i loved this film. near the beginning, the hand held digital camera gets a little bumpy while moving in on glen hansard, singing in front on an alley in the centre of dublin. and with these jolts and imperfections i settled into this aural banquet of a film. its imperfections are, as a film critic more knowledgeable than i am has already documented, the essence of once's charm. but if charm sounds saccharine, this film is anything but. the representation of the dublin underclass is sustained throughout its 85 minutes, from the heroin user in the opening scene to the building of czech immigrants who share one television. there is no escapist bohemian paradise for 'guy' and 'girl' to retreat into. they are lonely, talented, cold. they rarely take off their coats and scarves. they are edgy with potential. gifted and awkward and infectiously hopeful.
music is the narrative of the film, an emotive and rich narrative which hardly requires further articulation. dialogue works as punctuation. 'falling slowly' could be a gorgeous overture to the whole film; it moves slowly, pointing in a certain direction, but leaving time for the journey to take place; more time, indeed, than the film itself allows. once attempts to make peace with incompletion. with completely magnificent results.
i love that the characters don't have names. they are just a guy and a girl. because we are not quite seeing glen hansard and marketa irglova, and we not not quite seeing two different characters. there is so much of the musicians in the narrative, so much biography; unrequited love, unexpected hurt, unimaginable longing. and yet there is enough distance to make this story feel like yours and mine.
i also loved seeing a film set in ireland from here in atlanta. we saw this in an arthouse theatre called the plaza, and we made up 50% of the audience. it was nice to see on screen a musician i'd already seen four times on a belfast stage.
i'd like to see once twice. or twice more.
[so, on 17 november, we'll be seeing the swell season in the variety playhouse.]
