Resumen

The 2010 film Submarine (Ayoade) and 2019’s Blinded by the Light (Chadha) share similarities, such as depicting the coming into oneself of two teenage boys in the British Isles during the 80’s, and the storytelling through music. However, both pose the same two issues when defining the genre to which they belong. Because both navigate identity development, they might be considered coming-of-age films. Similarly, and because it is through songs that the action unfolds, they could be analysed as musicals. The apparent difficulty in casting their features into one box is one of the points that this presentation will address. The aim is to analyse three moments of both films, in which I will look at the evolution of music’s role in the narrative. Herzog has defined this ‘musical moment’ as a particular instance in which this combination reveals another truth of the film, an underlying narrative or the climax of the character’s journey (Herzog 2010, 2). The two aspects will be concomitantly analysed: the scenes, as part of a genre, and the music, thus revealing how a song is central to the narrative and to the character’s transformation. In other words, one song can encapsulate the meaning of the entire narrative and fit the criteria of a ‘comingof-age’ film.