| StoreTags: once, movie, balls
Author: Roshi on December 15 2007 Viewed 1478 times. 10 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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Finally got to see the movie Once ( link ) today:
I'd heard it was great, but I just found it unexpectedly wonderful. It's a musical, but both of the musicians featured in it (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova) wrote all of the songs in it. It's a real simple story (guy and girl both nursing broken hearts, play music together, record demo tape, almost fall in love) but the musical performances anchor it and really make it it into something special.
For example, the first time they play together he's teaching her the chords to a song ("Falling Together") and they first start playing. She's really tenative at first, but the joy increases with each second as they discover how well they play together. It's such a wonderful observation of that moment where musicians "find" each other and mesh together.
Maybe it's cheesy, but I just really really liked it. As a portrait of musical collaboration, I just find it really beautiful and moving. And I'm not really too into singer-songwriters.
Here's a video of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova playing "Falling Together".
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edited: Dec 16 2007
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celibacyclub
this looks really interesting. i think i heard about this on the radio.
balls
12/16/07
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Roshi
Don't want to puff it up too much, but I really liked it.
It's a modest movie, but really good because of that.
12/16/07
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chimplogic
same thing happened for me. i went in hearing good things about it and came away rather charmed. very good movie IMO.
12/16/07
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mapmap
i'll have to catch this one soon. i heard an interview with some of the cast of KCRW a while ago...i think that they cast all real musicians, most with out an acting background.
12/16/07
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chimplogic
real musicians indeed. hansard fronts the band 'the frames' and marketa appears on a couple of their songs. the two of them also have a duet album out, featuring the songs in the movie plus a few others.
12/16/07
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yghartsyrt
sounds cool. need to watch this.
thanks
12/16/07
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Roshi
It's coming out on DVD this tuesday for those indie-theatre deprived cities.
It's funny that no one really thought of casting musicians in a musical - everyone expects people in a musical to dance, I suppose.
12/16/07
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quip
i was gonna avoid this. i can't stand musicals, romance or musicians but maybe i should check it out
just to confirm my prejudices.
12/16/07
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Roshi
LOL, I would probably say no in your case, quip. 
12/17/07
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Tripnik
HA! I recently played this song for some caberette singers at a gig. The Female singer was totally into this movie...sounded a bit cheesy to me but at your suggestion I'll check it out. You've got the blog that can launch a thousand movie goers.
12/17/07
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Roshi
LOL @ tripnik...I just like to write about art that moves me.
I think it works on its own level - the acting is really not that melodramatic - and it's really about that amazing connection between musicians when they start playing together - so on that note, I think it's successful. If you want a cheezy love story...look somewhere else.
12/17/07
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replicalex
I wasnt expecting to like it, I hate musicals as a rule but was very pleasantly surprised.
It was shot for very little money and no permits - you can see people pionting and taking pictures of Glen in the street cus they recognise him from The Frames.
I saw it in Glasgow and Glen and Marketa did a Q&A after and played a few songs.
Him with his ole beat up guitar and her on piano, they sounded great. Not my type of music at all but it was a powerfull performance.
12/17/07
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algorhythm
Once is a great film, everything a great flim should be, good story, good music, good acting, good photography. This low budget film was a labor of love, the director gave his pay to the actors, some of the scenes are not perfect, much of the movie has a reality TV edge (in a good way). I particularly liked the recording studio scenes, and I loved the passion for the music all through the film. My sister, a drama enthusist, is smitten with this film, has seen it many times while taking different friends to it.
12/17/07
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Roshi
Yeah, I hear you, algo.
It's refreshing to see a movie where music is so important to all of the characters and not just as a background to mopey emo indie-film characters. (I'm looking at you, Zach Braff, did the Shins *really* change your life? I think not.)
04/18/08
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packetst0rm
I'd only want to see it because I'm a fan of the frames...
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