30/11/2007

The combination of the words ‘musical’ and ‘love-story’ can be enough to strike fear into even the least weary and cynical among us. So what is it that makes Once (Once) [+see also:
trailer
film profile] so much more palatable to audiences? A big success at the Sundance film festival, the film has since taken 8 million dollars at the US box office alone.

Set in Dublin, Once is a simple and low-key story of a part-time busker and a young Czech flower-seller who develop an intense friendship after discovering their mutual passion and talent for music. Low-budget, with a naturalistic aesthetic and performances, the drama of the film centres on the nuances of human relationships rather than particular events; the pair meet, play songs together, record an album with some other musicians, along the way sharing their hopes and past heartbreaks, and flirting with the possibility of being together.

Much like in The Commitments back in 1991 (also set in Dublin), the musical element here is an integral part of the story rather than an added extra – there is no improbable spontaneous breaking into song at the end of scenes, no dancing, and the cast are real musicians (Glen Hansard of ‘The Frames’ - who wrote the score especially for the film - and singer-songwriter Merkéta Irglovà). In fact, one occasionally gets the impression that the narrative is secondary to the music rather than the other way around.

Carney’s belief is that “a three-minute song is worth ten pages of dialogue”. The sweetly chaste romance is thus expressed in a more poetic and lyrical rather than a direct way. The songs themselves, well-crafted, earnest and melancholic, admittedly slip at times into banal singer-songwriter territory, although there are a few stand-out tracks (notably ‘Falling Slowly’ and the haunting ‘If You Want Me’) which are sure to stay with you for a while after leaving the cinema.