fiction.wikisort.org - Movie

ABBA: The Movie is a 1977 mockumentary comedy-drama film about the Swedish pop group ABBA's Australian tour. An international co-production from Sweden and Australia, the film was directed by Lasse Hallström, who helmed most of the band's videos. Its release coincided with ABBA: The Album, the group's fifth studio album, and features many songs from that album as well as many of their earlier hits, and one, "Get on the Carousel", unavailable anywhere else.

ABBA: The Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lasse Hallström
Written by	Lasse Hallström Robert Caswell
Produced by	Stig Anderson Reg Grundy
Starring	Anni-Frid Lyngstad Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus Agnetha Fältskog Robert Hughes Tom Oliver
Cinematography	Jack Churchill Paul Onorato
Edited by	Lasse Hallström Malou Hallström Ulf Neidermar
Music by	Stig Anderson Benny Andersson Björn Ulvaeus
Production companies	Polar Music International Reg Grundy Productions
Distributed by	Svensk Filmindustri Warner Bros. PolyGram Entertainment (UMG's Polydor Records)
Release dates	15 December 1977 (1977-12-15) (Australia) 26 December 1977 (1977-12-26) (Sweden)
Running time	96 minutes
Countries	Sweden Australia
Languages	English Swedish
Box office	SEK 5.3 million

Theatrically released in December 1977 in Sweden and Australia, it made its way overseas throughout 1978–79. The film was a box office success and received positive reviews from critics, and has further developed a cult following among ABBA fans.

Plot

The film concerns the adventures of Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes), a naïve DJ on Radio 2TW, who normally presents a through-the-night country and western-themed show. In spite of this, he is sent by the station's boss (Bruce Barry) to get an in-depth interview ("Not an interview, a dialogue", demands his boss) with the group, which is to be aired on the day ABBA leave Australia. Ashley, who has never done an interview before, fails, mainly because he has forgotten to pack his press card, although the fact that he is unable to buy a concert ticket doesn't help matters. Armed with his trusty reel-to-reel tape recorder, Ashley is forced to follow the group all over Australia, beginning in Sydney, and then travelling, in order, to Perth, Adelaide, and Melbourne, experiencing repeated run-ins with the group's very protective bodyguard (Tom Oliver), as well as his increasingly exasperated boss. Throughout the movie, we see Ashley interviewing members of the public, asking them if and why they like ABBA. Almost all the comments are positive, but one man is driven mad by his ABBA-obsessed twelve-year-old son, and another girl thinks ABBA are over the top.

Eventually, Ashley has a lucky chance encounter with Stig Anderson, the group's manager, in the foyer of ABBA's hotel, who agrees to arrange an interview, and gives him tickets to that evening's concert. But Ashley sleeps in and misses the interview time. Just as he has given up hope, he finds himself face-to-face with ABBA in an elevator. They give him an interview there and then, and he leaves Melbourne just in time to meet the deadline for the radio show to go on-air. He puts together the final edit in the back of a taxi from the airport, as ABBA depart Australia for Europe. With only minutes to go, Ashley makes it back to the radio station where, having set the tape up on the studio's playback machine, he relaxes at his control desk to listen as the interview is broadcast.

Cast

• Benny Andersson as himself
• Björn Ulvaeus as himself
• Agnetha Fältskog as herself
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad as herself
• Stig Anderson as himself
• Richard Norton as himself, bodyguard and fitness trainer (uncredited)
• Robert Hughes as Ashley Wallace
• Bruce Barry as radio station manager
• Tom Oliver as bodyguard/bartender/taxi driver

Music

• The introductory bars of "Hole in Your Soul" accompany the opening credits, but the song itself does not feature further.
• "Tiger"[1]
• "S.O.S."
• "Money, Money, Money"[1]
• "He Is Your Brother"[1]
• "Intermezzo No. 1"
• "Waterloo"[1]
• "Mamma Mia"
• "Rock Me"
• "I've Been Waiting for You"
• "The Name of the Game"[1]
• "Why Did It Have to Be Me?"
• "When I Kissed the Teacher"
• "Get on the Carousel"[2]
• "I'm a Marionette"[1]
• "Fernando"[1]
• "Dancing Queen"[1]
• "So Long"
• "Eagle"[1]
• "Thank You for the Music"

A brief snatch of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" as well as "Dum Dum Diddle" is also heard while Ashley is stuck in a traffic jam; they're presumably coming from a nearby car radio.

