1940s-1950s: The golden age of MGM Studios
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (MGM), founded in 1922, wondered if you hadn't heard the name, think of the film production company that had a lion roaring at the beginning of the film, it was them! At that time, MGM dominated the world with musical theater genre films and created many masterpieces.
Led by renowned producer Arthur Freed, along with singing and dancing stars Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz), Gene Kelly ("In the Rain"), Fred Astaire and others, together created the "Actor is Singer" film golden age.
The Wizard of Oz | 1939
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The Wizard of Oz: Symbolizes the beginning of the "Era of Color Cinema"
The Wizard of Oz, officially released in 1939, swept the streets of the United States and made actor Judy Garland a big hit, becoming the top star of MGM MGM Pictures with this film. Her theme song , "Over The Rainbow, " became a "drool song" that everyone sang in the 40s, and even won an Oscar.
The Wizard of Oz is not strictly speaking the first color film in film history, but it is of great significance to the entire film industry, when the film used a special "Special Arts" technology, the film began with Dorothy in a brown picture, then opened the door, into the colorful "Oz Country", but also symbolized the end of the black and white film period.
An American in Paris | 1951
"An American in Paris": a classic love song and dance film full of visual feasts
The English title of An American in Paris is An American in Paris, which translates directly to "An American in Paris", and the film was inspired by a song of the same name published by the talented American composer Gehivan in the 1920s. At that time, Geshvin meant to depict an American roaming Paris, and Geishwen's somewhat sad, somewhat playful style, became the homesickness of the protagonist of the movie. The film depicts an American soldier who retired from World War II, becomes a displaced painter in Paris, and falls in love with a young girl In Paris at the same time as two other friends.
The main thing is that the strongest thing about "An American in Paris" is not the plot, but the gorgeous scenes that recreate the golden age of song and dance, which is simply a role model for others in that era! In particular, the last 17 minutes of the song and dance scene is said to consume 1/5 of the cost of the entire movie. The protagonist of this film is also one of the most famous works of gene Kelly in the film "Song in the Rain" introduced below.
Song in the Rain | 1952
"Song in the Rain": A perfect re-enactment of the dream of a Hollywood star in the 20s
Arguably the most famous scene of the most iconic musical film of the last century, Singin in the Rain, is when Gene Kelly, who plays the male lead, dances and sings around the street lamp in the rain. The film was named the first of the top 100 song and dance films of the 100 years by the American Film Institute, and even after 60 years, it still has a 100% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The content scene of this film was set in Hollywood in the 20s, when the movie world went from silent to sound, and the female star, because she could not sing, found a dragon set to the heroine to reverse her voice, and the male protagonist helped the heroine to expose the image of the false female star, and finally became a fairy couple.
1950s-1960s: The era of television vs. movies competing for the status of protagonists
Television became popular in the 1950s, and many viewers felt that they could see entertainment at home and did not run the cinema. Film companies began to spend a lot of money to develop large-screen systems, or buy expensive movie projectors and produce movies with large production costs.
Because of the rise of cities, there were many stories related to "urban culture" in response to the environment in the 1960s.
The Sound of Music | 1965
The Sound of Music: A Fox film that uses a lot of capital to turn the tide
In the early 1960s, Twentieth Century Fox almost broke the company because of the filming of Cleopatra, and in order to revive it, it planned to shoot the hugely bought "The Sound of Music" musical theater copyright to be used well, filmed in the beautiful German-Austrian border Salzburg, many of the songs are simply sung and can be hummed anytime and anywhere! For example, "Do-Re-Mi", "The Sound of Music", and so on.
"Happy People" | 1964
"Happy People": a warm fantasy masterpiece
Mary Poppins was reprised in 2019 by Emily Blunt for Love. "Full of People" is said to be the proudest work of Mr. Walt Disney's lifetime, the first time to put fantasy elements into the film, the scene is located in London, England, workaholic dad Mr. Banks does not pay much attention to and discipline the children, resulting in the sister and brother are really naughty, often angry with the babysitter. Until Mary Poppins came to their house with a small black umbrella, she taught the brothers how to face the difficulties of life, how to regain the joy of life, and also let the couple realize the balance between family and work. It is a representative work of warmth.
