Mamma Mia is a musical so the dialogue is very limited. Songs and the performance of them express most of the mood or feelings. The characters have a small dialogue and then the feelings or expressions are intensified and develop further through the songs and dances. For example the song Mamma Mia, expressed the feelings Donna was feeling. She was excited to see her love and at the same time, she is recalling her heartbreak. Another example is when Donna is singing “ Slipping through my fingers”, when Sophie is about to get married. The song “Slipping through my fingers”, expresses the feelings parents have when children are growing and they are regretting all the lost time. A third example could be the song “The winner takes it all”. The song expresses the feeling of Donna when she lost Sam. It describes a woman that wants to be strong but she is totally broken in the inside.

In a musical like Mamma Mia, the music is everything. The songs give the mood of the movie. Example, when they are singing “Chiquitita”, you feel the pain and you want to cry with them. With the song “Dancing Queen”, you want to get up, dance just like the dancing queen. Another example could be the song,” Our last summer”, you get into the mood of recalling your past summers.

Mamma Mia does not only have happy songs it also has sad songs that could be identify with another genre other than comedy. Songs, like “Chiquitita”, “The winner takes it all,” “When all is said is done,” “ I have a dream”, give it a more serious and drama feeling to the scene.

The effect of songs in a film makes it a fantasy and gives it an unrealistic effect. People do not go around singing in there everyday life. The reason we watch is type of film is to going to fantasyland at least for a couple of hours.

References

Sobchack, V. (2007). The dolby era: Film sound in contemporary Hollywood. Film Quarterly, 60(2), 80-80,79. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/212304484?accountid=32521

Cox, G. (2011). ‘Connecting hearing to viewing and knowing to feeling’: Sound as evocation in non-fiction film with particular reference to No Escape (Cox, 2009)1. Soundtrack, 4(1), 43-62. doi:10.1386/st.4.1.43_1