2 Musical Films

The genre of narrative film with built-in dance routines developed in the 1920s and 1930s after the arrival of talking films. A distinction is made between films with interwoven dance numbers which are also about dancing, and musical films or film musicals, which can have any theme. However, the boundaries between the two have become blurred over time. Films showcasing dance, such as Saturday Night Fever (USA 1977, dir. John Badham), have been refashioned as musicals, and there are also screen adaptations of musicals about dancing, such as A Chorus Line (USA 1985, dir. Richard Attenborough). In accordance with traditional stage choreography, the choreographies in films featuring dance numbers and musical films are almost always based on an existing musical work.