Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".
142-499: School Daze is a 1988 American musical drama comedy film written and directed by Spike Lee and starring Lee along with Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry Fishburne), Giancarlo Esposito , and Tisha Campbell . Released on February 12, 1988 by Columbia Pictures as Lee's second feature film, and based partly on his experiences as a student at Morehouse College in the Atlanta University Center during
284-517: A simulation running on the player's computer, with certain characters being aware of this fact and sometimes communicating directly with the player. In other cases of metafictional video games, the game alters the player's expectation of how the game should behave, which may make the player question if their own game system is at fault, helping to increase the immersion of the game. But since video games are inherently much more interactive than traditional films and literature, defining what truly breaks
426-625: A Bollywood-style song-and-dance number during the film's end credits, Tallika (2022) was the first movie with Maximum Genres of Music Composed by Maharaja and registered as a World Record Holder in Music, Spain has a history and tradition of musical films that were made independent of Hollywood influence. The first films arise during the Second Spanish Republic of the 1930s and the advent of sound films . A few zarzuelas (Spanish operetta ) were even adapted as screenplays during
568-467: A Sixpence , The Happiest Millionaire , Star! , Darling Lili , Goodbye, Mr. Chips , Paint Your Wagon , Song of Norway , On a Clear Day You Can See Forever , 1776 , Man of La Mancha , Lost Horizon , and Mame . Collectively and individually these failures affected the financial viability of several major studios. In the 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while
710-450: A TV series about life at a historically black college. (The NBC sitcom was airing its first season at the time of the film's release.) Other School Daze cast members also appeared on A Different World , including Dominic Hoffman , Tisha Campbell , Art Evans , Guy Killum and Roger Guenveur Smith . In 2008, Alicia Keys paid homage to School Daze in the music video for her song " Teenage Love Affair ". She imitated scenes including
852-418: A boundary is "broken" when an actor or character addresses the audience directly. Breaking the fourth wall is common in pantomime and children's theatre where, for example, a character might ask the children for help, as when Peter Pan appeals to the audience to applaud in an effort to revive the fading Tinker Bell ("If you believe in fairies, clap your hands!"). One of the earliest recorded breakings of
994-479: A few dramas) included their own musical numbers. The Marx Brothers ' films included a musical number in nearly every film, allowing the Brothers to highlight their musical talents. Their final film, entitled Love Happy (1949), featured Vera-Ellen , considered to be the best dancer among her colleagues and professionals in the half century. Similarly, the vaudevillian comedian W. C. Fields joined forces with
1136-408: A few well-received films, but even their popularity waned by 1932. The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in color productions. The taste in musicals revived again in 1933 when director Busby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from the drill precision he had experienced as
1278-618: A film with a "completely black orientation. All of the characters, good and bad, are black, and all of the character's references are to each other." On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , the film holds an approval rating of 58%, based on 31 reviews, and an average rating of 5.8/10. The critical consensus reads: " School Daze is undeniably messy, but thought-provoking themes, strong performances, and Spike Lee's ingratiating energy help tie it all together." Kadeem Hardison , Darryl M. Bell and Jasmine Guy were principal cast members on The Cosby Show spin-off, A Different World —
1420-630: A grueling initiation, the Gammites are welcomed as new members. At the school dance, Dap's roommate Grady hits it off with a female student and coaxes her to his room, but she refuses to stay when Dap and Rachel are already there. As the Gammas celebrate, Julian becomes annoyed with Jane. Singling out Half-Pint, Julian orders him to sleep with Jane as a final test. Although Half-Pint is uncomfortable with Julian's request, Jane insists she would do anything for Julian. Afterward, Julian accuses Jane of prioritizing
1562-592: A leading historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia , Vaughn "Dap" Dunlap, a politically militant and socially conscious black senior, leads an anti-apartheid demonstration, demanding that the school divest from South Africa . However, the fraternity Gamma Phi Gamma and their pledge class, the Gammites, arrive to interrupt the demonstration. Julian "Dean Big Brother Almighty" Eaves, the head/president of Mission College's Gamma Phi Gamma Fraternity chapter and Dap's former friend, upsets Dap by stating his opposition to
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#17327804673781704-558: A live audience were watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the diegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. With the advent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with the public and are exemplified by the films of Busby Berkeley , a choreographer known for his distinctive and elaborate set pieces featuring multiple showgirls. These lavish production numbers are typified by his choreographic work in 42nd Street , Gold Diggers of 1933 , Footlight Parade (all from 1933). During
1846-477: A local KFC , where they are harassed by locals who resent them as privileged college boys. Returning to campus, Dap confronts Julian about Darrell's pledge status. On Sunday, at the Greeks' step show , a performance by Da Fellas (as "the brothers of Fellas Phi Fellas") leads to a brawl with the Gammas. Seeking out Rachel, Dap is humiliated by her dorm neighbors, but he and Rachel reconcile. That evening, following
1988-526: A musical and India producing the most movies in the world (formed in 1913), the first Bollywood film to be a complete musical, Dev D (directed by Anurag Kashyap ), came in 2009. The second musical film to follow was Jagga Jasoos (directed by Anurag Basu ), in 2017. Bollywood musicals have their roots in the traditional musical theatre of India , such as classical Indian musical theatre , Sanskrit drama , and Parsi theatre . Early Bombay filmmakers combined these Indian musical theatre traditions with
2130-525: A pantomime conversation with the audience in The Disorderly Orderly (1964). The final scene of The Patsy (1964) is famous for revealing to the audience the movie as a movie, and Lewis as actor/director. In the 1986 teen film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off , the eponymous character breaks the fourth wall to talk directly to the audience throughout the entire movie. Characters in the 2017 mockumentary film I, Tonya consistently address
2272-414: A recording by the song's writer. The films Deadpool , Deadpool 2 , and Deadpool & Wolverine are specifically known for the main character Deadpool , played by Ryan Reynolds , consistently breaking the fourth wall. Funny Games has Paul and Peter repeatedly breaking the fourth wall by turning around and winking at the camera, talking to the audience by saying they are probably rooting for
2414-725: A renaissance of the genre. The Guru and The 40-Year-Old Virgin also feature Indian-style song-and-dance sequences; the Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film ; two other Bollywood films Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language ; and Danny Boyle 's Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) also features
