once
today is the last day of the Auckland International Film Festival, and in the past 17 days I've seen something like 60 movies. (Actually, I'm writing this Saturday night and I have four more to go, but barring getting hit by a car or something, I'll see them tomorrow. And TWO-LANE BLACKTOP is the last movie, which for anyone who knows how that ends is a very appropriate ending.)
Although I have some technical issues - shooting 2.35:1 widescreen in DV is a stupid idea since it makes a crappy format look worse - one of the films that moved me most at this festival is ONCE, which if you're not living in Alaska or New Zealand is quite possibly playing at an arthouse near you (unlike the preponderance of films I saw here, from a Korean dystopian animation about a future where the only remaining energy source is excrement to a documentary about the Helvetica font). Basically, this is a kind of romance and very funny at points, but it's not really a romantic comedy, and it's full of music but it's not a musical per se in that characters only sing when they're supposed to, but because the characters are musicians they sing a lot.
There's a scene early on where our lead characters, played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (and credited as "guy" and "girl", so I'll just use their names), first decide to try to play a song together, and Glen breaks out this song and teaches it to Marketa. What's remarkable about this scene, first of all, is that it's unlike virtually any other time you've seen somebody teach a band or another musician a song in a movie. Normally, the lead guy says something like, "just follow along", and the band magically manages to follow our hero through unspecified chord changes, four different parts, everything shy of "Cygnus X-1". Here, it absolutely feels (to me, anyway) like they're playing the song together for the first time.
And then there's the song that they're playing, which I had never heard before, and if you haven't heard it I'm tempted to tell you not to watch this til you see the movie, only because its effect on me was pretty magic. Truth is, I teared up just a little bit. But I'm a big softie at heart (the list of movies I've cried in is not a short one, even if you limit it to movies I saw at this festival).
On the other hand, a decent number of people walked out of the movie midway through, basically (I guess, having not conducted exit polls) because a LOT of the not particularly long running time is spent on the songs, and if you don't like the music then, well, there's sod all to offer. So below is "Falling Slowly", in the best version that I could find. It doesn't have the chemistry between the two leads that the movie does, particularly because Marketa keeps disappearing behind some guy's shoulder, but you get what you pay for.
(Hansard, by the way, is the singer of the Frames, who I don't really know but are opening for Dylan who I'm seeing in two weeks and now I'm doubly excited for that show.)
Although I have some technical issues - shooting 2.35:1 widescreen in DV is a stupid idea since it makes a crappy format look worse - one of the films that moved me most at this festival is ONCE, which if you're not living in Alaska or New Zealand is quite possibly playing at an arthouse near you (unlike the preponderance of films I saw here, from a Korean dystopian animation about a future where the only remaining energy source is excrement to a documentary about the Helvetica font). Basically, this is a kind of romance and very funny at points, but it's not really a romantic comedy, and it's full of music but it's not a musical per se in that characters only sing when they're supposed to, but because the characters are musicians they sing a lot.
There's a scene early on where our lead characters, played by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (and credited as "guy" and "girl", so I'll just use their names), first decide to try to play a song together, and Glen breaks out this song and teaches it to Marketa. What's remarkable about this scene, first of all, is that it's unlike virtually any other time you've seen somebody teach a band or another musician a song in a movie. Normally, the lead guy says something like, "just follow along", and the band magically manages to follow our hero through unspecified chord changes, four different parts, everything shy of "Cygnus X-1". Here, it absolutely feels (to me, anyway) like they're playing the song together for the first time.
And then there's the song that they're playing, which I had never heard before, and if you haven't heard it I'm tempted to tell you not to watch this til you see the movie, only because its effect on me was pretty magic. Truth is, I teared up just a little bit. But I'm a big softie at heart (the list of movies I've cried in is not a short one, even if you limit it to movies I saw at this festival).
On the other hand, a decent number of people walked out of the movie midway through, basically (I guess, having not conducted exit polls) because a LOT of the not particularly long running time is spent on the songs, and if you don't like the music then, well, there's sod all to offer. So below is "Falling Slowly", in the best version that I could find. It doesn't have the chemistry between the two leads that the movie does, particularly because Marketa keeps disappearing behind some guy's shoulder, but you get what you pay for.
