What does music contribute to a fiction film? When is it used? And why is it there in the first place? Directors use music with an effect in mind and it is music’s force in the “here and now” of the movie-going experience that we will try to describe. To do so, we will study films from various cinematic traditions through the various ways in which music functions within them as a powerful meaning-making element. Under the assumption that film is an audio-visual medium, we will examine individual works representative of different genres––musicals, horrors, dramas, comedies, and cartoons. Consideration will be given to the relationship between music and image as well as music and sound as they emerge from close readings of individual scenes. We will also look at how music is represented in the story world of the film, whether a character performs, listens to, or ignores it.
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