2556-448: A scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a box set , the fourth of them would run along the line (technically called the proscenium ) dividing the room from the auditorium . The fourth wall , though, is a theatrical convention, rather than of set design . The actors ignore the audience, focus their attention exclusively on the dramatic world, and remain absorbed in its fiction, in
2698-423: A self-aware character that recognizes that they are in a video game, or having secret or bonus content set outside the game's narrative that can either extend the game world (such as with the use of false documents ) or provide "behind the scenes" type content. Such cases typically create a video game that includes a metafiction narrative, commonly presently characters in the game incorporating knowledge they are in
2840-519: A show-biz plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by MGM as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade (Paramount 1929) starred Maurice Chevalier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonald , written by Broadway veteran Guy Bolton . Warner Brothers produced
2982-418: A soldier during World War I . In films such as 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of theatrical space: his ingenious routines, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit onto a real stage and the intended perspective
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#17327804673783124-401: A specific in-universe issue. An example of this is in the first episode of the final season of the show Attack on Titan , where a newly introduced character, Falco Grice , starts to hallucinate about events that took place in the last 3 seasons. This literary device utilises self-referencing to trigger media-awareness in the recipient, used to signpost the drastic shift in perspective from
3266-460: A state that the theatre practitioner Konstantin Stanislavski called "public solitude" (the ability to behave as one would in private, despite, in actuality, being watched intently while so doing, or to be "alone in public"). In this way, the fourth wall exists regardless of the presence of any actual walls in the set, the physical arrangement of the theatre building or performance space, or
3408-533: A string of successes with live action fantasy adaptations of several of their animated features , Disney produced a live action version of Beauty and the Beast , the first of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical, and features new songs as well as new lyrics to both the Gaston number and the reprise of the title song. Bill Condon , who directed Dreamgirls , directed Beauty and
3550-520: A video game and narrates what the player sees as part of the UI. Eternal Darkness , which included a sanity meter, would simulate various common computer glitches to the player as the sanity meter drained, including the Blue Screen of Death . The Stanley Parable is also a well-known example of this, as the narrator from the game constantly tries to reason with the player, even going so far as to beg
3692-478: A video game. For example, in Doki Doki Literature Club! , one of the characters ( Monika ) is aware that she is a part of a video game, and at the end, communicates with the player. To progress further in the story, the player must remove the “monika.chr” file (an action they take outside of the game). The plot of the game OneShot revolves around the fictional universe of the game being
3834-498: A way to break away from their typecasting. For instance, the multi-talented James Cagney had originally risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" roles and mob films gave him few chances to display these talents. Cagney's Oscar -winning role in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) allowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments. Many comedies (and
3976-624: Is a late modern era example. It was popularized in the early 20th century during the Post-Modern literary movement . Artists like Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse and Kurt Vonnegut in Breakfast of Champions used the genre to question the accepted knowledge and sources of the culture. The use of metafiction or breaking the fourth wall in literature varies from that on stage in that
4118-432: Is considered the first African American A-list film star. Celebrated director Howard Hawks also ventured into the genre with Gentlemen Prefer Blondes . In the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, the musical film became less of a bankable genre that could be relied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for them lessened and fewer musical films were produced as the genre became less mainstream and more specialized. In
4260-660: Is exemplified by the rivalry between the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity and its coed counterpart—which are predominantly made up of affluent, light-skinned students and Dap's politically conscious friends and the Pi Delta Pi sorority—which is predominantly made up of dark-skinned students from lower-class backgrounds. Throughout the film, the characters from both groups engage in a series of confrontations and conflicts, fueled by their respective feelings of superiority and resentment towards one another. Another theme tied to this
4402-435: Is the exploration of economic inequality through the character of Dap, a socially conscious and politically active student who is involved in a campaign to increase the number of black faculty members at Mission College. Dap's activism and commitment to social justice are juxtaposed with the apathy and materialism of other students, such as Julian, the wealthy and privileged president of the Gamma Phi Gamma fraternity. Following
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4544-535: Is viewing from straight above. Musical stars such as Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films such as Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Many dramatic actors gladly participated in musicals as
4686-568: The Academy Award for Best Original Song (1938), the film earned an ASCAP Film and Television Award (1989) for Bob Hope's signature song " Thanks for the Memory ". During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer headed by Arthur Freed made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. (However, they also produced technicolor remakes of such musicals as Show Boat , which had previously been filmed in
4828-676: The Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in their respective years, while such films as The Phantom of the Opera , Hairspray , Mamma Mia! , Nine , Into the Woods , The Greatest Showman , Mary Poppins Returns , Rocketman , Cyrano , Tick, Tick... Boom! , Elvis , and The Color Purple were only nominated. Chicago was also the first musical since Oliver! to win Best Picture at
4970-659: The Sherman Brothers . Starting with 1989's The Little Mermaid , the Disney Renaissance gave new life to the musical film. Other successful animated musicals included Aladdin , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , and Pocahontas from Disney proper, The Nightmare Before Christmas from Disney division Touchstone Pictures, The Prince of Egypt from DreamWorks, Anastasia from Fox and Don Bluth, Eight Crazy Nights from Columbia, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut from Paramount. Beauty and
5112-600: The "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema . Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), directed by Guru Dutt and written by Abrar Alvi , Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955), directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas , and Aan (1952), directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Dilip Kumar . These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class life in India , particularly urban life in
