It's a simple story. An Irish street musician meet a foreign girl. And their music connects them. But what is so beautiful about this story is beyond the story itself. It's how the story came about and how it evolves.
It all started when the director John Carney approached Glen and requested him to write some songs for a film called "Street Musician" they were making it with some big time actor and producer. They needed a Eastern European girl who plays piano, and so Glen brought Marketa who's a Czech for audition and she got the part. The movie went into making with reasonably big budget. And one day, the actor pulled out, and then the producer too. The movie looks as if its doomed then John said "You know what, let's do this. Let's finish this." After all, big budget isn't everything. All that is needed is a right story told by the right music and right people. With the songs Glen and Marketa had written, they continue with the film and called it Once.
The trailer with my favorite scene where the guy and the gal(yeah, we won't know their names throughout the whole movie) talk over looking the ocean.
What makes this film beautiful is the rawness and simplicity I guess. Throughout the whole film, you can actually feel that they are just being themselves because they are telling the story through the songs they wrote. And they are doing it without the special effect and it also adds to the beauty that they are both NOT actors. They are simply song writers doing a sorta home musical movie. It's so real and raw that there's this one improvised scene at the back of the bus which they did it in one take with the camera shaking. And because they are not actors but the director needs to make it work somehow, they are quite a few of these improvised scenes in the movie which even though it has depart from the script but still work out beautifully.
THE song - Falling Slowly. One of the most beautiful scenes in the movie.
And there is just so many crossing-lines in this film and makes it so real and interesting. The fact that Glen and Marketa did write the songs together, and that they are really close before and now they are a couple. So, during the film, even when the director goes "ok, out, music in", they are still being themselves. And the OST is just amazing as well. Some of the songs like Marketa's If You Want Me, is the original version. The 1st one they recorded at home.
Like one of the music critique puts it, this film doesn't only stood out, but it has come to stay. It is the kind of movie which changed the air in the cinema. You can feel it, the lights dimmed, and after 88 minutes, everyone is at this totally different place.
It's a simple story. An Irish street musician meet a foreign girl. And their music connects them. But what is so beautiful about this story is beyond the story itself. It's how the story came about and how it evolves.