Musicarello

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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[]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ a b c d e Della Casa, Steve; Manera, Paolo (1991). "I musicarelli". Cineforum. p. 310.
  3. ^ a b Aulenti, Lino (2011). Storia del cinema italiano (in Italian). Padova: Libreriauniversitaria.it. ISBN 978-88-6292-108-4.
  4. ^ Pavone, Giuliano (1999). Giovannona Coscialunga a Cannes (in Italian). Florence: Tarab. ISBN 88-86675-49-6.
  5. ^ 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.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
Retrieved from ""