ABBA: The Movie

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ABBA - The Movie

ABBA The Movie film poster
Directed by Lasse Hallström
Produced by Stig Anderson,
Reg Grundy
Written by Robert Caswell,
Lasse Hallström
Starring Anni-Frid Lyngstad,
Benny Andersson,
Björn Ulvaeus,
Agnetha Fältskog,
Robert Hughes,
Tom Oliver
Distributed by Universal Music
Release date(s) 26 December 1977
Running time 96 mins
Language English
Swedish
IMDb profile

ABBA: The Movie is a feature length film about the pop group ABBA's 1977 Australian tour. It was directed by Lasse Hallström, who directed most of the group's videos. The Movie has become something of a cult film among ABBA fans. The film's release coincided with the release of ABBA: The Album, that year's studio album from the group, and features many songs from that album as well as many of their earlier hits, and one, "Get on the Carousel", unavailable anywhere else.

Tagline: The ABBA Phenomenon.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The film has a very loose plot which is little more than a vehicle to link together the concert footage. It concerns the adventures of Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes), a naïve radio DJ who is sent by his boss (Bruce Barry) to get an in-depth interview ("Not an interview, a dialogue", demands his boss) with the group, whose fame and stature neither he nor Ashley have the first clue about, which is to be aired on the day ABBA leave Australia. Needless to say, Ashley singularly fails (and the fact that he has accidentally left his press card behind at the radio station doesn't help matters!), and – armed with his trusty reel-to-reel tape recorder – is forced to follow the group all over Australia, experiencing repeated run-ins with the group's bodyguard (Tom Oliver), as well as his increasingly exasperated boss, who is threatening to fire Ashley unless he gets the interview. Eventually, a stroke of luck at the hotel where Ashley happens to be staying at the time has him bump into Stig Anderson, the group's manager, who grants him an interview. Unfortunately, he sleeps in (earlier in the movie, in a dream sequence, Ashley has become ABBA's best friend; the dream sequence was also used as the video for the single "The Name of the Game" in some territories) and ends up missing the appointment. Just as Ashley is about to give up (by this time, he doesn't even care that his press card – which has also been travelling across Australia, continually forwarded by the postal service – has finally arrived!) and resign himself to the fact that he will soon be unemployed, something truly miraculous happens: he bumps into the group in an elevator at the Melbourne hotel and manages to finally get the interview he needs – just in time to meet the deadline for the radio show to go out on-air. He puts together the final edit in the back of a taxi on the way back from the airport, as ABBA depart Australia for Europe. With only seconds 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 – which he worked so long and hard to obtain – is broadcast over the airwaves down under.

[edit] Featured songs:

  • "Tiger"
  • "S.O.S."
  • "Money Money Money"
  • "He Is Your Brother"
  • "Waterloo"
  • "Mamma Mia"
  • "Rock Me"
  • I've Been Waiting for You"
  • "Why Did It Have To Be Me?"
  • "When I Kissed The Teacher"
  • "The Name of The Game"
  • "Get On The Carousel"
  • "I'm A Marionette"
  • "Fernando"
  • "Dancing Queen"
  • "So Long"
  • "Eagle"
  • "Thank You For The Music"
  • The introductory bars of "Hole in Your Soul" are heard to accompany the opening credits, but the song itself does not feature anywhere in the film.
  • A brief snatch of "Knowing Me, Knowing You" is also heard whilst Ashley is stuck in a traffic jam; it is presumably coming from the radio of another car.
  • "Ring Ring" is not performed by ABBA themselves in the film, but is sung by the members of a girls' ballet class Ashley speaks to for the interview while they are practising their routines.
  • Other lesser-known ABBA tracks heard in the film are "Intermezzo N° 1" (instrumental), "Johan på Snippen", "Polkan går" and "Stoned" (instrumental).
  • The country and western track that is heard playing when we see Ashley in the radio studio at the start of the film is "Please Change Your Mind", performed by Nashville Train.

[edit] Interesting Film Footage of ABBA

  • ABBA's arrival at Sydney Airport
  • Concert performances in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne
  • ABBA's official press conference in Sydney
  • ABBA's arrival at the Melbourne Town Hall with several thousand people filling the city streets
  • ABBA's departure from Australia

[edit] Releases

To date four releases of the movie 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.

[edit] Cast

  • with: Calvin Cross†, Ivar Dahlborn†, Harry Lawrence†, Michael Manson†, Sandy Manson†, Ray Marshall†, Frances Matthews†, Thomas Minor†, Åke Olsson†, Karlene Rogerson†.
  • Lena Andersson*, Lena-Maria Gårdenäs-Lawton*, Maritza Horn* .... Vocal backing group
  • Ulf Andersson*, Ola Brunkert*, Lars Carlsson*, Anders Eljas*, Wojciech Ernest*, Malando Gassama*, Rutger Gunnarsson*, Finn Sjöberg*, Lars Wellander* .... Musicians

* Playing themselves.
† Not credited with specific rôle on-screen: all playing featured ABBA fans, with the exception of Michael Manson (who was the hotel receptionist) and Sandy Manson (who was the box office girl).

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Cinema of Australia

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