5254-478: The 1930s it was clear that if the Soviet cinema was to compete with its Western counterparts, it would have to give audiences what they wanted: the glamour and fantasy they got from Hollywood. The musical film, which emerged at that time, embodied the ideal combination of entertainment and official ideology. A struggle between laughter for laughter's sake and entertainment with a clear ideological message would define
5396-527: The 1930s, the musical films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers became massive cultural fixtures in the eyes of the American public. These films included, Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet , Swing Time (both 1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (1939) would become a landmark film for movie musical as it experimented with new technology such as Technicolor . During
5538-666: The 1930s.) In 1939, Freed was hired as associate producer for the film Babes in Arms . Starting in 1944 with Meet Me in St. Louis , the Freed Unit worked somewhat independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit include Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in
5680-700: The 1940s and 1950s, musical films from MGM musicals regularly premiered. These works included: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949), An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953), High Society (1956), and Gigi (1958). During this time, films outside the Arthur Freed unit at MGM included Holiday Inn (1942), White Christmas (1954), and Funny Face (1957) as well as Oklahoma! (1955), The King and I (1956), Carousel , and South Pacific (1958). These films of
5822-639: The 1960s created specifically for film were Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book , two of Disney's biggest hits of all time. The phenomenal box-office performance of The Sound of Music gave the major Hollywood studios more confidence to produce lengthy, large-budget musicals. Despite the resounding success of some of these films, Hollywood also produced a large number of musical flops in the late 1960s and early 1970s which appeared to seriously misjudge public taste. The commercially and/or critically unsuccessful films included Camelot , Finian's Rainbow , Hello Dolly! , Sweet Charity , Doctor Dolittle , Half
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5964-672: The 1960s, films based on stage musicals continued to be critical and box-office successes. These films included, West Side Story (1961), Gypsy (1962), The Music Man (1962), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), My Fair Lady , Mary Poppins (both 1964), The Sound of Music (1965), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying , Thoroughly Modern Millie (all 1967), Oliver! , and Funny Girl (both 1968). In
6106-631: The 1960s, the critical and box-office success of the films West Side Story , Gypsy , The Music Man , Bye Bye Birdie , My Fair Lady , Mary Poppins , The Sound of Music , A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum , The Jungle Book , Thoroughly Modern Millie , Oliver! , and Funny Girl suggested that the traditional musical was in good health, while French filmmaker Jacques Demy 's jazz musicals The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort were popular with international critics. However popular musical tastes were being heavily affected by rock and roll and
6248-750: The 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this, Scrooge (1970), Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Cabaret (1972), 1776 (1972), Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), and Pete's Dragon (1977), as well as Grease and The Wiz (both 1978), were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences. Throughout
6390-514: The 1970s, it is a story about undergraduates in a fraternity and sorority clashing with some of their classmates at a historically black college during homecoming week. It also touches upon issues of colorism , elitism , classism , political activism , hazing , groupthink , female self-esteem , social mobility , and hair texture bias within the African-American community. On Friday of homecoming weekend at Mission College,
6532-520: The 1980s and 1990s, musicals tended to be mainly coming from the Disney animated films of the period, from composers and lyricists, Howard Ashman , Alan Menken , and Stephen Schwartz . The Disney Renaissance started with 1989's The Little Mermaid , then followed by Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), and Mulan (1998). In
6674-557: The 1990s, the three biggest Bollywood movie stars have been the " Three Khans ": Aamir Khan , Shah Rukh Khan , and Salman Khan . Combined, they have starred in most of the top ten highest-grossing Bollywood films . The three Khans have had successful careers since the late 1980s, and have dominated the Indian box office since the 1990s, across three decades. Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001)
6816-561: The 21st century, the musical genre has been rejuvenated with darker musicals, musical biopics, musical remakes, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such as Moulin Rouge! (2001), Chicago (2002), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Rent (2005), Dreamgirls (2006), Across the Universe , Enchanted , Hairspray , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (all 2007), Mamma Mia! (2008), Nine (2009), The Muppets (2011), Les Misérables (2012), Into
6958-564: The Academy Awards. Joshua Oppenheimer 's Academy Award-nominated documentary The Act of Killing may be considered a nonfiction musical. One specific musical trend was the rising number of jukebox musicals based on music from various pop/rock artists on the big screen, some of which based on Broadway shows. Examples of Broadway-based jukebox musical films included Mamma Mia ! ( ABBA ), Rock of Ages , and Sunshine on Leith ( The Proclaimers ). Original ones included Across
7100-525: The Beast , The Lion King , and others were adapted for the stage after their blockbuster success. In the 21st century, movie musicals were reborn with darker musicals, musical biopics, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such as O Brother, Where Art Thou? , Moulin Rouge! , Chicago , Walk the Line , Dreamgirls , Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street , Les Misérables , La La Land , and West Side Story ; all of which won
7242-488: The Beast . The second film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was Aladdin and features new songs. The third film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was The Lion King and features new songs. The fourth film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical was The Little Mermaid and features new songs with lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda , replacing Ashman. Pixar also produced Coco ,
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#17327804673787384-694: The Big Brothers. Dap and Rachel have a falling out when she plans to rush a sorority , and she accuses him of colorism . On Saturday, the weekend's festivities begin, and the Gamma brothers nearly come to blows with Dap and his fellow protestors at the homecoming parade. After the Mission football team suffers an embarrassing loss at the homecoming football game, Dap is called into McPherson's office and informed by Cloud that if he continues with his protests he will be expelled. Da Fellas drive into town to eat at
7526-412: The Bollywood blockbuster format. Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973), directed by Hussain and written by Salim-Javed, has been identified as the first masala film and the "first" quintessentially "Bollywood" film. Salim-Javed went on to write more successful masala films in the 1970s and 1980s. Masala films launched Amitabh Bachchan into the biggest Bollywood movie star of the 1970s and 1980s. A landmark for
