Movies by genres   Musicals  

Buddy, can you spare a musical?

Buddy, can you spare a musical?
Will Smith  |  by www.canada.com. All rights reserved. 24.05 | 22:28

A former Air Canada cleaner says security was so lax at Toronto's Pearson International...


 
The film Once, which opens tomorrow and stars Glen Hansard, the Irish singer/songwriter and member of The Frames, was almost a much different, much bigger film featuring Cillian Murphy.
Director John Carney was initially bitter when the rapidly rising star couldn't join the project, which is being billed as an art-house rock musical. But reflecting on it now, he says, "it was always the wrong decision in a way.

I think we needed a real singer to do this film, or that's what I've learned now."
With Murphy as star, there would have been more money and more pressure. As it is, says Carney, "we created a world and an environment where there were no producers, there was no ticking clock, there was nobody telling us you haven't covered the scene properly.

It was like sitting at home playing the piano, as opposed to going into a studio to record a pop album."

Glen Hansard, left, and John Carney wrote most of the songs for their film, Once, while developing plot.</p><p>

Glen Hansard, left, and John Carney wrote most of the songs for their film, Once, while developing plot.

Peter Redman, National Post
Font: Once certainly has an easygoing vibe, opening with Hansard's character (who is never named) busking on the streets of Dublin. When a junkie steals his money, he chases the guy to retrieve it but then gives him some money anyway.


"He asked me for anecdotes about my years as a street musician," says Hansard, sitting with the director in a Toronto hotel room recently, "because I spent many years on that street in that spot, playing guitar, singing. Getting your money stolen by a junkie was part of the risk of every day, and it happened to me a few times."
And like his character, he has felt sympathy even while being robbed.

"If he has to stoop so low that he steals money off a busker ...

" he says, letting the thought hang.
In the film, Hansard meets a young woman (also not named) played by Czech musician Marketa Irglova, and the two become musical collaborators and, for a time, not-quite-lovers. Once again, life informed art, as Hansard had known Irglova for a number of years.

They recently released an album together, The Swell Season, and both appear on the soundtrack for Once.
The album is being released in conjunction with the film.
Hansard remembers telling Carney, "She's not an actress, she's not the age group you're looking for but I think I've got someone you should look at.

" The two have since become romantically involved. "It's very easy for me to stare at her and be all into her [in the film] because I am."
A question about a scene in which the characters record an album and then listen to it while driving to the beach reveals even more personal connections between Hansard and Carney.

"John was in my band years ago," says Hansard.
"John was a bass player in The Frames when we made our first album, and the producer ..

. had said to us, 'OK we've been listening to it on really nice speakers; let's go listen to it in my car because they're sh--, and if it stands up there then we've got a good mix.' "
In real life, that meant sitting in an alley with the car stereo turned on.

In the movie, it becomes a whimsical music-video moment.
"The storyline and most of the songs in the film were written at the same time," Hansard says. "I gave [Carney] a bunch of songs that I had lying around.

He liked four or five of them and then asked me to write a few more."

Read more on by www.canada.com. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Glen Hansard, John Carney
Related news
Post comments
Name
Place
4 + 6 =
Comments