100 Film Musicals

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From the coming of sound to the 1960s, the musical was central to Hollywood production. Exhibiting often in spectacular fashion the remarkable resources of the Hollywood studios, musicals came to epitomise the very idea of 'light entertainment'. Films like Top Hat and 42nd Street, Meet Me in St. Louis and On the Town, Singin' in the Rain and Oklahoma!, West Side Story and The Sound of Music were hugely popular, yet were commonly regarded by cultural commentators as trivial and escapist. It was the 1970s before serious study of the Hollywood musical began to change critical attitudes and foster an interest in musical films produced in other cultures. Hollywood musicals have become less common, but the genre persists and both academic interest in and fond nostalgia for the musical shows no signs of abating.

100 Film Musicals provides a stimulating overview of the genre's development, its major themes and the critical debates it has provoked. While centred on the dominant Hollywood tradition, 100 Film Musicals includes films from countries that often tried to emulate the Hollywood style, like Britain and Germany, as well as from very different cultures like India, Egypt and Japan. Jim Hillier and Douglas Pye also discuss post-1960s films from many different sources which adapt and reflect on the conventions of the genre, including recent examples such as Moulin Rouge! and High School Musical, demonstrating that the genre is still very much alive.

Reviews

Eloquently written and enjoyable to read, Jim Hillier and Douglas Pyes 100 Film Musicals is an accessible, well-illustrated and practical text for the general reader ... [it] deserves a place on any musical enthusiasts book shelf. * Quarterly Review of Film and Video *

Author Bio

JIM HILLIER and DOUGLAS PYE are Visiting Fellows in the Department of Film, Theatre and Television at the University of Reading. Jim Hillier's recent publications include 100 Film Noirs (2009, with Alastair Phillips) and American Independent Cinema (2001). Douglas Pye's recent publications include Style and Meaning (2005, with John Gibbs) and The Movie Book of the Western (1996, with Ian Cameron).