"Once" -- winner of World Cinema Audience Award for Best Dramatic Film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and winner of the 2007 Audience Award at the 5th Jameson Dublin International Film Festival -- will have its first limited U.S. theatrical release through Fox Searchlight Pictures in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, May 18 with a wider domestic release to follow.
Both audiences and critics at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival raved about "Once." "It may well be the best music film of our generation," observed Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune. "The best of the best at Sundance. A gift of a movie that is absolutely worth seeing more than once," wrote Rolling Stone's Peter Travers. A.O. Scott, of The New York Times, called it, "One of the genuine discoveries of this year's Sundance Film Festival close to perfect."
The film's writer/director John Carney wanted to create " a simple, classic story of two artists falling in love." Carney had been a musician himself -- playing bass guitar with the Dublin band The Frames in the early 1990s -- before devoting himself to film. As a fan of classic movie musicals, Carney's brings a new relevance and believability to the genre in "Once," an Irish alternative-folk musical. He set "Once" in his native Dublin, casting his former Frames' bandmate Glen Hansard (who'd appeared in Alan Parker's "The Commitments") as an itinerant busker/songwriter/guitarist and Markéta Irglová -- a musician from the Czech Republic (who collaborated with Hansard on his 2006 solo album, "The Swell Season") -- as an immigrant pianist. With the film's scenes taking place where music would naturally occur -- a piano shop, a recording studio, a room with a guitar, a busking spot -- the songs in "Once" are all performed on camera, arising as organic elements in the storyline.
Songs written and performed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová on Music From the Motion Picture 'Once' include "Falling Slowly," "If You Want Me," "Broken Hearted Hoover Fixer Sucker Guy," "When Your Mind's Made Up," "Lies," "The Hill," "Fallen From The Sky," "Leave," "Trying To Pull Myself Away," "All The Way Down," "Once," and "Say It To Me Now." The track, "Gold," is performed by Interference.
In the film, the Guy (Hansard) works part-time helping his father, who runs a small, vacuum cleaner repair business, but dreams of having his songs recorded and landing a record deal. His girlfriend has recently left him and gone to London, and he is still coming to grips with that loss and is emotionally vulnerable.
One day while busking on Dublin's Grafton Street, he meets the Girl (Irglová), an East European immigrant who has moved to Dublin to start a new life for herself and is currently working as a house cleaner in an upper-class residence. She is struggling financially, cannot afford the piano she yearns for, and is in the process of making crucial decisions about her personal life.
The Guy and the Girl are both outsiders, struggling with their art and their hearts. Through music, they find a common bond that brings them together. Over the course of an intense few days, their relationship blossoms as they put together a band to rehearse songs and record some demos, all of which results in them both finding and sharing the transformative power of music.
Written and directed by John Carney, "Once" is produced by Martina Niland and executive produced by David Collins with Music by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The director of photography is Tim Fleming, and the production designer is Tamara Conboy. Costume design is by Tiziana Corvisieri with casting by Maureen Hughes. Once has been financed by The Irish Film Board and RTE.