The Lady | 1964
"Lady Of The Flowers": a gorgeous masterpiece with a large amount of production costs
"My Fair Lady" is adapted from George Bernard Shaw's stage play "Pygmalion", and the famous phrase "Than malone effect" is directly translated from this English. It can be regarded as the representative work of Audrey Hepburn in the active period of the 50s and 60s. The story revolves around a college professor, Henry Higgins, who falls in love by betting on his ability to train a "flower girl" from the bottom of society, Eliza (translated Eliza), to be an elegant showgirl.
"Lady" set up a huge gorgeous scene shooting in London, with a lot of investment in costumes, songs, dance design and so on.
1970s: A pluralistic era of genre innovation
Bob Fosse, who won the Tony Award for Best Choreographer at the American Musical Awards eight times, represents the style of Hollywood in the 70s. And his blockbusters are always full of fantasy imagination, including "Hotel" and "Jazz Spring" are very well-known masterpieces.
The Prodigal Son | 1978
"The Prodigal Son": the ancestor of the youth school drama (YA movie, Young Adult).
The movie "Grease", which officially made John Travolta the male god of the campus, was officially promoted, and the heroine Sandy was played by the star Olivia Newton-John at the time, while John Travolta played danny, a very rebellious high school student with oily hair and leather clothes, who fell in love while playing hard, and also laid the basic tone of the later YA movie youth campus drama in the 90s.
The Hotel | 1966
"Hotel": The masterpiece of Bob Fosse, the strongest Hollywood choreographer
The 1966 film "Hotel" was released strongly, and it was the foundation for Bob Fosse's status as a Tony Award winner who won the Tony Award eight times (no one currently surpassed this record). Set in Germany in the 1930s, during the Weimar Republican period, the Nazi Party rises, an English man comes to Berlin alone, and his new roommate is a cabaret girl. The two naturally fell in love.
This film began to turn "song and dance" into an auxiliary or catalyst for the direction of the film's plot, rather than a plot-assisted song and dance like "Song in the Rain" in the 50s, and I don't know if you remember the girl in Tom Ford's film debut "Single Man", which is actually the style of the cabaret girl in this movie. "Hotel" can be said to be a film that began to talk about "same-sex love" and "race" very early, and it also shows the helplessness and anxiety of the common people during the period when the Nazi Party was a mighty blessing.
2000s to the present: the full revival of song and dance films
In the 1980s and 1990s, song and dance films became clearly "non-mainstream", and the success of Damien Chazelle's "La La Land" in 2016 brought musical films back to the stage.
《La La Land》|2016年
La La Land: Reclaiming a new life in song and dance films
"La La Land" is translated as "Philharmonic City" and is co-starred by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. One is the male protagonist who pursues the dream of jazz piano, and the other is an aspiring actress who knows and cherishes each other in Los Angeles when pursuing her life goals, and begins to fall in love. The songs in the play can instantly be reminiscent of the romantic and colorful situations in the movie, such as a song that jumps into the seine, which is the duty of facing dreams.
"La La Land" reopened new possibilities for musical theater genre films, receiving 14 nominations at the 89th Academy Awards. Emma Stone was also recognized for winning the Best Actress award for this film.
Moulin Rouge | 2001
"Moulin Rouge": Ghost director Bazruman's ultimate pursuit of beauty
Perhaps the best song and dance movie in the minds of many people now is "La La Land", but putting "Moulin Rouge!" in the finale hopes that someone will understand the selfishness of the editor. In 2001.
I was a child at the time (??? I saw That Moulin Rouge was simply overwhelmed by this glitzy and realistic sadness, and although it was a regrettable tragedy in the end, it left an infinite afterglow and reverie. "Moulin Rouge" tears up the beauty and ugliness, love and hate strongly and then piles them together, rich sounds, stacked on the screen full of fierce love fatalism, making this movie the most memorable song and dance movie of the 21st century so far.