Sneak Preview: Once
Once is a contemporary musical film about two young musicians who fall in love. The story couldn’t be simpler, which highlighted the great music and the gritty, “realistic” looking cinematography even more.
In addition to the free screening of the film, we were treated to a Q&A session with the director John Carney and actors/musicians Glen Hansard of The Frames and Markéta Irglová. More on this down below.
I can’t say anything bad about this film. Every character was likable, even a street drunk who tries to steal money from the main character. That might be counterintuitive, to have a whole cast of likable people. But that’s not to say that the main characters do not face any challenges. They can’t help but make music, but they also have their daily responsibilities to make the ends meet. They have family to care for and think about. They can’t run off and be together forever after no matter how romantic that might feel. It’s the way this film resists the Hollywood-esque urges in every way that makes it charming. I especially liked the last scene, where a more “produced” film would have taken the same scene up another notch in terms of cinematographical “trickery,” but Carney used just enough of the unexpected angle to communicate the main character’s feeling. It was crystal clear without being too over-the-top.
After we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the director and the two actor/musicians who play the main characters would make an appearance. The Q&A after the film was insightful and funny. It’s always nice to see artists showing passion for their craft in a fun-loving way (as opposed to self-absorbed and too serious, like how some people can be). We learned about how Hansard and Irglová wrote some of the songs together, the different approaches for directing music-centric scenes and straight acting scenes, etc.
Then Hansard and Irglová performed some of the music from the film. Hansard even used the broken-ass guitar that his character uses in the movie. They were taking audience requests — it was fantastic. These artists have every reason to be excited about this project — go see this film if you can! It’ll be playing in SIFF, and will open in Seattle in June.
