Musicarello
The musicarello (Italian: [muzikaˈrɛllo]; plural: musicarelli) is a film subgenre which emerged in Italy and which is characterised by the presence in main roles of young singers, already famous among their peers, supported by comic actors.
Background
The genre began in the late fifties, and had its peak of production in the sixties.[1] According to film critic Stefano Della Casa, the name "musicarello" is a reference to the successful TV series Carosello.[2] The film which started the genre is considered to be I ragazzi del Juke-Box by Lucio Fulci.[3] At the heart of the musicarello is a hit song, or a song that the producers hoped would become a hit, that usually shares its title with the film itself and sometimes has lyrics depicting a part of the plot.[4]
Characteristics
Unlike most film musicals, this subgenre has an evident age-based focus: while musical films had until that time had been produced in a way generally undifferentiated for tastes and ages, musicarello is explicitly targeted to a youthful audience and usually has in its plot a vague polemic against conformism and bourgeois attitudes.[2][5] The genre was referred to as a curious mix between fotoromanzi, traditional comedy, hit songs and tentative references to tensions between generations.[2] The key figures in this genre were directors Piero Vivarelli and Ettore Maria Fizzarotti, and actor-singers Gianni Morandi, Little Tony,[6] Mina Mazzini,[7] Rita Pavone and Caterina Caselli.[3]
End
With the arrival of the 1968 student protests the genre started to decline, because the generational revolt became explicitly political and at the same time there was no longer a music equally directed to the whole youth-audience.[2] For some time the duo Al Bano and Romina Power continued to enjoy success in musicarello films, but their films (like their songs) were a return to the traditional melody and to the musical films of the previous decades.[2]
References
- ^ Hotz, Stephanie Aneel (3 May 2017). The Italian musicarello : youth, gender, and modernization in postwar popular cinema. Texas Scholar Works (Thesis). doi:10.26153/tsw/2764. hdl:2152/75660.
- ^ a b c d e Della Casa, Steve; Manera, Paolo (1991). "I musicarelli". Cineforum. p. 310.
- ^ a b Aulenti, Lino (2011). Storia del cinema italiano (in Italian). Padova: Libreriauniversitaria.it. ISBN 978-88-6292-108-4.
- ^ Pavone, Giuliano (1999). Giovannona Coscialunga a Cannes (in Italian). Florence: Tarab. ISBN 88-86675-49-6.
- ^ Scuola nazionale di cinema (2001). De Vincenti, Giorgio; Miccichè, Lino (eds.). Storia del cinema italiano: 1960 (in Italian). Vol. 10. Venice: Marsilio-Edizioni di Bianco & nero. ISBN 88-317-7841-2.
- ^ Baschiera, Stefano (29 January 2020). "Another Kind of Spaghetti Western:Italo Zingarelli and The Production of The TRINITÀ FILMS". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 40 (1): 108–128. doi:10.1080/01439685.2020.1715599. S2CID 214098584.
- ^ Grossi, Emmanuel. "Mina, Fellini and the Force of Destiny". Archivo Storico Barilla.
Further reading
- Arcagni, Simone (2006). Dopo Carosello: il musical cinematografico italiano (in Italian). Alessandria: Falsopiano. ISBN 88-89782-03-X.
- Venturelli, Renato (1998). Nessuno ci può giudicare: il lungo viaggio del cinema musicale italiano (in Italian). Rome: Fahrenheit 451. ISBN 88-86095-30-9.
- Della Casa, Steve; Manera, Paolo (2011). Il professor Matusa e i suoi hippies: cinema e musica in Italia negli anni '60: con un dizionario dei cantanti e dei complessi e una filmografia ragionata (in Italian). Acireale-Rome: Bonanno. ISBN 978-88-7796-770-1..
- Magni, Daniele (2012). Cuori matti: dizionario dei musicarelli italiani anni '60 (in Italian). In collaboration with Maurizio Maiotti; and with the participation of Manuel Cavenaghi, Fulvio Fulvi; preface by Ruggero Deodato. Milan: Bloodbuster. ISBN 978-88-902087-7-5.