“I try not to put myself in the position of advocating on behalf of a film’s commercial prospects,” Pop Machine’s Mark Caro writes, “but I remember saying [at last January’s Sundance Film Festival] that I couldn’t believe that no distributor had yet bought Once”

“‘But how do you market it?’ one of the distributor’s acquisitions guys responded.

“‘As a movie that everyone loves,’ I said. ‘It’s a music movie, it’s a love story…’

“‘But music movies don’t sell,’ he said. Plus, the stars were unknown, and, you know, their everyday faces weren’t going to sell tickets.

“‘But everyone loves the movie,’ I insisted. ‘People are moved by it. It’ll have great word-of-mouth.’

“His response was an indulgent smile. Ah, naïve writer… thinking you can sell a movie on the basis of people loving it. Quaint.

“Well, sometimes naïve wins.”