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Title: The Great Pretenders

The Great Pretenders

Genre, Form, and Style in the Film Musicals of John Carney

by Carlos Menéndez Otero (Author)
©2023 Monographs XIV, 244 Pages
The Arts
Series: Reimagining Ireland, Volume 123

Summary

This book focuses on the most successful feature films of John Carney, namely Once (2006), Begin Again (2013) and Sing Street (2016). Drawing on narrative, formalist and genre theories of film, the book presents an in-depth examination of how the formal and stylistic choices made by Carney allow each film to narrate a story in a coherent way. It shows how aural and visual contrivances are hidden behind a façade of realism, and how the films engage with universal, national and personal concerns and also how they relate to each other and to Irish and American film in general. It also explores the textual articulation of genre in each and the discrepancies between such articulation, the genre expectations set up by the promotional discourse coming from the publicity materials and events accompanying each release, and the genre labelling of each film in contemporary reviews by professional critics from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Ireland.

Table Of Contents


Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
The German National Library lists this publication in the German National
Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A CIP catalogue record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.

 

 

 

 

 

Cover image: Sing Street: publicity still, Alamy. © 2016 Cosmo Films,
Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.
Cover design by Peter Lang Ltd.

ISSN 1662-9094
ISBN 978-1-80374-135-2 (print)
ISBN 978-1-80374-136-9 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-80374-137-6 (ePub)
DOI 10.3726/b20644

© 2023 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne
Published by Peter Lang Ltd, Oxford, United Kingdom
info@peterlang.com - www.peterlang.com

Carlos Menéndez-Otero has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work.

All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict
limits of the copyright law,
without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies
in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming,
and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.

About the author

Carlos Menéndez-Otero holds PhDs in English studies and in communications and journalism. He is a member of the research group “Otras Lenguas” (OLE-6) and an associate professor at the Faculties of Humanities, and Commerce, Tourism, and Social Sciences at the University of Oviedo, Spain. His main research relates to the Irish audiovisual industry and classic Hollywood and British films about Ireland and its diaspora, on which he has published over twenty papers and the volume Irlanda y los irlandeses en el cine popular (1910–1970) (2017). Other interests include Irish and Irish-American history and culture, dubbing, television series, regional television, film criticism, and ESP learning and teaching. His most recent work before the present book is the co-edited (with Raquel Serrano-González) volume Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain: Notes on a Shared History (2021), also published by Peter Lang.

About the book

This book focuses on the most successful feature films of John Carney, namely Once (2006), Begin Again (2013), and Sing Street (2016). Drawing on narrative, formalist, and genre theories of film, it presents an in-depth examination of how the formal and stylistic choices made by Carney allow each film to narrate a story in a coherent way. It shows how aural and visual contrivances are hidden behind a facade of realism, how the films engage with universal, national, and personal concerns, and also how they relate to each other and to Irish and American film in general. It also explores the textual articulation of genre in each and the discrepancies between such articulation, the genre expectations set up by the promotional discourse coming from the publicity materials and events accompanying each release, and the genre labelling of each film in contemporary reviews by professional critics.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

CHAPTER 2
Once (2006): The Musical That Pretended It Was Not a Musical

CHAPTER 3
Begin Again (2013): The Remake That Pretended It Was Not a Remake

CHAPTER 4
Sing Street (2016): The Coming-of-Ager That Pretended It Was Just a Musical

CHAPTER 5
Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Figures

Figure 1. Once: wide-shot of the Guy, the junkie, and a passer-by in Grafton Street. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 2. Once: point-of-view shots in the first encounter scene. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 3. Once: shot through the window of Simon’s Place Coffee Shop. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 4. Once: master reverse angle two-shots for the Waltons Music scene. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 5. Once: close-ups at the end of “Falling Slowly.” © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 6. Once: tracking shot of the Girl walking alone at night in Dublin. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ.

Figure 7. Posters for Once and Begin Again, Alamy. © 2006 Samson Films, Summit Entertainment, IFB, RTÉ; © 2013 Exclusive Media, Sycamore Pictures, Apatow Productions, Likely Story, Formatted Films.

Figure 8. Begin Again: Dan’s first on-screen introduction. © 2013 Exclusive Media, Sycamore Pictures, Apatow Productions, Likely Story, Formatted Films.

Figure 9. Begin Again: the connection between Dave and Gretta at the Gramercy is lost. © 2013 Exclusive Media, Sycamore Pictures, Apatow Productions, Likely Story, Formatted Films.

Figure 10. Begin Again: Dan’s imaginary production of “A Step You Can’t Take Back.” © 2013 Exclusive Media, Sycamore Pictures, Apatow Productions, Likely Story, Formatted Films.

Figure 11. Begin Again: the visual climax to Dan’s imaginary production of “A Step You Can’t Take Back.” © 2013 Exclusive Media, Sycamore Pictures, Apatow Productions, Likely Story, Formatted Films.

Figure 12. Posters for Sing Street: V.1 (left) and V.2 (right), Alamy. © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 13. Sing Street: Brother Baxter’s first on-screen appearance. © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 14. Sing Street: Raphina sees in Conor the makings of a rock star. © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 15. Sing Street: shots from the 360-degree pan showing the creation of “Up.” © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 16. Sing Street: some of the frames in the production of “A Beautiful Sea.” © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 17. Sing Street: from 1980s reality to 1950s fantasy. © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Figure 18. Sing Street: the DIY masks of Brother Baxter. © 2016 Cosmo Films, Distressed Films, FilmNation Entertainment, FilmWave, Likely Story, PalmStar Media.

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Ruth Barton and Tony Tracy for allowing me to do some of the research that ultimately led to this volume, at the Long Room Hub at Trinity College Dublin and the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland Galway, respectively. Thanks are also due to the staff at these centres for their help with the paperwork, especially Emily Johnson, Caitriona Curtis, Martha Shaughnessy, and Leanne Cox.

I am also indebted to Pilar Villar Argáiz for encouraging me to submit the project to Anthony Mason and Eamon Maher, to whom I would also like to express my appreciation for their valuable comments and suggestions on the manuscript and for considering that it could be a nice addition to the Peter Lang Reimagining Ireland series.

Finally, a special thank you to my parents, my partner Graciela, my friends, and my late mentor and friend José Luis Caramés Lage: I could not have undertaken this journey without you.

Details

Pages
XIV, 244
Publication Year
2023
ISBN (PDF)
9781803741369
ISBN (ePUB)
9781803741376
ISBN (Softcover)
9781803741352
DOI
10.3726/b20644
Language
English
Publication date
2023 (September)
Keywords
Genre, Form, and Style in the Film Musicals of John Carney Carlos Menéndez-Otero John Carney film musicals Irish cinema The Great Pretenders
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, 2023. XIV, 244 pp., 18 fig. b/w.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Carlos Menéndez Otero (Author)

Carlos Menéndez-Otero holds PhDs in English studies and in communications and journalism. He is a member of the research group «Otras Lenguas» (OLE-6) and an associate professor at the Faculties of Humanities, and Commerce, Tourism, and Social Sciences at the University of Oviedo, Spain. His main research relates to the Irish audiovisual industry and classic Hollywood and British films about Ireland and its diaspora, on which he has published over twenty papers and the volume Irlanda y los irlandeses en el cine popular (1910–1970) (2017). Other interests include Irish and Irish-American history and culture, dubbing, television series, regional television, film criticism, and ESP learning and teaching. His most recent work before the present book is the co-edited (with Raquel Serrano-González) volume Spain, Portugal, and Great Britain: Notes on a Shared History (2021), also published by Peter Lang.

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Title: The Great Pretenders