"Once" tour

email this story
read comments (7)
post a comment

I've been thinking so much about the musical nature of John Carney's Once (Fox Searchlight, 5.18) since seeing it at the Sundance Film Festival last January that it didn't hit me until this morning that it's a 21st Century Brief Encounter. No exaggeration or reaching -- it really is that at its emotional core.

Hansard, Irglova in Once (l.); Johnson, Howard in Brief Encounter (r.)

The essence of David Lean's 1946 classic is the notion of love found and love lost -- a love between two people (Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson) that's clearly in their eyes and hearts but not quite in the cards, largely due to an inability or unwillingness to break free from another lingering relationship (i.e., Johnson's marriage). The relationship between Once's Glen Hansard and Marketa Itrglova is similarly charged and similarly constrained. And -- I love this -- both films run exactly 85 minutes.

I did a phone interview with Carney, Hansard and Irglova this morning. They were in Boston last night, they're doing press chats today in Manhattan, and they're about to embark on a cross-country promotional tour that will take them to I've-forgotten- how-many-cities, but the trip will span about 18 days, give or take. They'll hit Los Angeles on 5.15 or 5.16.

The interesting thing is that due to Carney's fear of flying they'll be driving the whole way in a van (i.e., paid for by Fox Searchlight) that will have a Once banner on the side. At each screening they'll be doing a q & a and performing a couple of songs "and maybe going out for a drink with whomever wants to come," says Carney. I asked John to please send me a photo of the vehicle once they're on the road, and he said sure.

"Ghosts" trailer<< previous | next >>Gibson as Maverick?

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on May 1, 2007 at 11:42 AM

comment #1

jesse says ...

This is more to Jeff's readers: I saw this film last week, and will be writing about it more in my 5/17 column. It's lovely -- small but memorable and affecting.

I was especially surprised (and delighted) by how much of a musical it was -- not in a showy, production-number-heavy way, but in that the songs are almost always played all the way through, and often performed on camera (rather than playing over montage). Yet it's also very cinematic.

It's a non-integrated musical in the sense that characters don't burst into song on the streets, but often it walks that line really beautifully -- just on the verge of crossing over from a "realistic" performance-based musical to a more fanciful, magical, integrated musical. I tend to prefer the latter, but this movie reminded me of Dancer in the Dark in the way it combined both approaches (though its particular techniques are very different).

Posted by jesse at May 1, 2007 1:29 PM

comment #2

tholl-yung says ...

Whoa, you just did write about it -- kidding --make sure Wells posts it, Jesse, I'm looking forward to reading the rest. I haven't heard the mp3 yet, so if Wells didn't, can you could get info on the song she sings at the piano, while on break, in the recording studio, like if it's finished or recorded? I'm most interested.

Posted by tholl-yung at May 1, 2007 6:05 PM

comment #3

jesse says ...

Oh, I'm actually responsible for posting my own columns, as are Moises and Michele -- so when our stuff goes up late, that's all us, not Jeff.

I don't know the names of any of the songs in the movie -- I know that the two actors recorded an album together of the songs from the movie, and that a proper/actual soundtrack is forthcoming.

Posted by jesse at May 1, 2007 7:13 PM

comment #4

tholl-yung says ...

there are recordings out there which have figured in batterings we've doled out here before, and yet, as far as I can tell - and I'm no expert - that song remains a mystery

Posted by tholl-yung at May 1, 2007 7:29 PM

comment #5

EDouglas says ...

Saw it again last night before a Q'n'A and performance, and the movie really stands up to repeat viewings. Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. It's funny because as i noted to John Carney last night, the CG Fox Searchlight logo at the front probably cost more than his whole film.

Posted by EDouglas at May 2, 2007 5:10 AM

comment #6