Musicals shine on the 2021 movie calendar, with long-awaited movies like ‘West Side Story‘ Y ‘In a New York neighborhood‘. Catch up on: The best movies of 2021.
In the years of the Great Depression in America, musicals saved hollywood. It was the era of Busby berkeley, Fred asstaire Y Ginger rogers, which made the transition from silent movies to talkies shine and helped to cope a little better with the miseries that were lived on the streets in those hard 30s. They made life a little more bearable, and the industry was saved from ruin. People went to the movies to feel the rhythm and music of the productions of the time, from ’42nd street’ to ‘Top hat’.
Now, in 2021, the world is going through another difficult time: the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed many lives and paralyzed so many others for more than a year. We survived the era of confinement based on streaming series and now we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, with sanitary restrictions slowly relaxing and cinema on the big screen rising again from its ashes. In this return, ¿PCould musicals be the salvation of the industry again? Or rather: are musicals (and their joy, and their music, and their cathartic expression of sung emotions) what we need right now?
Warner Bros.
An example that can indicate that the public is hungry for music was the success of ‘Hamilton‘in full confinement, which became the most watched movie on streaming in 2020 in the United States (also boosted by its already extensive community of fans, of course). In addition, the musical of Lin-Manuel Miranda It was brought forward a whopping 17 months (its premiere was actually scheduled for October 2021) to coincide with this strange and uncertain moment the world was going through. Also to give a good push to the recently released Disney +, of course. The CEO of Disney, Bob Iger, put it this way: “No other artwork in the last decade has had the cultural impact of ‘Hamilton,’ an inspiring and engaging story told and represented in a powerfully creative way. In light of the extraordinary challenges our world faces, this story about leadership, tenacity, hope, love, and the power of people to unite against the forces of adversity is relevant and powerful.“.
It was a musical that marked the ‘streaming’ of 2020, and there will be a dozen musicals that will mark this 2021. Miranda premieres twice ‘In a New York neighborhood‘, adaptation of his Broadway musical with rhythms from the Dominican Republic, and the animation tape’Alive‘, which, yes, will premiere directly on Netflix. Of the first, critics like Indiewire’s already say that “it is so magical and euphoric that it will leave you with the feeling that cinema has returned, even if it has not gone anywhere”, confirming that it is the spectacular nature of the genre that better it could return the general public to the halls. They will follow ‘Dear evan hansen‘with Ben Platt jumping from the stage to the big screen and, of course, the remake of’West Side Story‘ lead by Steven Spielberg, which is not just one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but perhaps the one that brings the musical back to awards season.
20th Century Studios
Not even the Cannes Film Festival is impervious to the musical phenomenon that we are going to experience in 2021: ‘Annette‘, the new film by Leos carax starring Adam Driver Y Marion cotillard, will open the ‘croisette’ to the rhythm of a rock opera and with 95% of the dialogue sung. Also far from the cinemas we will see other promising titles in ‘streaming’: Amazon Prime Video will premiere the ‘Cinderella‘by Camila Cabello and the adaptation of’Everyone talks about Jamie‘, another Broadway hit. As we can see, this year there is no one who can resist seeing a musical, and, if any of them manages to be an absolute success, it would be something very poetic for Hollywood.
The film historian Neil brand pointed out in The Guardian the critical role that the Berkeley, Rogers, and Astaire films played in helping people overcome the Great Depression, and bridges the gap to the present. “People needed those things and I really think we need them now as well.” Mind you: the musicals of 2021, he says, should be loud and upbeat. “Musicals are always collective: lots of people on screen, having a joyous experience in a crowd that usually moves as one.” Robin baker, programmer for the National Archive of the British Film Institute, said in the same report that “The best musicals offer much more than just escapism. The cathartic powers of musicals allow us to amplify unexpressed emotions and carry us singing and dancing into a brighter, more optimistic ‘technicolor’ future. At this time, they should be prescribed alongside the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine “.
20th Century Studios
It doesn’t do too much, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘it was bursting the Spanish cinemas, the new remake of’A star has been born‘became a phenomenon of the season,’La La Land: The City of Stars‘collected prizes three by three and’The great showman‘sounded in a loop in the houses of half the world. Yes, musicals still have a pull on the big and small screens, but they seem even more necessary when the world is drowning in uncertainty. Can they save the movie year in theaters and lift spirits in the living rooms? Whether they succeed or not, what is clear is that they are going to give us material to enjoy the best and most different expressions of the genre, where the hardest things are easier to digest with a little music.
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