Mamma Mia has a lot of aspects in it that relates to the themes that Rousseau discusses in his discourses. The themes of simplicity over the material and money in life, and emphasis on people and the relationships that people have with one another showcase what Rousseau would have wanted. Within the movie, there are also themes of the beautiful and the picturesque.
First off, the characters within the movie are all good representations of what Rousseau would have wanted in a group of people. They care mostly about one another and the relationships that they have with another is one where they have their own individual responsibilities within society. They aren’t open to having a thousand different responsibilities which is important within what Rousseau thinks. Within what Rousseau thinks is the “beautiful” the scenery of Greece showcases this.
The blue water, the blue skies, and the costuming adds to the light colors, feeling of pleasure, fulfillment, and contentment, as well as virtue or harmony which is a common theme within the movie. There is also a picturesque within the roughness, sudden variation, breaking in symmetry with the beauty, roughness, and irregularity within the wedding scene as the sky isn’t blue, there are dark colors around and the overall mood is giving us a psychological association of melancholy. There is also the sublime within the imagery of the character on the boat, as there is a vastness of the ocean and the blue clearness around it.
There is also the notion of progress is regress, as there are also the characters that try to progress in ways such as marriage and building a hotel in ways to progress the area they live in. However, towards the end of the movie, they go back to not progressing, which is then not regressing as they go back to focusing on each other and their overarching goal of trying to find their own inner peace. Furthermore, the main character’s daughter is a skepticist of many of the traditions that has been forced upon her. She doesn’t approve of the nature of marriage just because it is the logical “next step” but rather she ends the movie feeling confident in the fact that she has chosen the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She doesn’t always adhere to the reason side of things as she is constantly wanting to branch out from the place she grew up in and travel to fulfill her dream.
I also think that I have changed in this notion as well. I used to think that getting married and going about my life the conventional way was the right direction to go. I now believe that life comes at you in different directions and in unique ways.
This notion of questioning things also correlates with Rousseau. Within the ways of connecting with Rousseau’s notions of the sublime, picturesque, and the beautiful, as well as the themes of simplicity, skepticism, and progress is regress, Mamma Mia connects and strips down away from “ a big show” type of movie and instead focuses on the society and the individuals that make up the society. More importantly, Mamma Mia also, along with Rousseau uses the power of language to connect to a theme that has been common throughout the ages, the idea that man is his own individual, and straying away from being that individual is what makes people lose what inherently makes them unique.
https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=5446510&page=1
https://variety.com/2018/film/news/mamma-mia-here-we-go-again-reviews-critics-1202875891/
Movie Mania 
I love that you found so many connections between the themes prevalent in Mamma Mia and Enlightenment thought. I especially like that you found a parallel between the simplicity of living on the island in Greece and Rousseau’s encouragement of returning to a state of nature. Also, I think your descriptions of the beautiful, sublime, and picturesque were very accurate within the context of the film. The natural landscape and scenery of the island exemplifies the beautiful, in addition to the fact that the people live in harmony with nature on the island.
Another thing to contemplate is the depiction of gender relations within the movie. For example, the women are all characterized as independent and highly successful, in contrast to the men, who are portrayed as chaotic and unfocused. This could also connect to the theories of Rousseau and Locke in that they believed the state of nature to be egalitarian.
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I think you bring up an interesting idea by seeing Rousseau’s ideas in the Mamma Mia movie. In lecture, Steintrager stated that Rousseau would tell us to drop out of school and go live in a cave. This is because once we start to study virtues, we end up losing our own. In relation, the Mamma Mia movie does not really address college but instead it promotes the idea of living a simple life and travelling. I feel this would be the closest way to implement Rousseau’s ideas into our modern society because it would be extremely difficult to just cut ties with everything to go live in a cave.
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This is a great topic! I enjoyed reading this blog post and seeing how topics we learned in class are directly correlated to modern day society, in this case to movies. The visual analysis you made of scenes in the movie were interesting to see as they were connected to the ideas of beautiful, sublime, and picturesque. Also, the analysis you made of the shots and how they would be digested through Rousseau’s mindset is a great way to connect our readings to blog posts! I enjoyed about you were able to pick at the movie “Mama Mia” and find how it was connected to Rousseau, ideas that are separated by generations and generations of history, yet still hold a great number of similarities.
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Mamma Mia is one of my favorite movies, and I am really glad that you wrote about it! With this post, many great points were brought up. It shed the movie into a new light for me, and offered new points of view. Instead of seeing the daughter as independent and rebellious, I can view her as a skeptic. The characters within the movie also do live very simple lives, but they are happy. They are also very down to earth. I remember one part of the movie, at the very end, where the three potential father figures stop fighting and agree to co-parent their daughter (Sophie) together. They removed the sense of competition and glory between them, which Rousseau would be agree with. They all united together for the benefit of the group or family.
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