Castlebar Rotary Club
Castlebar Rotary Film Night
5, Mar 2008 - 15:13

Myles Gilvarry is heading up Castlebar Rotary Club's film-night fundraiser this year.  The club has managed to get a private screening of the ONCE movie in the Linenhall Theatre on Thursday, 10th April 2008.  Tickets are €20 and there will be wine before the movie.  Wine served from 8pm and movie will start at 8.30pm.

Once (filmed in Dublin) not only has a ton of melodic singer-songwriter music from Glen Hansard, lead singer of the Irish group the Frames, and Marketa Irglova, a young Czech musician he's collaborated with.

The movie recently won an Academy Award for best song at the Oscars.

Filmmaker Carney, himself a former member of the Frames, first thought of using Hansard only for his songwriting skills but at a certain point realized that the singer, who had a small role in Alan Parker's "The Commitments," would be a better choice than more polished professionals.

Both Hansard and the remarkably poised Irglova, who was only 17 when "Once" was shot, bring an unforced intimacy to the film that is one of its strengths. Seeing their characters interact during the pivotal week they get to know each other is to be in the privileged position of eavesdropping on some of life's smallest but most memorable moments. We invest in these people completely, and they do not let us down.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are musicians who forge a bond in John Carney's film 'Once'.

Having musicians for stars enables Carney to fulfill the ambition he had for "Once," which was to make a kind of covert musical a film that "while not a traditional 'musical' (in the 1940s sense of the term) would still use a number of songs" to tell an involving boy-meets-girl story.

With the able collaboration of cinematographer Tim Fleming, Carney has come up with different visual ways to casually present each song. There are scenes in rehearsal spaces, recording studios, music stores and more.

One of "Once's" best songs, "If You Want Me," is heard as Irglova's character, wearing PJs and bunny slippers, is heading home from a visit to the neighborhood convenience store to get batteries for the portable tape recorder she is listening to.

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