Mamma Mia!

Mamma Mia! / Mamma Mia! GB / US /DE (c) 2008 Universal / Internationale Filmproduktion Richter. EX: Benny Andersson, Tom Hanks, Mark Huffam, Björn Ulvaeus, Rita Wilson. D: Phyllida Lloyd. SC: Catherine Johnson based on her musical book. DP: Haris Zambarloukos - shot on 35mm film (Kodak Vision2) - digital intermediate - Panavision anamorphic 1:2,35. M: the ABBA songbook. M: Benny Andersson (new score). Starring Meryl Streep, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski - Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth - Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper. 108 min. Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Jaana Wiik / Saliven Gustavson (also all lyrics well translated). Released in Finland by Finnkino. Viewed at Tennispalatsi 6, 16 August, 2008. - Digital intermediate look partly annoying.
"I Have A Dream"
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) [instrumental]"
"Honey, Honey"
"Money, Money, Money"
"Mamma Mia"
"Chiquitita"
"Super Trouper"
"Dancing Queen"
"Our Last Summer"
"Lay All Your Love On Me"
"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
"Voulez-Vous"
"SOS"
"Does Your Mother Know"
"Slipping Through My Fingers"
"The Winner Takes It All"
"Under Attack" (instumental)
"Knowing Me, Knowing You" (instrumental)
"I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do"
"When All Is Said And Done"
"Take A Chance On Me"
"Mamma Mia (Reprise)"
"Waterloo" all 6 adults
"Than You For The Music" special arr.
"Does Your Mother Know" special instr.
"I Have A Dream (Reprise)"
Excellent new arrangements from the ABBA songbook carry this energetic and joyous musical. The actors perform the songs with feeling and "with their hearts full". They reinterpret the well-known songs and bring new life to them. There is a fine balance in the dynamics of the story from joy to sorrow, from action to meditation. The film meets the expectations of camp and kitsch but just in passing and as a joke, as in the final "Waterloo" reunion. Kitsch is transcended. The feeling is true, and there is a good sense of the absurd. - Daringly, the story is set in Greece, on Aphrodite's island, but the classic setting does not lead to the exposure of an inherent emptiness of the pop songs but rather elevates them. - My favourite numbers of the film: "Chiquitita", "S.O.S.", and "Take A Chance On Me", all with surprising emotion. - This is one of the films with the theme of the cancelled wedding. The young ones back off; Streep and Brosnan are hitched, instead. - The mystery of the three fathers is left unresolved and unmoralized. - The friendship of the three 50-something women resembles the one in Sex and the City the movie. - The original ABBA films were indifferent or dreadful. The Australian homages (Muriel's Wedding and Priscilla The Queen of the Desert) had spirit. This is the definitive ABBA movie.