ABBA: The Movie (1977)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) From the moment ABBA: The Movie begins, there’s this sense of deliciousness that only comes from cultural products well past their heyday. Not that ABBA is completely past its prime, of course: Thanks to Mamma Mia! and music that remains infectiously fun decades later for younger generations, the Swedish pop band is still a musical reference. But they have now settled into a comfortable elder-statespeople-of-pop status, not the sharp madness of their most popular years. Their catalogue is finite, their hits are well identified and they no longer play in stadiums. But that was not the story by the time ABBA: The Movie rolled into theatres in the middle of their peak years—this was a nakedly promotional movie, hastily planned to showcase the band in venues other than music concerts. Some movie fans will be shocked to see that it’s written and directed by future frequent Academy-Award nominee of sensitive dramas Lasse Hallström—although ABBA fans will remember that Hallström’s earliest work was directing many of the band’s music videos. The thin storyline has to do with an Australian radio DJ on a quixotic quest to interview the band during its 1977 Australian tour, but the point here is the music and showcasing the band in an appropriately likable light. That it does—a lot of ABBA’s early hits can be heard here, and the film takes it for granted that they are in the middle of superstardom. It’s all quite fun in a slightly ironic way—as a look back at a musical sensation that has aged better than most, or as a mercenary product made with obvious intent. (It also helps that Hallstrom shoots the thing like a music video, meaning that it’s experimental and fun and varied and sometimes slightly crazy.)  ABBA: The Movie is far from the last or the least of such movies hastily put together to take advantage of a musical act’s sometimes-brief moment under the spotlight. It certainly helps that ABBA’s reputation has endured: I’m not sure we’ll be so kind, forty-five years later, to similar artifacts showcasing (say) Justin Bieber.