musical film

A Musical Number Does Not Stop the Story: A Compass for Reading What Changes When a Film Sings

A song does not have to “move the plot forward” in one single way to count as action. It can settle a decision, redistribute a relationship, redraw a space, speed up or suspend time, or introduce a critical distance from what we see. This guide approaches the musical number as an operation of mise-en-scène, not an interval between scenes.