World War II was over, this time period was set during the Cold War where society was living in the repercussions of the war. With themes of love and family, the film provides a sense of hope while society is recovering. Director Tom Hooper says that Les Misérables is “the great anthem of the dispossessed, the cry from the heart of those who suffer…Through collective action we can do something…Start by loving the person next to you” (Kellaway). Hooper saw the potential for revolution, especially in the Middle East in 2012, and a rising economic and social inequality that Les Misérables revive its ever-present inspiration in the literary and modern world. Jane Fuerer of University of Illinois says that “Hollywood musical is the most reflexive of all film genres...it also offers an apology for entertainment in the form of the shows within the films and the sagas of their coming into being” (Fuerer). Until the post-war period, the change in themes include the more frequent implementation of death. Though that is not the case with The Sound of Music, Les Miserables deals heavily on loss and death. This was due to the change in nature in which the world had just experienced a period of grief and war that a much darker theme of death and pain in musicals resonated with the audience. In the end, musicals celebrate the human condition and life, which surrounds love and death (Greenspan). Contrasting two different films of similar themes, portrayed entirely different, shows the socio-political context of its time and demonstrates the development of musicals in the film industry. (1185 - exact word count)
Works Cited
“The Beginning.” The Sound of Music Salzburg, 22 Oct. 2018, www.sound-of-music.com/ sound-of-music/the-beginning/.
Kellaway, Kate. “Tom Hooper: 'At 12, I Swore I'd Have My Own Film in the Cinema'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 29 Dec. 2012, www.theguardian.com/film/2012/ dec/29/tom-hooper-les-miserables-interview.
Pramaggiore, Maria, and Tom Wallis. Film: a Critical Introduction. Third ed., Pearson Allyn and Bacon, 2011.
Greenspan, Charlotte. “Death Comes to the Broadway Musical.” Daedalus, vol. 141, no. 1, 2012, pp. 154–159., www.jstor.org/stable/23240310.
Feuer, Jane. “College Course Film: THE HOLLYWOOD MUSICAL.” Journal of the University Film and Video Association, vol. 35, no. 4, 1983, pp. 70–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20686970.
DanceOn, director. Les Miserables - Official Movie Trailer 2012 (HD). YouTube, YouTube, 1 June 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuEFm84s4oI.
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