7668-829: The Chocolate Factory , Pete's Dragon , and Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks were also released in the 1970s, the latter winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects . By the 1980s, financiers grew increasingly confident in the musical genre, partly buoyed by the relative health of the musical on Broadway and London's West End . Productions of the 1980s and 1990s included The Apple , Xanadu , The Blues Brothers , Annie , Monty Python's The Meaning of Life , The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , Victor/Victoria , Footloose , Fast Forward , A Chorus Line , Little Shop of Horrors , Forbidden Zone , Absolute Beginners , Labyrinth , Newsies , Evita , and Everyone Says I Love You . However, Can't Stop
7810-658: The Eldian to the Marleyan side, and can be employed in all sorts of media. The use of breaking the fourth wall in television has sometimes been unintentional. In the Doctor Who episode " The Caves of Androzani ", the character of Morgus looks directly at the camera when thinking aloud. This was due to actor John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction, but the episode's director, Graeme Harper , felt that this helped increase dramatic tension, and decided not to reshoot
7952-663: The Flame (1930), Song of the West (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under a Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Whoopee! (1930), King of Jazz (1930), Viennese Nights (1930), and Kiss Me Again (1930). In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences. Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931. By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut
8094-446: The Gamma women's auxiliary led by Julian's girlfriend Jane Toussaint, clash with some of their non-Greek classmates ("jigaboos", who are mostly dark-skinned black women with natural hair), including Dap's girlfriend Rachel Meadows, over skin color and hair politics . Unsuccessful in courting any female students, Darrell and his fellow Gammites (Doo-Doo Breath, Double Rubber, Mussolini, Mustafa, Yoda, Slim Daddy, and Sir Nose) are hazed by
8236-470: The Gershwins, respectively. Warner Bros. produced Calamity Jane and A Star Is Born ; the former film was a vehicle for Doris Day , while the latter provided a big-screen comeback for Judy Garland, who had been out of the spotlight since 1950. Meanwhile, director Otto Preminger , better known for "message pictures", made Carmen Jones and Porgy and Bess , both starring Dorothy Dandridge , who
8378-692: The Music , starring the Village People , was a calamitous attempt to resurrect the old-style musical and was released to audience indifference in 1980. Little Shop of Horrors was based on an off-Broadway musical adaptation of a 1960 Roger Corman film, a precursor of later film-to-stage-to-film adaptations, including The Producers . Many animated films of the period – predominately from Disney – included traditional musical numbers. Howard Ashman , Alan Menken , and Stephen Schwartz had previous musical theater experience and wrote songs for animated films during this time, supplanting Disney workhorses
8520-509: The Musical (all 2022), The Little Mermaid , Wonka , The Color Purple (all 2023), Mean Girls , Wicked , Mufasa: The Lion King , Joker: Folie à Deux , A Complete Unknown (all 2024). The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its highest in the Western world . Disney 's Snow White and
8662-496: The Rain (1952), The Band Wagon (1953) and Gigi (1958). Non-Freed musicals from the studio included Seven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954 and High Society in 1956, and the studio distributed Samuel Goldwyn 's Guys and Dolls in 1955. This era saw musical stars become household names, including Judy Garland , Gene Kelly , Ann Miller , Donald O'Connor , Cyd Charisse , Mickey Rooney , Vera-Ellen , Jane Powell , Howard Keel , and Kathryn Grayson . Fred Astaire
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#17327804673788804-520: The Seven Dwarfs , the earliest Disney animated feature film, was a musical which won an honorary Oscar for Walt Disney at the 11th Academy Awards . Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers. The earliest feature-length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while
8946-487: The Soviet musical was first and foremost a form of propaganda. Vladimir Lenin said that cinema was "the most important of the arts". His successor, Joseph Stalin , also recognized the power of cinema in efficiently spreading Communist Party doctrine. Films were widely popular in the 1920s, but it was foreign cinema that dominated the Soviet filmgoing market. Films from Germany and the U.S. proved more entertaining than Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein 's historical dramas. By
9088-929: The Unicorn , and Spellbound . Biopics about music artists and showmen were also big in the 21st century. Examples include 8 Mile ( Eminem ), Ray ( Ray Charles ), Walk the Line ( Johnny Cash and June Carter ), La Vie en Rose ( Édith Piaf ), Notorious ( Biggie Smalls ), Jersey Boys ( The Four Seasons ) Love & Mercy ( Brian Wilson ), CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story ( TLC ), Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B ( Aaliyah ), Get on Up ( James Brown ), Whitney and I Wanna Dance With Somebody ( Whitney Houston ), Straight Outta Compton ( N.W.A ), The Greatest Showman ( P. T. Barnum ), Bohemian Rhapsody ( Freddie Mercury ), The Dirt ( Mötley Crüe ), Judy ( Judy Garland ), Rocketman ( Elton John ), Respect ( Aretha Franklin ) and Elvis ( Elvis Presley ). Grossing over $ 900 million at
9230-590: The Universe ( The Beatles ), Moulin Rouge! (various pop hits), Idlewild ( Outkast ) and Yesterday ( The Beatles ). Disney also returned to musicals with Enchanted , The Princess and the Frog , Tangled , Winnie the Pooh , The Muppets , Frozen , Muppets Most Wanted , Into the Woods , Moana , Mary Poppins Returns , Frozen II , Encanto , Better Nate Than Ever , Disenchanted , Wish , Moana 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King . Following
9372-542: The Woods (2014), La La Land (2016), Beauty and the Beast , The Greatest Showman (both 2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again! , A Star Is Born , Mary Poppins Returns , Bohemian Rhapsody (all 2018), Aladdin , Rocketman , The Lion King (all 2019), In the Heights , Respect , Dear Evan Hansen , Cyrano , Everybody's Talking About Jamie , Tick, Tick… Boom! , West Side Story (all 2021), Elvis , Spirited , Disenchanted , Matilda
9514-496: The actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue. The Jazz Singer , released in 1927 by Warner Brothers , was the first to include an audio track including non- diegetic music and diegetic music, but it had only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", " Blue Skies ", and " My Mammy ". Historian Scott Eyman wrote, "As
9656-415: The actors' distance from or proximity to the audience. In practice, performers often feed off the energy of the audience in a palpable way while modulating performance around the collective response, especially in pacing action around outbursts of laughter, so that lines are not delivered inaudibly. Breaking the fourth wall is violating this performance convention, which has been adopted more generally in
9798-415: The audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onward, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century , led to the development of the fourth wall concept. The metaphor suggests a relationship to the mise-en-scène behind a proscenium arch . When
9940-408: The audience during interview sequences. Characters are removed from the rest of the group to speak and reflect on their experiences. The person behind the camera, the interviewer, is also referenced when the characters gaze and speak straight to the camera. The interviewer, however, is only indirectly spoken to and remains hidden. This technique, when used in shows with complex genres, serves to heighten
