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June 24, 2007
"Once": a delightful love story, music
Just watched a tiny-budgeted Irish film called "once." D told me it featured Glen Hansard, the front man from Irish rock band the Frames, and I was intrigued. It would be nice to see Dublin in a film again, too, as the story was said to be set there. Sure, it's a off-night, we can while away the long summer night watching a little love story, a diversion.
Turns out, it's a musical(!). What a perfect idea. Done just right, too.
Hansard plays a lonely, struggling busker on Grafton Street, who meets a Czech girl, played by a new-comer Markéta Irglová, peddling flowers on the same street. He's pursuing his passion, but broken hearted and frustrated. Her passion is playing music, but her circumstances are so that she has to make the ends meet by selling flowers and cleaning big houses. The story is about them meeting, collaborating, falling in love, and ultimately inspiring each other.
It's a perfect idea because Hansard started his musical career as a busker (he is fish in the water performing), he and Irglová have already collaborated as Swell Season (Hansard's solo project), and the movie becomes perfect showcase for the duo's haunting, beautiful tunes.
Its execution is perfect, too. They shot this with hand-held cameras, documentary-style, with an almost off-handed, gorgeous-by-accident looking cinematography. The director, John Carney, was actually a member of the Frames once and a close friend of Hasard. Their rapport translates nicely to a very intimate, immediate feeling of kids hanging out, having fun. In the film's Irish web site, Carney quips: "I was like: 'Brilliant!' This is back to how we were when we were 16, with a camcorder and friends and some songs."
This low-budget, indy art ethos, combined with natural straight-up acting by the non-actors and the simple story-telling, makes for a "musical" that feels authentic and natural. The story lends itself to the format well, as the two spontaneously break into songs quite naturally, in a guitar shop, a studio, his bedroom and a bus.
The story is simple enough. There's not much surprise in the plot, but the songs and chemistry between the cast and the filmmakers provide the hook. The dialog is sparse and the attention was naturally drawn to the songs, whose words are suggestive enough to carry the narrative yet leaving lots of room for imagination. Despite being a bit of music geek, I never sat thorough music movies and paid so much attention to the songs themselves, as I did with this one.
You're moving too fast for me
And I can't keep up with you
Maybe if you slowed down for me
I could see you're only telling
Lies, lies, lies
This over the home-video footage of Hansard's character and his ex-girlfriend, as he writes the song (okay, that scene is a lot less believable than, say, the scene where the two leads spontaneously start singing together in a piano shop. But hey, it's a musical). The song/scene provides much richer experience of what his situation is and what his mental state is than, say, a phone conversation (which happens later in the film, with less gravita and relevance in my opinion).
To me personally, though, it was simply just delightful to see the streets and landscapes of Dublin and Ireland. Hearing "Fair City Waltz" really cracked me up (had to stifle my laugh, as no one else was getting the reference, and the joke that these Russians were learning English through the most revered and lampooned day-time drama in Ireland), and hearing the accent made me nostalgic ("I have a hoover broken" "what's wrong with it?" "Ah, it's focked, yea.").
Another personal highlight in terms of our connection to Ireland: the legendary singer song-writer Fergus O'Farrell (Interference) puts in a cameo appearance during the party scene. He is one of our favorite singers we discovered while in Ireland, and we own a signed copy of his album (If anyone is reading this, you should check out Interference here) now). O'Farrell has collaborated with Hansard before, and his song "Gold" and his presence captures the spirit of the film well. Good to see you, Fergus!
Posted by Akira at 1:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 23, 2007
Le Corbusier on Art & Architecture
On Thursday, this inspiring quote came across my desk at Design Kompany--it's an extended block of text authored by French-Swiss architecture guy Le Corbusier--
You employ stone, wood and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is Construction Ingenuity at work.But suddenly, you touch my heart, you do me good, I am happy, and I say, 'This is beautiful.' That is architecture. Art enters in.
My house is practical. I thank you, as I might thank Railway engineers, or the Telephone service. You have not touched my heart.
But suppose that the walls rise toward heaven in such a way that I am moved. I perceive your intentions. Your mood has been gentle, brutal, charming or noble. The stones you have created tell me so. You fix me to the place and my eyes regard it. They behold something which expresses a thought. A thought which reveals itself without word or sound, but solely by means of shapes which stand in a certain relationship to one another. These shapes are such that they are clearly revealed in light. The relationships between them have not necessarily any reference to what is practical or descriptive. They are a mathematical creation of your mind. They are the language of Architecture.
By the use of raw materials and starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, you have established certain relationships which have aroused my emotions. This is Architecture. -Le Corbusier
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June 12, 2007
Hipster Kickball (2)
The guys and girls with the getup: perfect, asymmetric hair; tight-fitting pants; thick-rimmed glasses; and hand-knitted(?) hats and scarves(!). Wish I had taken a picture/video. There was even a crowd gathering around.
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June 11, 2007
Hipster Kickball
Today. Under stadium lights.
This kind of thing sure doesn't happen in North Carolina.
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