Movie City Indie: It's a sin: confessing Sundance midfest

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January 25, 2007

It's a sin: confessing Sundance midfest

More than a couple of Sundance sins got committed yesterday: For one, I saw Once twice; who sees a movie twice at a film festival when there's so much else possibly to see and do? But the simple beauty of John Carney's romantic musical was even more powerful a second time around—I can't resist the pun "Once singular sensation®"—and it was truly heartening to see the fillum with a public audience, rather than at a presser for journos as I did on the first go. I wasn't esthetically wrong, I wasn't unduly sentimental: the bliss remained; deepened, even. If the reaction from the earlier screenings was anything like last night's standing ovations and general glow about the Prospector Square, Once is in the running for an Audience Favorite. Bonus: At the Q&A afterwards, the stars of the film, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová [pictured] played two songs. I'd blown off meeting a charming shorts director and the film's lead actress to see Once again, but it was the right choice, maybe not precisely a sin against cin-e-mah. Earlier, a filmmaker whose movie I'd criticized caught sight of my festival badge and introduced himself. I quickly looked down at his badge: Oh-oh. Is it so wrong that Brett Morgen of The Chicago 10 and I went for an off-the-record conversation over coffee to compare our notes? I liked that hour's give-and-take more than the movie, but I also have a better understanding of Morgen's hopes for getting a message of criticial resistance to younger viewers and certain intentions that I didn't quite get when I saw the pic on opening night. Late, late in the evening, packing for a move-of-house necessitated a fit of swag triage, which must always be followed by a steaming shower. Maybe any of the sins washed away as well.

Posted by Ray Pride at January 25, 2007 03:14 PM

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Comments

Hi Ray.

I loved Once, too. Well, more than once but that's not relevant here.

Question: Was the Czech dialogue subtitled in the print you saw? I saw it here in CR so of course it wasn't. It would have been an interesting decision not to subtitle the Czech given what the Girl says to him the day they're on the motorcycle together.

I need to know before I write up my response.

Posted by: homo superior at December 13, 2007 07:03 AM