"Ring Ring" is performed by the members of a girls' ballet class Ashley speaks to for the interview while they are practicing their routines (the ABBA version can be heard in the background, which the children are singing along to).

Other tracks include "Johan på Snippen" ("Johan Snippen") and "Polkan går" ("Polka goes"), both Swedish traditional songs played by Andersson on piano accordion, and the instrumental "Stoned".

The country/western track heard towards the beginning when Ashley is in the radio studio is an early 1970s Björn & Benny song, "Please Change Your Mind", performed by Nashville Train. The song was also recorded by this Swedish country band (several of the musicians are from ABBA's own studio band) and released on their 1977 album ABBA Our Way.

Production

Hallström indicated that the film's script and plot concept was "conceived on the plane on the way to Australia". Initially, 16 mm film was to be used but producers upgraded the project to 35 mm Panavision technology.[3]

Mostly filmed in Australia some additional scenes were filmed in ABBA's native Sweden (but still set in Australia)—noticeably different from Australia.[4]

Reception

Margaret Geddes of Australian newspaper The Age concluded that the film was "slick, competent and even for the non-convert entertaining."[5]

Release

ABBA: The Movie was first released in December 1977. The film was presented in several Eastern Bloc nations, including the Soviet Union where it was screened at two movie houses in Moscow.[6] The film went on wide release in the USSR in 1982, where it became one of the hits of the year, gathering an audience of 33.2 million viewers.[7]

Home media

To date four releases of the film have been made: a single-disc DVD, a two-disc, special-edition DVD, a single-disc Blu-ray, and a now-defunct single-disc HD DVD. All releases above feature a restored print with bonus material. The initial DVD, including digital restoration, was released by SBS in Australia on 2 October 2005.[8]

Re-releases

A theatrical re-release occurred across Europe during July and August 2008 (the same period as the ABBA-themed movie musical Mamma Mia! first hit American theaters) in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany and Austria.[9]

On 12 and 14 May 2022, the film saw a theatrical re-release for the group's 50th anniversary. It was its first wide release in North America.[10]

References

External links

• ABBA: The Movie at IMDb
• ABBA: The Movie at the TCM Movie Database
• ABBA: The Movie at AllMovie
• ABBA: The Movie at the Swedish Film Institute Database
• ABBA: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
• "ABBA – The Movie at the National Film and Sound Archive". Archived from the original on 27 November 2012. Retrieved 28 May 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• ABBA: The Movie at Oz Movies

На других языках

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- [en] ABBA: The Movie

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[es] ABBA: The Movie

ABBA The Movie es una película acerca del viaje del grupo sueco ABBA alrededor de Australia en su tour de 1977. Fue dirigida por Lasse Hallström, quien también dirigió la mayoría de los videos musicales del grupo. El relanzamiento de la película en formato DVD coincidió con el relanzamiento del álbum de ABBA The Album, que también fue lanzado al mercado en 1977. Fue estrenada el 12 de diciembre de 1977 en Estocolmo, Suecia.[1][2]

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[ru] ABBA: Фильм

ABBA: Фильм (англ. ABBA: The Movie) — художественно-документальный фильм о гастрольном турне легендарной шведской поп-группы АББА в Австралии в 1977 году. Фильм имеет весьма незамысловатый сюжет, являющийся связкой между концертными номерами группы ABBA, снятыми во время всего турне. Режиссёром-постановщиком фильма стал Лассе Халльстрём, являющийся режиссёром большинства видеоклипов группы. Фильм стал культовым среди поклонников группы ABBA. Его выход на экраны совпал с выходом в свет пятого студийного альбома The Album, несколько песен из которого («Eagle», «The Name of the Game», «Hole in Your Soul», «Thank you for the music», и «I’m a Marionette») наряду с другими хитами группы звучат в фильме.

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