A short guideline
The Musical genre is often seen as one of the most excessive, where entertainment value and style is more important than substance. Stereotypically put it’s a bit of a fluffy and stupid genre, with characters declaring their high-strung emotions in flamboyant musical numbers, and without much deeper meaning. Musicals can of course be artfully made, but should not be confused by Art. So, to no surprise it’s a genre seldom presented at films festivals – we tend to look for deeper material.
Of course there have been exceptions to this rule. Films such as Dancer in the Dark (2000) – addressing self-sacrifice and made by a recognized auteur such as von Trier springs to mind. Or La La Land (2016) winning a well-deserved Academy Award for Damein Chazelle in his stated attempt to make a film that could live up the gold standard of another classic – The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964). But whereas these are all excellent films, made by some of the industry’s most celebrated artists, they are still isolated breaks from the norm.
However, the last few years have seen a strand of films that have done much the same as the examples above, and even further blurred the lines between quality and entertainment. This trend has peaked in 2024 with several artistically strong and very interesting films combining the musical form with features of the challenging and daring Art-film.
In these films the musical form, song and dance, is combined with intellectual storytelling, difficult topics, inventive film language, and often made by directors who do not come from the commercial end of cinema. Themes explored vary from transgenderism to euthanasia and climate apocalypse. They are far from your boy-meets-girl formulaic storytelling, though love and desire break through here as well. The result is surprisingly fresh, and if this trend continues, it will be safe to say we encountered a new sub-niche within the Musical genre – or within the Arthouse film if you prefer.
