ONCE

If I could choose two musical movies to frame my life as an “adult” (I’m making the assumption that the category of “adult”—in terms of age—is between twenty-one and sixty-five) it’d be A HARD DAY’S NIGHT and ONCE.

The Beatles black-and-white flick—one of my all-time favorite films—I first saw when I was twenty-two and it had just come out over here. As I’ve written before, I went into it envious of not only the Beatles but of other British groups that were beginning to take music gigs away from me and my musician friends at the time. But I came out of it wanting to be a Beatle.

I just saw ONCE last night at the local theater, where I finally qualify for the “senior” discount. It didn’t necessarily make me want to be the Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, or his collaborator singer/songwriter in the film (and in real life as I understand it) Marketa Irglora, but it did leave me with the same sensation I had with the earlier flick from my emerging manhood, that these songwriter/musicians are terrific and I can’t help loving them (Irglora is adorable), and that the movie is terrific and inspiring and made me want to rush out and buy the soundtrack.

Though filmed in two incredibly different periods—styles of music and clothes and life and etc.—both films are shot mostly documentary style, and neither is afraid to focus on the music and let it carry a scene. And in both cases the musicians and their movies make you feel like you can do this too, or at least like you’d certainly love to give it a go.

ONCE is an Irish movie, filmed in Dublin on a budget of supposedly only 130,000 dollars and in 17 days. Shot on digital, without permits as I heard it, gives it even more of a feel of a documentary (as did the black-and-white stock and occasional handheld camera in the Beatles’ flick). There are scenes as true to contemporary Irish life as I’ve seen (and a Best Supporting Actor Award from me to Bill Hodnet who plays Hansard’s character’s dad in the movie). Though some Irish fans have written that Dublin has become much more wealthy even for immigrants than the movie portrays.

But aside from the obvious Irish angles in parts of the story and some scenes, this is a film about artistic creation, the compulsion to do it, the tunnel vision necessary to carrying through with the process, and the exhilaration of achievement when you’ve got something you’re proud of, as well as the satisfaction of others digging it.

But don’t let me oversell it. It’s a small film, mostly music, so if you can dig that, you should enjoy it.