Two female gangsters, locked in a bitter rivalry, battle for control of Sydney’s underworld in the Roaring Twenties while fighting the corrupt police and legal system run by men. Based on the true story of Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine.

The mid-2000s saw a surge in the popularity of musical biopics: films such as Ray (2004) which tell the story of a star musician. While academic studies have addressed biopics treating classical and jazz composers, the popular musical biopic (encompassing blues, folk, pop, country, rap, and rock) is not only the least studied subtype of the musical biopic, but the most profitable and frequently made. I analyze four different aspects of the musical biopic that illustrate its significance: Chapter One addresses the musical biopic in the context of the post-studio era entertainment industry. I study A Hard Day's Night as a film which reconciles artistry with the commercial imperative of cross-promotion. Chapter Two surveys the increased presence of minority entertainers in post-studio era musical biopics, covering films featuring African American musicians, as well as films which pair a black mentor with a white musician or producer. Chapter Three examines the relationship between storytelling, particularly the portrayal of love relationships, and song performances. I find in that the post-studio era musical biopic often reconciles narrative structures inherited from the classical Hollywood musical with post-classical film styles. Chapter Four, a psychoanalytic study of the contemporary musical biopic, theorizes the genre's turn to the representation of flawed and scandalous subjects.

En amont du 500e anniversaire de la Réforme en 2017, la question des représentations et des usages auxquels a donné lieu la figure de Martin Luther a bénéficié d’un regain d’intérêt. En témoigne l’attention portée depuis une quinzaine d’années à un domaine jusque-là peu étudié par la recherche, à savoir la présence de Martin Luther au cinéma et à la télévision. À la suite notamment des travaux d’Esther P. Wipfler, le présent travail, centré sur les productions fictionnelles et partiellement fictionnelles de langue allemande, entreprend une étude des représentations filmiques de Luther et de l’écho dont elles bénéficièrent. Un corpus de 14 films réalisés entre 1911 et 2008 donne lieu à une réflexion en trois temps. Un aperçu synthétique des discours sur Luther qui circulèrent en Allemagne des débuts de la Réforme jusqu’à l’avènement du cinéma sera l’occasion d’évoquer la constitution de Martin Luther en figure mythique et les différents investissements dont ce mythe fit l’objet. Un deuxième volet est consacré aux quatre films muets qui virent le jour entre 1911 et 1927, marqués non seulement de l’empreinte de la tradition qui les précéda mais aussi par une évolution dans laquelle se reflète la situation du protestantisme allemand et son rapport au cinéma. L’étude s’achève par une analyse des émissions télévisées consacrées au Réformateur depuis la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, caractérisée par un retour progressif à la représentation d’une figure fondatrice positive après un début marqué de part et d’autre de la frontière allemande par une prise de distance à l’égard du mythe. / Ahead of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, the representation and use of Martin Luther has sparked renewed interest. This is reflected in the attention that has recently been paid to a field which, up to the last fifteen years, had not been studied very much by researchers, namely Martin Luther’s onscreen presence, both in the cinema and on television. In the wake of Esther P. Wipfler’s research, this thesis focuses on fictional and partly fictional German-speaking productions to study the film representations of Luther and their impact. A corpus of 14 films made between 1911 and 2008 will lead to a three-fold analysis: first, a synthetic overview of how Luther was seen and discussed in Germany from the beginnings of the Reformation until the birth of cinema will shed light on the making of Martin Luther into a mythical figure and on the manifold meanings with which this myth was invested. The second part of this work will be dedicated to the four silent movies directed between 1911 and 1927: while upholding established traditions, they also revealed the evolution of the situation of German Protestantism and its relationship with cinema. This thesis will close with an analysis of the television shows centred on the Reformer since the end of World War II. After initially distancing themselves from the myth on both sides of the German border, these shows marked a progressive return to the representation of a positive founding figure.

La tesi indaga le caratteristiche strutturali dei film di genere biografico prodotti nel contesto del cinema statunitense e della televisione italiana. Riconosciuto nel fatto che il personaggio protagonista è costruito ad imitazione della persona realmente esistita di cui porta il nome l'aspetto identificativo superficiale del film biografico, viene proposta la seguente, nuova interpretazione: quello biografico è un film la cui struttura drammaturgica esprime sulla forma di vita del proprio personaggio protagonista un giudizio di redenzione o di dannazione. / The dissertation explores the distinctive structural features of the biographical pictures produced by the U.S. film industry and by the Italian TV. Assuming that a biographical picture is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person, we propose here a new interpretation: in a biographical picture the dramatic structure expresses a judgement of redemption or damnation on the protagonist and his life story.