10082-491: The audience from the stage". The fourth wall did not exist as a concept for much of dramatic history. Classical plays from ancient Greece to the Renaissance have frequent direct addresses to the audience such as asides and soliloquies . The presence of the fourth wall is an established convention of modern realistic theatre , which has led some artists to draw direct attention to it for dramatic or comic effect when
10224-523: The audience in Animal Crackers (1930), and Horse Feathers (1932), in the latter film advising them to "go out to the lobby" during Chico Marx 's piano interlude. Comedy films by Mel Brooks , Monty Python , and Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker frequently broke the fourth wall, such that with these films "the fourth wall is so flimsy and so frequently shattered that it might as well not exist", according to The A.V. Club . Woody Allen broke
10366-419: The audience several times during each episode, giving the viewer comments on his own actions on the show. The same technique is also used, though less frequently, in the American adaptation of House of Cards by main character Frank Underwood . The Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events , based on Daniel Handler 's book series of the same name , incorporates some of the narrative elements from
10508-616: The audience throughout the movie's runtime. Kevin Costner breaks the fourth wall with a glance towards the camera near the end of Oliver Stone 's 1991 film JFK . Edward Norton breaks the fourth wall in 1999's Fight Club . Mike Myers broke the fourth wall in The Love Guru when he looked directly at the camera for a split-second when a Queen song came on as a reference to the famous Wayne's World head-banging scene. Eddie Murphy makes two brief, wordless glances at
10650-401: The audience's illusion or suspension of disbelief , by acknowledging them directly. Conway argues that this expansion of the magic circle in video games actually serves to more fully immerse a player into the fictional world rather than take the viewer out of the fictional world, as is more common in traditional fourth wall breaks. An example of this expansion of the magic circle can be found in
10792-1096: The big screen. It set a new template for Bollywood musical romance films that defined Hindi cinema in the 1990s. The period of Hindi cinema from the 1990s onwards is referred to as "New Bollywood" cinema, linked to economic liberalisation in India during the early 1990s. By the early 1990s, the pendulum had swung back toward family-centric romantic musicals. Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak was followed by blockbusters such as Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Chandni (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994), Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Raja Hindustani (1996), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). A new generation of popular actors emerged, such as Aamir Khan, Aditya Pancholi , Ajay Devgan , Akshay Kumar , Salman Khan ( Salim Khan's son ), and Shahrukh Khan , and actresses such as Madhuri Dixit , Sridevi , Juhi Chawla , Meenakshi Seshadri , Manisha Koirala , Kajol , and Karisma Kapoor . Since
10934-531: The black community. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times noted, "There is no doubt in my mind that 'School Daze,' in its own way, is one of the most honest and revealing movies I've ever seen about modern middle-class black life in America." He also noted its frank exploration of issues of discrimination within the black community related to skin tone and nature of hair. He said it was significant as
11076-429: The books by having Lemony Snicket as a narrator character (played by Patrick Warburton ) speaking directly to the television viewer that frequently breaks the fourth wall to explain various literary wordplay in a manner similar to the book's narration. The protagonist of Fleabag also frequently uses the technique to provide exposition, internal monologues, and a running commentary to the audience. Every episode of
11218-470: The box office Bohemian Rhapsody is the most commercially successful musical biopic. Director Damien Chazelle created a musical film called La La Land , starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone . It was meant to reintroduce the traditional jazz style of song numbers with influences from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Jacques Demy 's French musicals while incorporating a contemporary/modern take on
11360-425: The box-office. Marisol , Joselito , Pili & Mili , and Rocío Dúrcal were the major figures of musical films from the 1960s to 1970s. Due to Spanish transition to democracy and the rise of " Movida culture ", the musical genre fell in production and box-office, only saved by Carlos Saura and his flamenco musical films. Unlike the musical films of Hollywood and Bollywood, popularly identified with escapism,
11502-422: The camera deliberately break the fourth wall and re-frame the horizon, referencing the advice given to Spielberg by film director John Ford in the 1960s, which the film references. Select theatrical screenings of Francis Ford Coppola 's 2024 science fiction epic Megalopolis , including its private industry screenings and world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival , had a person walk on stage in front of
11644-794: The camera in Trading Places . Jon Cryer breaks the fourth wall with a glance at the camera near the end of the 1986 film Pretty In Pink , as does Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit , Jason Sudeikis in We're The Millers , and Kurt Russell in Death Proof (a nod to Reynolds in Bandit ). Hulk Hogan breaks the wall by addressing the audience directly in Gremlins 2: The New Batch . Near
11786-436: The camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended. The phrase "breaking the fourth wall" is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as video games and books . The acceptance of the transparency of the fourth wall is part of the suspension of disbelief between a work of fiction and an audience, allowing them to enjoy
11928-421: The camera. At the start of the credit sequence, a voice can be heard shouting "Thank you, Mr. Forbes" to acknowledge producer Bryan Forbes . In the end, Bobbie Waterbury ( Jenny Agutter ) holds up a small slate on which "The End" is written in chalk. In Mr. Bean's Holiday , the entire cast, together with massed extras, break the fourth wall while joining in singing " La Mer " by Charles Trenet , accompanied by
12070-592: The camera. They maintain it makes the audience uneasy, and interrupts the screen story. I think that is nonsense, and usually I have my actors, in a single, look direct into the camera at least once in a film, if a point is to be served." Martin and Lewis look directly at the audience in You're Never Too Young (1955), and Lewis and co-star Stella Stevens each look directly into the camera several times in The Nutty Professor (1963), and Lewis' character holds
12212-455: The character played by Michael Caine, in his eponymous breakout role in the 1966 film Alfie , who frequently spoke to the audience to explain the thinking and motivation of the womanizing young man, speaking directly to the camera, narrating and justifying his actions, his words often contrasting with his actions. Jerry Lewis wrote in his 1971 book The Total Filmmaker , "Some film-makers believe you should never have an actor look directly into
12354-687: The comic actress Martha Raye and the young comedian Bob Hope in Paramount Pictures musical anthology The Big Broadcast of 1938 . The film also showcased the talents of several internationally recognized musical artists including: Kirsten Flagstad (Norwegian operatic soprano), Wilfred Pelletier (Canadian conductor of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra ), Tito Guizar (Mexican tenor), Shep Fields conducting his Rippling Rhythm Jazz Orchestra and John Serry Sr. (Italian-American concert accordionist). In addition to
