🎼 Synopsis: A Love Story Told in Chords and Silences
Once tells the story of two artists, a street performer (Guy) and a Czech immigrant (Girl), whose lives intersect in a breathtaking snapshot in Dublin.
Guy is a balladeer who works part-time in a vacuum repair shop and has a passion for singing on the streets with a mic. Girl is a pianist and a flower vendor who gets captivated by his street performance and eventually starts a conversation with him. Their relationship does not develop like your classic romance; it evolves slowly and gently into something more excruciatingly intimate.
In the film, writing and recording songs together gives both of them a sense of fulfillment. Even after trying to strengthen their bond, they are bound by the chains of reality in the form of an economic recession, past relationships, and personal obligations. The film captures the raw and understated element of music and love that breeds creativity — the harsh truth where romances do not culminate in happy endings but in eternal fulfillment.
🌟 Main Cast & Character Portrayals
🎸 Glen Hansard (Guy)
The account centers around a busker who happens to be the vocalist for the Irish Rock band The Frames. His performance throughout the film oscillates between authenticity and artifice, but his performance is certainly not over-the-top. His performance is deeply impactful and understated at the same time, demonstrating fluid emotion, especially during “__” which is soul-shattering.
🎹 Markéta Irglová (Girl)
Irglova was a mere 17 when this was filmed, and she had no prior acting experience before appearing on screen. She does, however, command the screen with a performance that is soothing, clear, and natural. Irglova does immediately engage the audience. Hansard’s preformance also moves into romance and seamlessly devoid of any artifice, which helps both Irglova and Hansard as prior to filming, the couple were already musically collaborating and had a real-life intimacy that showed on-screen.
🎵Music as the Backbone of the Film
The score for ‘Once’ is not just background music; it actively participates in storytelling. Every song in ‘Once’ is diegetic, which means it is part of the story. The characters do not sing to each other in met face in operatic spectacles, but rather in studios, bedrooms, and on the street. Their frame of reference is not simply realistic but rather resonates with viewers and critics alike.
Key tracks:
“Falling Slowly,” won the Oscar for Best Original Song and dominates the film.
A melancholic monologue is A Girl’s narrates of a heartbreaking yet powerful track titled “If You Want Me”
“Captures fleeting defiance and anger” When Your Mind’s Made Up
“Emotional pull, instantly” Say It to Me Now
The soundtrack reached best-seller and remains one of best known works of indie-folk in the late 2000s alongside defining a new wave acoustic singer-songwriters.
🎥 Production and Aesthetic Style
Once was filmed under a budget of roughly €112,000, having no lighting techniques, only natural light, handheld cameras, and non-professional actors.
In a documentary-esque style, the film captures Dublin’s spirit as John Carney, the director of the film who is also Hansard’s former band member, shot the film without many permits.
As Complementing Hansard’s score, the film features long cuts accompanied by a digital grain, enhancing its deeply rooted emotional rawness.
An outline of the story is provided through music and action while silence with minimalist dialogue completes the soundtrack.
🏆 Reception and Ratings
On Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic, Once scored 97% and 88% receiving critical acclaims and darling of the audience simultaneously.
Critic John Carney, stated in his Roger Ebert’s review that “a film that achieves a kind of purity that’s rare in the cinema,” praising the film in his universally accepted review for the one-of-a-kind experience it encapsulated.
From Winning World Cinema Audience at Sundance in 2007 to bagging an Oscar for Best Original Song brought the film promises fulfilling but dreamy moments. Overjoyed, Hansard and Irglová’s acceptance speech enchanted the audience even more.
🎭 Cultural Significance and Stage Adaptation
Later in 2012, the film received an adaptation to Broadway alongside transforming into a musical. It received a Tony, yet maintained the original’s acoustic feel and fidelity untouched. Released by the Audience Award at Sundance.
Alongside winning Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Actor, the show also received eight Tony’s, making it the biggest sharer of the night.Once assisted in shifting the musical genre towards the realism and emotional minimalism of Carney’s later films, which include Begin Again, La La Land, and Inside Llewyn Davis, as well as many others that deeply drew from the aforementioned films.
❤️ Themes & Interpretation
Art as Emotional Translation: The characters (or should I say “musicians”) use music to translate what is best left unspoken. They “talk” through lyrics and glances instead of dialogues.
Love Beyond Romance: Once deconstructs what love actually is. Their relationship, which is platonic, changes them deeply.
Economic Reality vs. Artistic Passion: Both leads are unemployed and broke, allowing the film to resonate with working-class artists everywhere. Romantic, but never idealized.
Connection in transience: There is a moment that is ephemeral, maybe a few days, that is captured in this film and is everlasting. Not all stories need an eternal mark to be valuable.
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