This is the first comparative consideration of the musical’s role within national cinema traditions. While the musical is one cinema’s few genuinely international genres, it has often
functioned as an explicitly local or national form, drawing upon distinct traditions understood as ’native’ rather than ’international’. Simultaneously, musicals from around the world have
often imitated Hollywood models, resulting in their easy dismissal as culturally ’impure’ and demonstrating the creative and ideological tension between promoting and abandoning traditional
cultural forms and styles. This productive tension between local and global elements lies at the heart of international film musicals, which typically acknowledge the dominant Hollywood model
while claiming their own cultural specificity.