12496-516: The comic tone of the show while also proving that the camera itself is far from a passive onlooker. Another approach to breaking the fourth wall is through a central narrator character who is part of the show's events, but at times speaks directly to the audience. For example, Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series House of Cards , To Play the King and The Final Cut addresses
12638-404: The conventions of Hindi cinema for decades. In the 1960s and early 1970s, the industry was dominated by musical romance films with "romantic hero" leads, the most popular being Rajesh Khanna . Other actors during this period include Shammi Kapoor , Jeetendra , Sanjeev Kumar , and Shashi Kapoor , and actresses like Sharmila Tagore , Mumtaz , Saira Banu , Helen and Asha Parekh . By
12780-972: The decline of the musical film is Indian cinema , especially the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), where most of films have been, and still are, musicals. The majority of films produced in the Tamil industry , based in Chennai (formerly Madras), the Sandalwood industry , based in Bangalore , the Telugu industry , based in Hyderabad , and the Malayalam industry are also musicals. Despite this exception of almost every Indian movie being
12922-442: The drama. This can be done by either directly referring to the audience, to the play as a play, or the characters' fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance. This act of drawing attention to a play's performance conventions is metatheatrical . A similar effect of metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with
13064-433: The end of Nobody's Fool , Tiffany Haddish breaks the fourth wall by declaring that the film is not over and then proceeding to ruin a wedding ceremony. In The Railway Children the entire cast breaks the fourth wall and performs a curtain call as the credits roll. The camera moves slowly along a railway track towards a train that is decked in flags, in front of which all of the cast is assembled, waving and cheering to
13206-484: The era typically relied on the star power of such film stars as Fred Astaire , Gene Kelly , Bing Crosby , Frank Sinatra , Judy Garland , Ann Miller , Kathryn Grayson , and Howard Keel . They also relied on film directors such as Stanley Donen and Vincente Minnelli as well as songwriters Comden and Green , Rodgers and Hammerstein , Irving Berlin , Cole Porter , and the Gershwin Brothers . During
13348-472: The experience is not communal but personal to the reader and develops a self-consciousness within the character/reader relationship that works to build trust and expand thought. This does not involve an acknowledgment of a character's fictive nature. Breaking the fourth wall in literature is not always metafiction. Modern examples of breaking the fourth wall include Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota , and William Goldman's The Princess Bride . Sorj Chalandon wrote
13490-465: The family, addressing the film is not at its feature runtime and smiling at the camera at the end of the film. The 2022 Persuasion film was criticized for its modernization take on the classic 1817 Jane Austen novel by having the main protagonist Anne Elliot (played by Dakota Johnson ) constantly breaking the fourth wall by interacting with the audience. The last shot of Steven Spielberg 's 2022 semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans has
13632-430: The fiction as though they were observing real events. The concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic and dramatist Denis Diderot , who wrote in 1758 that actors and writers should "imagine a huge wall across the front of the stage, separating you from the audience, and behave exactly as if the curtain had never risen". Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as "that invisible scrim that forever separates
13774-459: The fight that occurs at the step show between Dap's crew and the Gammas was not in the script. On the day the scene was shot, the fight broke out between the two sides. Lee ordered the cameras to keep rolling. Ruth E. Carter designed the costumes for the film, inspired by uniforms and styles worn at the HBCUs. At Lee's encouragement, she commissioned American fashion designer Willi Smith to design
13916-421: The film at an HBCU director Spike Lee peers into a very particular black space largely isolated from the rest of American society: "every conversation is directly related to black people's own perceptions of, and issues amongst, themselves". Two major themes found in the film are the issues of skin color-based class divisions and economic inequality . The divide between light-skinned people and dark-skinned people
14058-474: The film ended and applause grew with the houselights, Sam Goldwyn 's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over'." Still, only isolated sequences featured "live" sound; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score. In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool , which
14200-438: The film. Musical film The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if
14342-516: The first computer-animated musical film by the company. Other animated musical films include Rio , Dr. Seuss' The Lorax , Rio 2 , The Book of Life , Trolls , Sing , My Little Pony: The Movie , Smallfoot , UglyDolls , Trolls World Tour , Over the Moon , Vivo , Sing 2 , The Bob's Burgers Movie , Under the Boardwalk , Trolls Band Together , Leo , Thelma
14484-455: The first colour film in Hindi , Kisan Kanya . The next year, he made another colour film, a version of Mother India . However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema. Following India's independence , the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as
14626-556: The first screen operetta, The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film in Technicolor . This was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitled On with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature which was entitled Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained
14768-411: The former two examples; Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life. Mehboob Khan 's Mother India (1957), a remake of his earlier Aurat (1940), was the first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film , which it lost by a single vote. Mother India was also an important film that defined
14910-474: The fourth wall to tell the audience directly, "Please, wake up." School Daze explores several issues within the Black-American community such as colorism , elitism , classism , political activism , hazing , groupthink , female self-esteem , social mobility , and hair texture bias —all against the backdrop of a historically black college. Daphnee McMaster of The Spool asserts that in setting
15052-477: The fourth wall in serious cinema was in Mary MacLane 's 1918 silent film Men Who Have Made Love to Me , in which the enigmatic author – who portrays herself – interrupts the vignettes onscreen to address the audience directly. Oliver Hardy often broke the fourth wall in his films with Stan Laurel , when he would stare directly at the camera to seek sympathy from viewers. Groucho Marx spoke directly to
15194-410: The fourth wall in the video game medium becomes difficult. Steven Conway, writing for Gamasutra , suggests that in video games, many purported examples of breaking the fourth wall are actually better understood as relocations of the fourth wall or expansions of the " magic circle " (the fictional game world) to encompass the player. This is in contrast to traditional fourth wall breaks, which break
15336-428: The fourth wall repeatedly in his movie Annie Hall (1977), as he explained, "because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them." His 1985 film The Purple Rose of Cairo features the breaking of the fourth wall as a central plot point. The fourth wall was used as an integral part of the plot structure and to demonstrate