Mémoire en recherche-création / En partant de la prémisse qu’un film de fiction biographique (ou « biopic ») peut être empreint d'une authenticité tout aussi grande que celle provenant d’un documentaire biographique, ce travail de recherche questionne le rapport au « réel » de ces deux manières distinctes (et pourtant similaires) de raconter une vie, en définissant la fiction, le documentaire et leurs sous-genres biographiques, de même qu'en exposant le parcours historique et la réception critique des biographies filmées. De plus, ce mémoire s'attarde sur la biographie et l'autobiographie littéraires, ainsi que sur leurs adaptations filmiques, afin d'offrir un portrait synthétique des possibilités auto/biographiques au cinéma; la notion narratologique du point de vue est revisitée à cet effet. Cette étude se penche également sur les multiples traitements biographiques dont une personnalité connue est parfois l'objet, et sur les résultats de quelques biopics et documentaires biographiques au box-office (américain, français, anglais, québécois). La description de la création reliée à ce mémoire, soit le scène-à-scène (ou continuité séquentielle) d'un biopic basé sur l'autobiographie La détresse et l'enchantement (1984) de l'auteure canadienne Gabrielle Roy, clôt cette argumentation. / Starting with the premise that a fictional film based on someone's life can be as authentic as a biographical documentary, this thesis shows how these two different (but similar) modes of narrating a life interact with "reality", defines the concepts of fiction, documentary, and their biographical sub-genres, and analyzes the history and the critical reception of biopics and biographical documentaries. Furthermore, it studies the literary genres of biography and autobiography, as well as their movie adaptations, in order to provide a portrayal of the auto/biographical films; for this purpose, the idea of the narratological point of view is revisited. This research work also establishes that a well-known personality can sometimes be the main subject of multiple biographical fiction films and documentaries, and gives an overview of the box office results of some biographical films (in America, in France, in UK, in Quebec). A description of the creation linked to this thesis, that is a film treatment of a biopic based on Gabrielle Roy's autobiography La détresse et l'enchantement (1984), ends this dissertation.

Every life tells a story. Film has proven to be a worthwhile medium in which individual lives can be told and thereby will be remembered. In recent years biographical documentaries telling significant life-stories, such as Amy (Asif Kapadia 2015), Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen, 2015) and Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2010) have taken over our screens. While their narrative style often alludes to common compositions of the fictional biopic, their foundation on indexical sound and imagery makes them differ radically. In this thesis theoretical implications on how to approach and understand biographical documentary within the lager scope of biographical filmmaking are discussed. Subsequently the term biodoc is suggested. It implies a close relation to the biopic without compromising documentary film's autonomy compared to fiction film. Furthermore, this thesis sets out to move toward a theory of the biodoc. By putting together a catalog of key aspects and elements common for the biodoc and discussing them in close relation to contemporary examples of the genre, this thesis provides a first theorization of a diverse and growing phenomenon in contemporary film culture.

Más allá de la enumeración infinita de anécdotas atribuidas a los artistas plásticos (hummus sustancial sobre el que se ha levantado la extensa bibliografía al respecto), la tesis titulada Biopic y representación fílmica del artista plástico, pretende dar cuenta del modo en que dicho material es dispuesto en el film, evidenciar las elecciones y estrategias que operan hacia la institución del artista en cuanto sujeto discursivo, entidad que da forma a uno de los estereotipos identitarios más arraigados en la historia de occidente desde su aparición en la Antigüedad clásica. En ese sentido, la consideración biográfica funciona como el bisturí elegido en la acotación del corpus a tratar, elección operativa que supone la constitución de un subgénero respecto del género biopic (biographical picture) según un criterio temático: el personaje recreado es un artista plástico. Biopic y representación fílmica del artista plástico se encuentra dividido en dos partes. La primera, compuesta por los dos primeros capítulos, se presenta como una somera aproximación al estado de la cuestión genérica, rastreando la compleja conceptualización del fenómeno, sus orígenes literarios y su aparición y desarrollo en el terreno cinematográfico. Poco se avanza en este apartado a propósito de una posible definición del biopic de artista salvo para cuestionar y delimitar operativamente algunas cuestiones teóricas que han dificultado la consideración biográfica desde una perspectiva genérica. La segunda parte, compuesta por el resto de capítulos y constituida en sentido estricto en el núcleo de la investigación, se presenta como un ejercicio evaluativo del subgénero a partir de una doble perspectiva, teórica e histórica. / Moral Martín, FJ. (2009). Representación cinematográfica del artista plástico y biopic [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/4264 / Palancia

From the dynamic landscape of contemporary South Korean cinema, one trend that stands out is the palpable revival of the historical drama (known as the ‘sageuk’ in Korean). Since the early 2000s, expensive, visually striking, and successful costumed pieces have been showcased to the audience. Now rivalling the other mainstream genres such as gangster action, romantic comedy, and the Korean blockbuster, the sageuk has made an indelible impact on the national film industry. Even so, the cycle has yet to receive much critical attention. This thesis addresses the gap, driven by the question, what is the impetus behind the surge of the ‘historical’ witnessed in recent sageuk films? For this, I first take a diachronic view of the historical context of the genre, which later serves as the reference point for the genre memory. Adopting a synchronic approach, I then examine the industrial, political, and social contexts in Korea at the turn of the new century that facilitated the history boom. While national memory and transnational politics fuelled Koreans’ interest in their past, the popular media – cinema, television, publishing industry, and performance theatre – all capitalised on this drive. The government also took part by supporting the ‘culture content industry’ as a way to fashion an attractive national image and accelerate the cultural export system. Collectively, these efforts translated to the emergence of history as a commodity, carving a unique space for historical narratives in the national heritage industry. As such, different agents – the consumers, the industry, and the state – had their stakes in the national mobilisation of history and memory with competing ideological and commercial interests. Ultimately, the sageuk is the primary site in which these diverging aspirations and desires are played out. In chapters that follow, I engage with four main sub-types of the recent historical drama, offering textual and contextual readings. The main discussion includes the ‘fusion’ sageuk (Untold Scandal), the biopic (King and the Clown and Portrait of a Beauty), the heritage horror (Blood Rain and Shadows in the Palace), and the colonial period drama (Rikidozan, Blue Swallow and Modern Boy). While analysing the generic tropes and narrative themes of each film, I also pay attention to contemporary discourses of gender, and the cultural treatment of masculinity and femininity within the period setting. Such investigation, in turn, locates the place of the historical genre in New Korean Cinema, and thus, offers a much-needed intervention into one of the neglected topics in the study of cinematic trends in South Korea.

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This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.