Once
by John Carney
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DVD details
Actor: Danuse Ktrestova, Glen Hansard, Leslie Murphy (II), Markéta Irglová, Senan HaughDirector: John Carney
Brand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Czech (Original Language); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Color, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Color; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Once
DVD Review: a broken-hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy and a sad vacuum cleaner dragging girl: unrequited
Summary: 5 Stars
It's been a while now since I saw ONCE, but there's been no lessening of impact. I marvel at it still and love it still. I've done the MP3 thing with the songs and have pimped the movie to my friends. Looking at the glowing reviews here, I don't really have much (or, really, anything) to contribute, other than my unreserved support for this fantastic movie. My apologies then for whatever redundancy may follow. Probably you've heard most or all of it before. Still, I'll hang a SPOILERS flag here.
Getting somewhat poetic now: Modest in ambition, woeful in budgeting, but lavish in the ways that count, in honesty and heart and sheer musicality, ONCE quite easily measures up to any glossy product put out by Hollywood. ONCE looks unglamorous and at times even amateurish, and seems more real becuase of it. Featuring the blue-collar city of Dublin as seen thru the eyes of its inhabitants, ONCE tells of a tiny increment of time spent together by an Irish busker who repairs vacuum cleaners as his grown-up job and an impoverished young Czech woman who can make a piano sing. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová in these roles are so natural and pitch perfect that I was startled when I found out how little professional acting they've previously done. I wasn't startled at all, of course, to learn that these two are real life musicians, and very gifted.
Some background stuff, garnered mostly from a Glen Hansard interview I read in the Montreal Gazette (published 4.14.07): Director John Carney used to be the bassist for Hansard's real life band The Frames, before Carney moved on to cinema and directing. Originally Carney had only wanted to consult Hansard over Hansard's busking experiences and also to use his songs for ONCE. Actor Cillian Murphy had already signed on to play the lead role, but then he balked at singing the difficult shifts in Hansard's songs and also with working with Markéta Irglová, who had never acted before. Murphy pulled out, and a gutted Carney was out one leading man. Days later, Hansard asked Carney to play bass at a gig he was performing with Markéta Irglová (they'd just collaborated on an album), and it was during this time, when Carney was rocking out and seeing how well Glen and Markéta were getting on, that Carney hit on the idea of having Hansard play the lead. Hansard, initially very reluctant, was eventually talked into it. The rest, as they say...
Just to underscore how shoestring ONCE's budget was, John Carney had to engage in guerilla filmmaking, declining to pay the permits for street filming. The opening scene was shot with hidden long lenses, so the people on the street had no clue that a film was being made. One fallout to this was that when the scene called for the guy to run off with Hansard's character's guitar case, one unwitting bystander, trying to help out, booted the "thief" in the nuggets. Heh. In a way, not having bigger budgeting helped to make this a better film. Much of the dialogue is improvised, and there's an intimacy and an organic feel to the story that probably would never have been tapped into if the film had been better financed or cast with a name actor.
But amateur shamateur. Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová develop amazing chemistry onscreen. It helps that they know each other in real and that the characters they play harbor real-life connotations, musicians playing musicians. In the credits, these characters are known only as "the guy" and "the girl," but Hansard and Irglová breathe life into them and deftly convey the melancholy and the relentless tediousness of their lives. The film premise is this, simply: two sad people finding a connection, creating brilliant music and then parting ways. There's a romance, but it's unrequited and mostly unremarked upon. The girl is married, with a little girl. The guy, suffering from a broken heart, halfway hopes of someday doing big things with his music, but is stuck in a rut. The girl proves to be the motivating push. I think it would've played false if the ending had been different. As it is, what goes on between the two is understated and bittersweet and terribly romantic. There's something so wistful and sad about the girl's last lingering look out the window in that closing scene, as the camera then pans out to the street and the end credits roll.
The musical performances are what elevate this film into something truly special. There are tiny, significant moments etched out in this slice of life story, little vignettes full of glancing looks and endearingly awkward conversation and a sense that honest to gosh lives are actually being lived here. But there are at least four absolutely showstopping moments in ONCE, and these happen when Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová play their instruments and lift their voices to sing. The guy's savage evening rendition of "Say It To Me Now" out in the street. The riveting duet of "Falling Slowly" (my favorite) in the music shop. The girl's late night excursion to the convenience store and her stroll back home as she sings the lyrics she'd just composed to the guy's music ("If You Want Me"). The guy's makeshift band recording "When Your Mind's Made Up" in the studio and the sound engineer getting schooled by the band's performance. All amazing, flawless stuff.
DVD bonus features come in the way of what I think is a must-hear film commentary by Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Director John Carney; a separate commentary by the same three on six of the songs; "making a modern day musical" - the Making Of featurette (12.5 minutes long); "more guy, more girl" - a segment exploring the relationship between the two central characters (9.5 minutes long); a webisode "broken hearted hoover fixer sucker guy" (basically, this is just some rough sketches set to this song); and the option to download "Falling Slowly" from the motion picture soundtrack.
The key, of course, is that we so personally identify with these working class characters, who everyday struggle and doubt like we do and whose personal triumphs, like ours, are more often than not measured in modest achievements. This movie reaffirms that in the routine and greyness of our days are sometimes concealed shades of color. And that, if nothing else, there is always music. I love this movie.
But I wonder how "the guy" had got on in London?
Description of Once
ONCE - DVD MovieWinner of the World Audience Award at Sundance, Once starts out as a small-scale romance, like Before Sunrise, before arriving somewhere unexpected. An Irish busker (Glen Hansard, the Frames and The Commitments) meets a Czech flower seller (Markéta Irglová) while singing on the streets of Dublin. (In the credits, they're listed as Guy and Girl.) She likes what she hears and lets him know. Turns out she's a musician, too. They work on a few songs together and a friendship is forged. She lives with her widowed mother, who doesn't speak English. He lives with his widowed father, who owns a repair shop. Since he broke up with his girlfriend, the guy has been drifting, unable and unwilling to get his life in order. The girl encourages him to pursue a record deal, and the guy emerges from his funk. Then he makes a move on the girl, who rejects his advances. He's confused, but as he comes to find, there's a reason she?s keeping her distance. Though Once is filled with appealing folk-pop by Hansard and Irglová (released on CD as The Swell Season), the movie isn't a traditional musical, but rather a more optimistic Brief Encounter. Filmmaker John Carney, Hansard's former bandmate, captures the real city--in all its affluence and poverty--rather than the picture postcard version. His beautifully shot film serves as a heartfelt ballad about all the underclass Guys and Girls swept aside amidst Ireland's economic miracle. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Beyond Once on DVD
 Musicals on DVD |  Once: The Soundtrack |  More from Fox |
Stills from Once
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