Once (2007) on Netflix
Guy busks on Grafton Street in Dublin and repairs vacuum cleaners. A Czech flower seller, drawn by his music, brings him her broken hoover and says she is a musician too.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.8/10126,561 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Guy is a thirty-something busker who plays his guitar on Grafton Street in Dublin and repairs hoovers. When a man steals the money from his performance, he chases him. Girl, a nineteen-year-old Czech magazine and flower seller, is drawn by his music and asks about his songs. She asks him to fix her broken vacuum cleaner, and the next day she brings it to him and says she is a musician too. At a music store where she often plays piano, he teaches her one of his songs, and they perform it together.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Once (2007)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Actor Cillian Murphy was originally intended for the male lead and was also going to produce, but pulled out after reportedly disliking the prospect of acting opposite non-actor Markéta Irglová, then 17, and doubting he could sing Glen Hansard's octave-leaping songs; the film's other producers withdrew their financial support too.
- Markéta Irglová became the youngest person to win an Oscar in a non-acting category when "Falling Slowly", the song she and Glen Hansard performed, won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song.
- The Oscar eligibility of "Falling Slowly" was questioned because versions of the song had appeared on The Cost and The Swell Season albums and in the film Beauty in Trouble, all released in 2006; the issue was resolved before voting took place.
- Once was made for a budget of €112,000, after spending years in development with the Irish Film Board.
- Director John Carney gave his own salary to stars Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová and promised everyone a share of the proceeds if the film succeeded; it was shot in 17 days with a skeleton crew, using natural light and friends' houses to save money.
- The Dublin street scenes were shot without permits and with a long lens so that many passersby did not realize a film was being made; the long lens also helped the non-professional actors forget the camera, and some dialogue was improvised.
- The musical party scene was filmed in star Glen Hansard's own Dublin flat, with his personal friends playing the partygoers and musicians and his mother, Catherine Hansard, briefly featured singing solo.
SPOILER
Glen Hansard said ad-libbing produced the scene in which Markéta Irglová's character tells the Guy, in un-subtitled Czech, "No, I love you", and that he did not know what she had said when it was shot, just like his character.
