Once (2007)
Genre: Drama / Music
Duration: 85 minuten
Country:
Ireland
Directed by: John Carney
Stars: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová and Geoff Minogue
IMDb score:
7,8 (124.733)
Releasedate: 23 March 2007
Once plot
"How often do you find the right person?"
A young man sings and plays guitar in the street every day, but most of the time he helps repair vacuum cleaners at his father's business in Dublin. One evening a Czech immigrant stands in front of him and gives him ten cents. They start talking and coincidentally she has a broken vacuum cleaner, and she can play the piano and sing, as it turns out. They then hang out a lot, play and sing together, and develop feelings for each other. However, they are also involved in other love affairs.
Actors and actresses
Guy
Girl
Timmy Drummer
Lead Guitarist
Bassist
Eamon
Guy's Dad
Girl's Mother
Heroin Addict
Bill
Reviews & comments
tbouwh
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- 5823 messages
- 5404 votes
A real music film. Lots of singer-songwriter material, which ushers in the drama for a change (instead of the other way around). John Carney's debut is childishly simplistic in design, but manages to touch. This is a film about two people who live from, for and through music. And you feel that.
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are not actors in their own right. In Once, therefore, they mainly rely on their charisma, musicality and the natural way in which their relationship gradually takes shape. Touching to see how one song can bring about so much (Irglova behind the piano in a side room of the studio). Nice to see on screen the rendition of one of my more favorite pop songs (Falling Slowly). Hansard in particular excels with his raw voice, which I have often heard on his pop records that I play every now and then.
The playing time could have been longer, and the cinematography was very bare, but in terms of content there is a lot of power in the simplicity of Once. A single facial expression, a small textual reference to a grand human theme. It has little to do with the body, but carries a lot of meaning with it.
Sing Street (2016) was more fun, more diverse and more colourful, but much closer to the heart than Once I probably won't come across them in this genre that quickly.
Not too high-quality, but catchy and pleasant to watch.
3.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Film Pegasus (moderator films)
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- 31191 messages
- 5473 votes
A pleasant romantic music film. Although it is nowhere really special. 2 people meet and they make an album with their own songs. Nice singer-songwriter songs, but nothing special. The romance comes into play for a while, but is soon crushed. It just creates some distance between the two characters. It's not bad, but it ripples a little further.
The film lacks the necessary charm to really stand out and the songs are also no more than average. A pleasant film, but nothing more.
Translated from Dutch · View original
blurp194
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- 5543 messages
- 4226 votes
Twice.
Pretty soon I got the feeling that I'd seen this before, and of course there are countless movies with more or less the same storyline - a self-righteous man trying to make a living on the street, being "discovered" with a romantic or not. Add a subplot, and then a nice breakthrough. Or something.
But in this case, the parallel was different - the structure of the songs and the way they were filmed triggered something. And that turns out to be Begin Again (2013) - the slightly brightened up version of this film, translated to the US, but with Knightley and Ruffalo instead of somewhat autobiographical with the music makers themselves in the lead roles.
I liked the remake a lot better, by the way, this original is a bit too attractive for me, and the majority of the songs don't really suit me. Actually only 'Broken hearted hoover fixer sucker' gets through a bit. Maarja, Hansard and Irglova play nice, I have to say that again. Especially Hansard I can appreciate his acting more than his singing voice. Still, I'll check out The Swell Season.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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