(Hansard, by the way, is the singer of the Frames, who I don't really know but are opening for Dylan who I'm seeing in two weeks and now I'm doubly excited for that show.)
5 Comments:
My favorite example of the instant song learning you describe is in the movie "Hello Down There". In it a super young Richard Dreyfuss lives in an underwater home with his family and his band (his dad, Tony Randall, designed it and they have to test it, but can't leave the band behind cause they are about to make it).
So during one living room practice Harold (Dreyfuss) gets it, he says over and over "i got it, i got it", meaning he figures out the song that is going to take them to the top. And as you describe he says, follow me... and instantly not only do they all know the song, but there is additional invisible instruments that also know it. And the backup singers know it even if the characters in the movie don't. Add to this Janet Leigh as the mom dancing to it, dolphins dancing to it and the cheapest reverse/forward effect on a turtle to make her look like she's dancing, and you got one of the funniest band scenes ever put to film.
And if thats not enough to convince you about this movie, it also features Roddy McDowall as the young rich kid, Phil Spector type producer, Jim Backus as the faithless record label owner, and Merv Griffin as himself trying on his best 'hipster' speak to communicate with the kids.
I've seen the Frames here in Chicago and a few years back at SXSW. He's a good singer. Kind of reminded me of Spoon, straight up rock pop, nothing new.
I've heard good things about Once. It's in our Netflix queue.
Carlos - I've never heard of Hello Down There and it sounds like a made up movie from the mind of a thirteen year old. So, I put it in the queue.
Anybody who has played in a band knows that in the real world that magic rarely happens...unless you play in a Blues band where the rules are pretty well layed out for you. I've definitely seen blues bands pull songs out of their ass. And btw I know there has been a lot of blues vs jazz type talk and I just wnat to say I like the blues.
And the jazz.
If you play in a band that screws things up, throws in unexpected twists and breaks, then there is hardly a way to poop a song out like magic. So I tend to see most bands as two bands. The band that has to work hard and cooperate through the creation of a song. This band is the band that has the most potential to break a band up. Because change is difficult and egos get inserted here. But it's a good life lesson to work through the creation of a song as a band. I think it helps to understand change in a work environment and how it affects otherwise good work relationships. It boils down to taking the personal out of it and accepting that change is simply a tough foe. Kids hate change.
And then there's the band inside a band that knows all the songs and just jams on the "old hits." This is the band that is content with a small set (so they can get gigs) but doesn't want to mess with the formula or the fun and eventually bores their audience silly.
hi doug, if my math is correct, you've been watching about 3 films per day for the past 2-1/2 weeks. does it alter your sense of reality to spend so much time engrossed in other people's recreations of reality? i can easily read books for 4-5 hours per day, but i'm thinking i'd go slightly batty if i had to watch that many movies. (keep in mind, this is coming from a person who doesn't own a t.v.).
Keep in mind you're talking to someone who works as an editor, so spending 6 hours looking at somebody's footage is actually less than I often spend per day looking at external footage. Plus the different worlds were so variegated that they kind of cancelled each other out - going from a Japanese horror/comedy about a note that kills anyone's name you write in it to a documentary about a 4-year old abstract artist, for instance, doesn't give you an overall thing.
Although the day I watched INLAND EMPIRE and SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY back to back was too much abstraction of narrative for one day and blew some synapses.
Anyway, to sort of answer your question - I find that mostly what it did is dampen or deaden my internal emotional life a bit after a while. I'm looking forward to not watching anything today, put it that way.
I've never heard of HELLO DOWN THERE, but it became a must see with the words "underwater home".
ONCE is still in theatres in lots of the US, Kilian, so it might be in yr. queue for a while.
I do want to warn those who might watch Hello Down There that it is exactly what you would expect out of a combination of Gilligan's Island, The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch... Just as happy as all that.
I put once in my netflix cue cause the youtube video didnt do that much for me, but i believe it is more rewarding in context.
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