15478-494: The fraternity and his position as leader over him, and breaks up with her. Darrell excitedly informs Dap that he slept with Jane by Julian's orders; infuriated that his cousin has become an entitled Gamma, Dap disowns him. At sunrise, Dap runs to the center of the campus quad and awakens the entire campus from the previous night's debauchery by ringing a large bell. A tearful Julian, remorseful of his treatment towards Half-Pint and Jane, arrives and stands eye-to-eye with Dap, who breaks
15620-489: The freedom and youth associated with it, and indeed Elvis Presley made a few films that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form. A Hard Day's Night and Help! , starring the Beatles , were audacious. Most of the musical films of the 1950s and 1960s such as Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions. The most successful musicals of
15762-577: The game Evidence: The Last Ritual , in which the player receives an in-game email at their real-life email address and must visit out-of-game websites to solve some of the puzzles in the game. Other games may expand the magic circle to include the game's hardware. For example, X-Men for the Mega Drive/Genesis requires players to reset their game console at a certain point to reset the X-Men's in-game Hazard Room, while Metal Gear Solid asks
15904-403: The golden age of the Soviet musical of the 1930s and 1940s. Then-head of the film industry Boris Shumyatsky sought to emulate Hollywood's conveyor belt method of production, going so far as to suggest the establishment of a Soviet Hollywood. The fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While
16046-530: The gowns for the Homecoming Court in the film. Filming concluded on May 4, 1987, with a final budget of $ 6.1 million. Actress Vanessa Williams , originally cast as "Jane Toussaint," was replaced by Tisha Campbell . In June 1988, Campbell filed a $ 550,000 lawsuit against Lee, alleging non-payment for her contribution to the soundtrack and lack of credit for the song "Be Alone Tonight." The film received mixed reviews for its exploration of issues within
16188-453: The highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly, the market became flooded with musicals, revues, and operettas. The following all-color musicals were produced in 1929 and 1930 alone: The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929), The Show of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), The Vagabond King (1930), Follow Thru (1930), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930), Hold Everything (1930), The Rogue Song (1930), Song of
16330-641: The late 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced another period of stagnation, with a decline in box office turnout, due to increasing violence, decline in musical melodic quality, and rise in video piracy, leading to middle-class family audiences abandoning theaters. The turning point came with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed by Mansoor Khan , written and produced by his father Nasir Hussain , and starring his cousin Aamir Khan with Juhi Chawla . Its blend of youthfulness, wholesome entertainment, emotional quotients and strong melodies lured family audiences back to
16472-643: The masala film genre was Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), directed by Manmohan Desai and written by Kader Khan . Manmohan Desai went on to successfully exploit the genre in the 1970s and 1980s. Along with Bachchan, other popular actors of this era included Feroz Khan , Mithun Chakraborty , Naseeruddin Shah , Jackie Shroff , Sanjay Dutt , Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol . Actresses from this era included Hema Malini , Jaya Bachchan , Raakhee , Shabana Azmi , Zeenat Aman , Parveen Babi , Rekha , Dimple Kapadia , Smita Patil , Jaya Prada and Padmini Kolhapure . In
16614-508: The music from films that were then being released. For example, Life of the Party (1930) was originally produced as an all-color, all-talking musical comedy. Before it was released, however, the songs were cut out. The same thing happened to Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931) and Manhattan Parade (1932) both of which had been filmed entirely in Technicolor . Marlene Dietrich sang songs successfully in her films, and Rodgers and Hart wrote
16756-529: The musical film format that emerged from early Hollywood sound films. Other early influences on Bombay filmmakers included Urdu literature and the Arabian Nights . The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani 's Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming. In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made
16898-566: The musical's heyday. They include 1776 , The Wiz , At Long Last Love , Mame , Man of La Mancha , Lost Horizon , Godspell , Phantom of the Paradise , Funny Lady ( Barbra Streisand 's sequel to Funny Girl ), A Little Night Music , and Hair amongst others. The critical wrath against At Long Last Love , in particular, was so strong that it was never released on home video. Fantasy musical films Scrooge , The Blue Bird , The Little Prince , Willy Wonka &
17040-525: The player to put the DualShock controller on their neck to simulate a back massage being given in-game. Other examples include the idle animation of Sonic the Hedgehog in his games where the on-screen character would look to the player and tap his foot impatiently if left alone for a while, and one level of Max Payne has the eponymous character come to the realization he and other characters are in
17182-484: The player to switch off the game at one point. The method of breaking the fourth wall in literature is a metalepsis (the transgression of narrative levels), which is a technique often used in metafiction . The metafiction genre occurs when a character within a literary work acknowledges the reality that they are in fact a fictitious being. The use of the fourth wall in literature can be traced back as far as The Canterbury Tales and Don Quixote . Northanger Abbey
17324-511: The premiere of the R&;B band Bloodstone 's movie Train Ride to Hollywood , but problems in distribution rendered it barely getting token theatrical release. The year 1976 saw the release of the low-budget comic musical, The First Nudie Musical , released by Paramount. The 1978 film version of Grease was a smash hit; its songs were original compositions done in a 1950s pop style. However,
17466-509: The projection screen and address the protagonist, Cesar, who seemingly breaks the fourth wall by replying in real time. On television, the fourth wall has broken throughout the history of the medium. Fourth wall breakage is common in comedy, and is used frequently by Bugs Bunny and other characters in Looney Tunes and other later animated shows, as well as the live-action 1960s sketch comedy of Monty Python's Flying Circus , which
17608-591: The protest, after which Student Government Association president Virgil Cloyd breaks up both their subsequent fight and the rally. Dap's younger cousin Darrell, a Gamma pledge known as "Half-Pint" to Julian and his fellow Big Brothers (Chucky, Dr. Feelgood, Lance, X-Ray Vision, and General George Patton), is ordered to bring a girl to the fraternity that night, and goes to Dap for advice. Cedar Cloud, chairman of Mission's board of trustees, warns college president Harold McPherson that Dap's divestment protests may scare off
17750-540: The pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences. Changing cultural mores and the abandonment of the Hays Code in 1968 also contributed to changing tastes in film audiences. The 1973 film of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice 's Jesus Christ Superstar
17892-471: The rally in front of the school building, the pajama party, and the scene where Tisha Campbell and her court perform at coronation. " Da Butt ," written by Marcus Miller and Mark Stevens, and performed by the group E.U. (who appear in the film), hit number 1 on Billboard ' s R&B chart and number 35 on its Pop chart. The School Daze soundtrack also features the song, "Be One," written by Bill Lee and performed by Phyllis Hyman , who also appears in
