American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 39) the production team. “I wasn’t particularly a fan of musicals — at least, not modern musicals,” he confesses. “I love older musicals — Busby Berkeley, for example — but I came to the project rather skeptical. In the end, it was [director] Phyllida Lloyd who made me love the genre because she has such enthusiasm for it.” Prior to directing the first stage production of Mamma Mia! in 1999, Lloyd worked in English theater and opera. Mamma Mia! is her feature-directing debut. The story’s Greek island setting and down-to-earth themes exacerbated the genre’s traditional problem of how to believably combine narrative with song-and-dance sequences. “It’s a different musical because it doesn’t have a theatrical setting, which most musicals seem to have,” says Zambarloukos. “Even a contemporary musical like Hairspray [AC Aug. ’07] is set mainly in a TV studio. What’s difficult outside of a theatrical setting is how to break into a musical sequence directly from a dialogue scene; our film is very much about realistic human emotions and relationships, so we had to approach it first and foremost as a narrative. The musical sequences grew out of the story, the setting and a certain naturalness based on the fact that once a song was over, the characters very often went straight back into dialogue.” Such “naturalness” suited both the source music and Lloyd’s feelings about how the show would best translate to the big screen. The cinematographer continues, “The script was written around music that already existed, and the songs are about real feelings and real lives; I think that theme carried on into the play and then the film. Some musicals can be very theatrical, but the films that inspired Phyllida for this had more naturalism. The special thing was the ordinariness of situations; she’d rather have a character cleaning a kitchen before breaking into song than parading in front of a huge audience. A musical like this is a celebration of life rather than a celebration of theater.” Though Lloyd’s camera experience was limited to directing a telefilm based on an opera, she had firm ideas about the visuals she wanted, according to Zambarloukous. “My favorite directors always approach everything from such an open standpoint that even if they’ve done 10 films, they really explore each new story and how to tell it,” he says. “Phyllida did exactly that, so it didn’t feel like she was inexperienced. She knew the Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures. Opposite: In Mamma Mia!, Harry (Colin Firth), Bill (Stellan Skarsgård) and Sam (Pierce Brosnan) are invited to a wedding by a woman who believes one of them may be her father. This page, top left: The bride-to-be, Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), is attended by her mother, Donna (Meryl Streep), and her friends Lisa (Rachel McDowell) and Ali (Ashley Lilley). Above: After a tumultuous trip toward the altar, Sophie and her fiancé, Sky (Dominic Cooper), prepare to exchange vows. Left: A tipsy Donna catches up with her longtime pals and former bandmates Rosie (Julie Walters, left) and Tanya (Christine Baranski). American Cinematographer 39
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