Love is born in Dancing. Sweetheart in Hollywood Musical Cinema

Abstract

Through the coreography of musical cinema, Hollywood has expressed with fineness the feelings that flowed between the main characters. The songs and dance gave to the public a particular visión of Love that was intimately linked to the romantic concept the Western Culture has created since the nineteen century. But also the musical numbers of the genre were used by the filmmakers to depict and hint aspects of love that, if they were represents in an explicit manner, could be considered innaceptable by the Hays Code. With the analysis of some sequences from the films Top Hat, An American in Paris and Grease, the author of this article describe not only the mise-en-scene of the romantic courtship in the genre but the way its representation has developed throughout the history of Hollywood musicals.