18034-508: The release of his debut feature film, She's Gotta Have It , in August 1986, Spike Lee started writing the screenplay for School Daze . Lee initially secured a $ 3 million budget, but concerns from Island Pictures about potential cost increases, possibly reaching $ 5 million, led them to drop their option. Columbia Pictures subsequently acquired the film. Filming commenced on March 9, 1987, in Atlanta, Georgia . Reverend Jesse Jackson visited
18176-412: The scenes. Given their interactive nature, nearly all video games break the fourth wall by asking for the player's participation and having user interface elements on the screen (such as explanations of the game's controls) that address the player rather than their character. Methods of fourth wall breaking within the narrative include having the character face the direction of the player/screen, having
18318-473: The school's wealthy donors. In the evening, Dap asks his friends Da Fellas (Grady, Monroe, Jordan, Edge, and Booker T.) to return with him to the administration building to protest. Although supportive of Dap's cause, they decline, wanting to complete their college education and get good jobs in the future. Meanwhile, the Gamma Rays ("wannabes", who are mostly light-skinned black women with straightened hair),
18460-730: The sequel Grease 2 (released in 1982) bombed at the box-office. Films about performers which incorporated gritty drama and musical numbers interwoven as a diegetic part of the storyline were produced, such as Lady Sings the Blues , All That Jazz , and New York, New York . Some musicals made in Britain experimented with the form, such as Richard Attenborough 's Oh! What a Lovely War (released in 1969), Alan Parker 's Bugsy Malone and Ken Russell 's Tommy and Lisztomania . A number of film musicals were still being made that were financially and/or critically less successful than in
18602-529: The set to offer a blessing. Initially set on the campus of Morehouse College , production faced obstacles when the Atlanta University Center objected to the film's portrayal of historically black colleges . Consequently, filming was prohibited at Morehouse College, as well as Clark Atlanta University , Morris Brown College , and Spelman College . The production relocated to Atlanta University , with additional filming in Brooklyn, New York . Lee arranged for
18744-685: The silent era. The beginnings of the Spanish musical were focused on romantic Spanish archetypes: Andalusian villages and landscapes, gypsies, "bandoleros", and copla and other popular folk songs included in story development. These films had even more box-office success than Hollywood premieres in Spain. The first Spanish film stars came from the musical genre: Imperio Argentina , Estrellita Castro , Florián Rey (director) and, later, Lola Flores , Sara Montiel and Carmen Sevilla . The Spanish musical started to expand and grow. Juvenile stars appear and top
18886-603: The sitcom Saved by the Bell breaks the fourth wall during the introduction by the character Zack Morris . Most episodes have several other fourth wall breaks. This is similar to how The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , Clarissa Explains It All and Malcolm in the Middle use fourth wall breaks to set up stories or have characters comment on situations. Furthermore, breaking the fourth wall can also be used in meta-referencing in order to draw attention to or invite reflection about
19028-430: The start of the 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation, dominated by musical romance films . The arrival of screenwriter duo Salim–Javed , consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar , marked a paradigm shift, revitalizing the industry. They began the genre of gritty, violent, Bombay underworld crime films in the early 1970s, with films such as Zanjeer (1973) and Deewaar (1975). The 1970s
19170-974: The story and characters with balances in fantasy numbers and grounded reality. It received 14 nominations at the 89th Academy Awards , tying the record for most nominations with All About Eve (1950) and Titanic (1997), and won the awards for Best Director , Best Actress , Best Cinematography , Best Original Score , Best Original Song , and Best Production Design . In 2013, NBC produced The Sound of Music Live! as part of their effort for expanded live entertainment events, which became an annual tradition of adaptations of stage musicals, created specifically as live television events. The following years featured Peter Pan Live! , The Wiz Live! , Hairspray Live! , Jesus Christ Superstar Live! , Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical Live! , and Annie Live! . ABC and Fox also produced similar events, including Grease Live! , A Christmas Story Live! , Rent: Live , and The Little Mermaid Live! . An exception to
19312-511: The troupe also brought to their feature films. George Burns regularly broke the fourth wall on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). Another convention of breaking the fourth wall is often seen on mockumentary sitcoms, including The Office . Mockumentary shows that break the fourth wall poke fun at the documentary genre with the intention of increasing the satiric tone of the show. Characters in The Office directly speak to
19454-445: The two groups of actors to stay in separate hotels during filming. The actors playing the "wannabees" were given better accommodations than the ones playing the "jigaboos." This favoritism contributed to tension on the set, which showed in the on-camera animosity between the two camps. (Similar tactics were used during the filming of Animal House and The Outsiders .) In School Daze, the method approach yielded strong results —
19596-408: Was a blockbuster hit. Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen. The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York , included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The Broadway Melody (1929) had
19738-500: Was also coaxed out of retirement for Easter Parade and made a permanent comeback. The other Hollywood studios proved themselves equally adept at tackling the genre at this time, particularly in the 1950s. Four adaptations of Rodgers and Hammerstein shows - Oklahoma! , The King and I , Carousel , and South Pacific - were all successes, while Paramount Pictures released White Christmas and Funny Face , two films which used previously written music by Irving Berlin and
19880-435: Was also when the name "Bollywood" was coined, and when the quintessential conventions of commercial Bollywood films were established. Key to this was the emergence of the masala film genre, which combines elements of multiple genres ( action , comedy , romance , drama , melodrama , musical). The masala film was pioneered in the early 1970s by filmmaker Nasir Hussain , along with screenwriter duo Salim-Javed, pioneering
20022-448: Was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film pays homage to India, incorporating an Indian-themed play and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate . The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western live action musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago , The Producers , Rent , Dreamgirls , and Hairspray were produced, fueling
20164-448: Was met with some criticism by religious groups but was well received. By the mid-1970s, filmmakers avoided the genre in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, partly in hope of selling a soundtrack album to fans. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was originally released in 1975 and was a critical failure until it started midnight screenings in the 1980s where it achieved cult status. That same year also saw
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