Friday June 1, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 22 |
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Sunday, Jul 06, 2008
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Singing the Praises of Once |
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| Singing the Praises of Once | ||
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by Sara Michelle Fetters -
SGN A&E Writer The glorious thing about the new independent alt-rock musical Once is that it speaks equally to all types of people whether they be straight, Gay, Trans, black, blue or bright neon green. Sitting down with writer-director John Carney and actors Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová at the Fairmont Olympic in downtown Seattle, I couldn't help but wonder where the inspiration for this marvelous motion picture came from. At a Frames concert, Hansard's well-known Irish band, in 2005 (apparently). "It wasn't really the genesis [of the project]," says Carney, "but it was the beginning because it was then I thought I'd really like to do something with Glen. I kind of just started talking about it." Once is the story of Dublin street musician (Hansard) and a young Eastern European immigrant (Irglová) who strike up a friendship and end up making a record together. Along the way they flirt with falling in love, the pull of their complicated personal lives doing all it can to keep them apart. The film is a beauteous aria of unrequited love filled with moments of such pure cinematic joy; it is a euphoria no other picture this year has yet to deliver. One of those songs, the eerily haunting "Falling Slowly," I can't help but ask Hansard about where the inspiration for a song as timeless as this one comes from. "I don't want to blow it for you," laughs the musician and actor. "If I give you my version [of the song] then it might not mean that much to you." "Basically, though, it's just the idea that sometimes you get into these black moods that 'take me and erase me' and I find myself in these places where 'I just can't come back.' No matter what kind of help or prodding, you just go into some of these dark spots. And then the line, 'you have suffered enough, and warred with yourself, it's time that you won,' I'm just trying to say it is time to stand up and take control." "I guess what the song is really about then is, if you can make yourself better then you can take care of yourself, give yourself some self-medicine, then your relationship has a chance. It's not about the two of you sometimes. It's sometimes about just you, and then it is only from there that the two of you can come back together." Not even 20, it must be odd for Irglová to suddenly find herself cast in the central female role in her first motion picture, especially after she learned the part was originally written for someone in their mid to late 30's. "I didn't really know anything about the film other then it was about a musician and that Glen was writing the music for it," the beautiful young woman says with a smile. "What surprised me most about John wanting to meet me is that I am not an actress. But, obviously, it was an exciting idea to me. I knew Glen and I [also] knew John's previous work so it was exciting to be able to work with two people that you really respect." "At the same time, I thought to myself, I have nothing to lose. I go to Dublin. I play the piano. I sing a couple of songs. If I get it, great, if I don't, no big deal. But when I did get it, it was really exciting and scary both at the same time because I was just hoping I wasn't going to let anyone down." Listening to Hansard (who's first film experience was in another Irish classic, 1991's Alan Parker musical The Commitments), he wasn't the least bit worried about how his costar would respond to the challenge of her first acting role. "We'd been working together for years," he said referring to Irglová and himself, "pretty solidly off and on for two or three years, and we knew each other even before that. We were touring the Czech Republic together, touring Europe together, touring the United States together." "So, we kind of knew each other quite well in a working way, so getting involved in [Once] as mates felt just so comfortable. Had it been another girl, I think I would just have been a little less comfortable. What's happening on screen, I think, is there is a lot of blurring going on [with us]. I think what makes the tension and the relationship so interesting is that it is me and [Markéta] just being me and [Markéta]. Whenever the music is playing, we're really just being ourselves, and then when it stops everything is dialogue driven, but it is still basically just the two of us relating to one another using John's lines." For any fan of classic cinema, those lines - not to mention that plot - hold more than a passing resemblance to David Lean's 1945 classic Brief Encounter. "The used to be one of my favorite films," says a beaming Carney. "I could tell you every line of that film, every frame of it, but it was not consciously an influence here." "It's amazing, though, that as you get a bit older how your influences become less direct. When you are young, you want to parody everything, play homage to everything, you're very eager to show how smart you are. When you get a bit older you just want to be yourself. You're just not interested in other people saying that [scenes] are a Truffaut moment, like a Lean moment. When it does happen, it feels great, especially when you didn't mean it to." Every where Once goes, it is being heralded as a modern classic, the film receiving rapturous reviews from the likes The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as well as winning the prestigious Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival. "It's like a dream," exclaims Irglová. "You almost can't believe it." "It's very strange being in America," interjects Carney, "while everything is happening here. I mean, who'd have thought two years ago when Glen and I were sitting in a café in Dublin and I was trying to convince him to do the movie there would now be The New York Times and The L.A. Times and The Wall Street Journal and it be like rave, rave [and] rave. It would just have been mad! But, now that it has actually happened, you just kind of think, uh, whatever." "People keep wondering why we're not texting and why we're not calling and why we're not celebrating. But they have no idea how busy this is and how busy we are. And, it's brilliant, just brilliant, and it makes us feel if the film does well we've really worked for it. I don't know. Maybe when I get back to Dublin I'll have some perspective on all this." "It will probably hit us in another week when we finally get home," agrees Hansard. "It will be like, 'F**k! That was amazing!' But, until then, right now it does feel one step removed. It's happening right this minute for once, all the reviews were yesterday, our ship is coming in right now. Even with all this success, we're still working. The ship has come in, in a way, but we're actually too busy to see it because we're still digging the coal so [that the ship] will keep going. It is important, then, that we [take a moment] to celebrate because, if we don't, then all this is just another day at work." |
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copyright Seattle Gay News - DigitalTeamWorks 2007