Six nights later, closing night is headlined with a stunning film about Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Spain. In between these festival bookends, more offbeat subjects show up in the festival's Trajectories program. Films on Guy Lombardo, Nietzsche, John Coltrane, Swiss installation starlet Pipilotti Rist, architect Renzo Piano, Dvorak and the rebuilding of Berlin are just a few examples. Adding a big splash of whimsy to the festival is a film by director Chris Hunt. The girls were not.
Hunt springboards back in time, to cover the group's astounding popularity.
Their rise was not, apparently, as sudden and smooth as North Americans remember. Hunt makes good use of hilarious footage of early ABBA, performing in Swedish and looking fresh-faced. Music producers are interviewed, and the main thrust of their comments stresses how all four members of ABBA were truly blessed with musical talent. This observation perhaps speaks more about today's pre-fab bands that rely heavily of studio technology to get through a song. The technical complexity of the songs' arrangements is also laid bare.