Performer/canzone/cinema. Domenico Modugno e il caso Tutto è musica

Claudio Bisoni

Claudio Bisoni Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna

Abstract

Tutto è musica (Domenico Modugno, 1964) is a film still little considered in the context of film studies that have dealt with the relationship between cinema and pop music in post-World War II Italy. It is a film with a strong "autarchical" dimension in the context of the 1960s film industry: the film is written, directed and starred by Domenico Modugno. But it is also an audiovisual product that does not easily fit into the system of Italian popular film genres. Indeed, it is both a self-celebrating biopic and a strange form of autobiography. Moreover, it is a film-musical that can be placed in the national context of the so-called "musicarello."
The present intervention aims to analyze Tutto è musica starting from the analysis of the few available archival materials. The purposes of the analysis are as follows: 1) to identify the functions of the song and the musical number within the audiovisual text; 2) to show the problematic links between the song industry and the film industry in the historical period under consideration; and 3) to consider the ways in which music and film contribute to define the contours of the star-image of a singer/performer such as Modugno in terms of stardom across different media.

Keywords: Film musical, song, recording industry, film industry, functions of songs in cinema.

Author Biography

Claudio Bisoni, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna

Claudio Bisoni is Professor of Studies of Gender in the Media, and History of Italian Cinema at the University of Bologna. His research focuses on the relationship between criticism, aesthetics and modes of reception, as well as on North American and Italian cinema of the 1960s and ’70s. His publications include: La critica cinematografica. Metodo, storia e scrittura (Bologna, 2006); Gli anni affollati. La cultura cinematografica italiana (1970-1979) (Roma, 2009); and Elio Petri. Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (Torino, 2011). His essays and articles have appeared in various edited volumes and journals, including «La valle dell’Eden», «Fotogenia», «Close-up», «Cinergie», «Bianco e nero», «Cinéma & Cie», «Fata Morgana», «L’Avventura»,. «Comunicazioni sociali», «The Italianist».