O'connell 1 Phoebe O'connell Gender and Sexuality Through
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O’Connell 1 Phoebe O’Connell Gender and Sexuality Through Music Maria Sonevytsky May 16, 18 The Breaking of Parallels Through Movie Musical Dream Sequences The American Movie Musical successfully ties the magic of dance, music, and film into one production. From extravagant dance sequences to colorful sets and costumes, movie musicals had the power to draw Americans to the movies to indulge in a couple hours of glamorous story telling. The compelling but lighthearted stories would allow one to believe that movie musicals lack the depth of other styles of film that were coming to the surface during the same period. The shiny exterior of movie musicals might encourage these assumptions to be made, but through the power of music and dance, a deeper section within the film can be analyzed allowing for more complex plots and realizations to be made by the characters. Unpacking the values that are depicted both overtly and covertly in most movie musicals show the heteronormative relationships of the characters to one another. Gender roles are made evident through all interactions between the male and female leads. Costumes, dialogue, and relationships between characters reinforce heteronormativity. All movie genres that shared the same golden era as movie musicals cannot be excused from the same criticisms. Gender stereotypes and expectations that are still shown in films today were unquestioned when shown in films from this time era. O’Connell 2 Although movie musicals adhere to gender norms, movie musical dream sequences create a space that can be occupied by the viewer no matter their gender or sexuality. The dazzling first impression that serves as the first impression of the film, would allow the audience to make the assumption that storylines of movie musicals are generally more surface level. The premise of almost all movie musicals comes down to a love story that is told through song and dance. There are moments and sequences within movie musicals that allow for the exploration of deeper and more complex emotions that challenge the main characters as well as the rest of the structure of the film. During movie musical dream sequences, the main characters are often depicted through the body of another dancer. Another person replaces the body of the main character. This opens up the space to be occupied by anyone. Because the main character becomes someone else, the audience can occupy the body of the stand in. The parallel structures that have been established throughout the entirety of the film are broken as a result of the replacement of either one or both of the main characters. This exchange allows for all audience members, no matter the gender and sexuality that they identify with, to have the opportunity to occupy the body of the main characters. “The Broadway Melody was described in MGM publicity as an ‘all talking, all singing, all dancing dramatic sensation’ (my emphasis), while Warner Bros. characterized The Desert Song as an ‘all talking, all singing, operetta’ (my emphasis).” (Altman, 31). Broadway made its name starting in the early 1900’s in New York City. The stage is where the majority of shows that have been readapted for the screen began. Movie musicals started in the late 20s with smaller production films that do not reflect O’Connell 3 what most would associate with movie musicals today. It was the birth of sound in pictures that allowed for the take-off of the movie musical. “Commentators on the early history of the musical have generally assumed that the genre is a direct import from Broadway, predetermined by new sound film technology. The circumstantial evidence certainly points in that direction: not only are Broadway songs and plots reused, but even when Hollywood produces its own original musicals it simply borrows Broadway personnel to get them off the ground. This debt is clearly reflected in the Broadway orientation of early musical titles (The Broadway Melody. Broadway, Broadway Babies, Broadway Scandals, Gold Diggers of Broadway, Broadway Bad, Broadway Thru a Keyhole, Broadway to Hollywood).” The next decade for movie musicals opened the floodgates for studios looking to compete with each other to cater to the demand from the public for musicals. “Studios competed to outdo one another with over the top spectacles, churning out a glut of formulaic musical revues. However, cash-strapped audiences suffering through the Great Depression quickly tired of such repetition and demanded more.”(Fieisher, “A Brief History Of Musicals On Film”) The lack of new content led to an innovative style that emphasized the dance aspect of the film. Busby Berkley was trained as a dancer and developed a new style of filming by setting his cameras in motion “using custom-built booms and monorails, making the audience/camera a part of the choreography.” (Fieisher, “A Brief History Of Musicals On Film”)). Berkley’s style encouraged studios to sign contracts between the studios and an experienced dancer that would only act in movies under their signed studio. Dancing was now one of the signifying attributes of movie musicals. Movie musicals hit their peak in the 40s through a combination of Berkley’s style, established actors and dancers, and the O’Connell 4 overall grim sentiment towards World War Two that led to an overall increase in ticket- sales. Some of the most iconic movie musicals were released in the late thirties and into the forties including Meet Me In St. Louis, On the Town, and The Wizard of Oz. Movie Musicals took the same hit as all genres of film when the television became a household item by the late fifties. Although movie musicals such as Grease and Chicago became a box office hits post the movie musical golden era, there was never another era as successful for movie musical after its height of popularity. The music and dance aspect of movie musicals become the heart of the film after the influence of Berkley. Critiques of movie musicals make the assumption that the style of film is meant to wash over the viewer without having to think critically about its story lines and structures. The predictable interaction between male and female leads allow for a standard formula to be used by most movie musicals. “The same configurations are ceaselessly repeated, with only the context changing. Even before anything approaching meaning can be ascertained or established, this process of repetition has created the pattern within which meaning will be inscribed.” (Altman, 33) The centering around the relationship between the male and female lead is what leads to the conflict and a series of songs and dances that result in the films resolution. As suggested by writer Rick Altman, the plot lines of movie musicals that address these conflicts can be broken down to a series of parallels. Parallels in movie musicals are shown through the relationship between the male and female leads, highlighting their relationship to one another and reinforcing heteronormativity. The base of the parallels start at the male and female relationship and expand through shots, songs, relationships, storylines, and secondary attributes, all encouraging female, and male pairing. O’Connell 5 “Hardly a musical exist that does not at some point literally cover the screen with dancing couples. The American film musical seems to suggest that the natural state of the adult human being is in the arms of an adult human being of the opposite sex. Pairing-off is the natural impulse of the musical whether is be in the presentation of the plot, the splitting of the screen, the choreography of the dance, or even the repetition of a melody. Image follows image according to the nearly iron-clad law requiring each sequence to uphold interest in male-female coupling by including parallel scenes and shared activities.” (Altman, 32) Altman goes into depth on multiple aspects of film that reflect this duality stating, “almost any category can be used to underscore the musical’s basic male-female duality” (Altman, 33). The long list of categories that prove the duality between the leads can be easily applied to Fred Zinnemann’s 1955 musical film based on the 1943 stage musical Oklahoma!, and Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen’s 1952 production Singin’ in the Rain. Setting constructs a parallel that are obvious because they are the spaces that the male and female lead occupy. Earlier movie musicals provided the male and female lead with similar settings such as their dressing rooms or apartments, when studios were granted larger budgets and were able to go on location shoots, films were able to expand on the parallel setting that their characters were existing in. “Hollywood now turned to associating each of the main characters with a specific and highly differentiated locale and activity.” (Altman, 33). In Oklahoma! Laurey’s setting is the home; Curly’s setting is riding through the range. The settings that have been assigned to the male and female leads are accurate to the time that the movie is meant to take place, but reinforce and perpetuate a cycle of expected gender roles. The setting of the characters is a parallel that can be drawn that focuses on the background of the character, their activities, and job, establishing the environment that O’Connell 6 the characters will most commonly show when they are separate from each other. Another parallel that Altman brings forward is the “personal style” of the character. The personal style of the actors is a combination of the personality of the character, which often gets repeated across multiple films by the same actor, their style of singing and their style of dancing. The “personal style” shows the most over exaggerated personality traits of the character.