Saw “Once” and loved it. Again!
The scene with the vacuum cleaner when the girl drags it along the city streets, onto the bus and in the café is brilliant! The hoover is like this little animal that is needed to bring them together. Later the music and the similarities of their stories will (both were about to lose their loved one but did not stop loving). The whole situation – when the guy at first says it is Ok to bring the hoover for repair and when she does seems surprised and says he cannot fix it without the tools – is somehow very realistic. Not very logical (he knew that he wouldn’t have the tools when he said he could fix it the next day but said OK anyway) but this is what makes it so true to life.
I appreciate that the story didn’t get spoiled by “happily ever after” ending á la Hollywood. Those endings often don’t have a chance for a realistic “ever after” but that doesn’t seem to matter to film makers. Rumor has it there was a kissing scene even in “Once” but obviously it didn’t make it into the final version and thank the director for that. At some point she says to him in Czech”I love you” (at least this is what I believe she says in the language I don’t know). On the other hand, that too is realistic: this is how she feels at the moment and the future with the person who doesn’t seem to love her the way she needs seems impossible. That, too, is very down to earth and authentic.
Not every meeting of two souls has to end up in a romance. Those two were right for each other but in a much broader sense than our seduced by the ideas of romance culture makes us believe is the only way to go to make everyone happy. It also reminds me how much we can do for a stranger and how much we have in common with one another, our hearts cracking in the same places, needing the right environment to heal in and having what it takes to help each other through tough times as well as sharing a moment of warm laughter and appreciation for the beautiful in life no matter what.
Hooked on the soundtrack now. I don’t need much to make me enjoy a tune, authenticity is what it takes.
