Once - recommended movie
Jun. 18th, 2007 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sligachanI took my mother out to the movies this weekend, and I'd heard that Once featured Irish music, so I suggested that one. It was not at all what I expected, but I hugely enjoyed it. It's a bittersweet love story done for Irish Television, set against the background of a group of street musicians who scratch up enough money for one last-chance recording session.
Everything about this film is as small as the title. The music is simple (what I would call coffeehouse folk, rather than traditional Irish), and both the A and B parts of each song are often based on four chords repeated over and over. The two main characters do not even have names (called just "boy" and "girl" in the credits). There is very little plot, with much of the film consisting of long recording sessions. Apparently, the film only cost 200,000 Euros to make and used non-professional camera equipment because they could not afford the permit to film in Dublin.
But, the very simplicity works very well for this film. The hand-held photography using the characters' faces to tell the story is wonderfully intimate. The music is very nicely executed -- apparently both main actors have their own bands in their day jobs. The barely-sketched love story manages to imply great depth. From the very first hilarious but sad opening scene, the film uses a dry and melancholy sense of humor that I fell in love with. Even my mother, whose interest and knowledge of music starts and ends with Grand Opera, loved it.
This is not a great film, but it is a very good one, and I recommend it especially for musicians and romantics!
One warning. Try to see this at a theatre where they haven't blown out the speakers with too much volume. I found some of the accents challenging, particularly the Czech heroine, but then I often have a hard time with accents. . . .
-- Donald
Everything about this film is as small as the title. The music is simple (what I would call coffeehouse folk, rather than traditional Irish), and both the A and B parts of each song are often based on four chords repeated over and over. The two main characters do not even have names (called just "boy" and "girl" in the credits). There is very little plot, with much of the film consisting of long recording sessions. Apparently, the film only cost 200,000 Euros to make and used non-professional camera equipment because they could not afford the permit to film in Dublin.
But, the very simplicity works very well for this film. The hand-held photography using the characters' faces to tell the story is wonderfully intimate. The music is very nicely executed -- apparently both main actors have their own bands in their day jobs. The barely-sketched love story manages to imply great depth. From the very first hilarious but sad opening scene, the film uses a dry and melancholy sense of humor that I fell in love with. Even my mother, whose interest and knowledge of music starts and ends with Grand Opera, loved it.
This is not a great film, but it is a very good one, and I recommend it especially for musicians and romantics!
One warning. Try to see this at a theatre where they haven't blown out the speakers with too much volume. I found some of the accents challenging, particularly the Czech heroine, but then I often have a hard time with accents. . . .
-- Donald
