I just rediscovered this brilliant movie, "Once", definitely one of my favourites (next to "The Fountain" and "Science of Sleep"). A wonderful, melancholic story, which just exactly what everybody needs to see sometimes.
Why do we like melancholic films? Because they are no Hollywood, no blinders, no lies, no hard-core action and violance, but just pure reality from everyday life. How could we enjoy and appreciate what we've got, if we never experience sadnass and pain? At least such movies can bring some of these feelings in the heart of the empathic audience. Not so long ago a friend of ours suggested a very nice low-budget movie starring Joaquin Phoenix, the "Two Lovers", which is even more sad than "Once". "Once" has a kind of two sides, where one of these is really beautiful, but still. I felt first of all really disappoited at the end, sad and broken-hearted, but hopefully for the good. And this is what makes the sorrow taste somehow sweet.
Here are some great tracks from the movie, written and performed by the lead actors (Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova), who are actually no actors, but pure musicians, trying to make their living. This is also a thing, I liked in this movie: real, flesh-and-blood people and no perfomers. It makes the whole film even more real. And guess what: we never get to know the name of the Characters. Isn't that brilliant? The story becomes valid generally, we absorb it more efficiently, feel like it is ours and not James and Anna's story, which we can push away from ourselves if we want so.
Now, enjoy, the Oscar-winning music:
