Sometime toward the end of 2007, I read a tiny little article in some local paper about this Irish movie that was showing as part of a film festival. Once, it was called, and was a musical that defied the label. I tried to lure some friends to go with me, but none would have a bar of it and Heidy- my fellow fan of all things Irish- actually was in Ireland.
So I watched it alone. I’d say about ten minuted into the movie, I knew it would become one of my favourites.
It’s unsurprising that reviewers compared it to my other favourite films: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Both films revolve around a man and a woman, walking and talking and getting to know each other over a brief period of time. But unlike Linklater’s twin masterpieces, Once has music.
And not just any music. Folky, guitary, troubadoury music. While I have wandered across genres in the last few years, the music of Once was like bread and butter to my musical being. And it had that most wonderful of things: a song in 5/4 time. The actors, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, were really musicians, moonlighting as actors in the film and performing songs they had written.
