Thursday, July 12, 2007

Once

Click the title above to see the trailer. I guess I'm responsible for suggesting this movie and I wonder if the other women enjoyed it as much as I did. We had planned to go to "Heaven", but somehow, we changed our plans. This is a movie about music with a little nearly-a-love-story on the side. The music is generation "Y" and may not please everyone.

One scene I particularly liked took place in a pub with ordinary people singing ballads and Irish tunes. I wish singing was more popular in the U.S. I love to sing, but people just don't do it. Although with this spate of new TV shows all about singing, maybe people will feel more comfortable singing. How great to sit in a pub and sing your favorite old tunes with your friends.

(Spoilers ahead - stop now if you plan to see the move)

The young man makes a living by day repairing vacuum cleaners and at night playing his guitar on the street -- a guitar played so hard and violently, his strumming has broken a hole through the wood. He meets a young women who needs her vacuum repaired and who also happens to play the piano. She doesn't own a piano, but she visits a music store for an hour each day where she is allowed to play. She plays a tune for the young man and he tells her it's lovely, did she write it? No, it's Mendelssohn. Then he plays a tune of his own, and she joins in with harmony and piano. A great sound.

He says to her,"It's in C." "I can see that," she says,looking at the placement of his fingers on the frets. It's 5/4 he says. There's no faking here. Both of these two are real musicians and singers, and while the music they play is not particularly complex, it is very fresh and new and appealing.

The story ends just as a story like this should. I'll not tell the ending. If you like little off-beat films about ordinary, likeable people, you'll enjoy this. I did. It's playing in Salt Lake at the Broadway Theatre.

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July 5, 2007. The evening began with glass of wine and a tour of the charming home of Judy and Sydney in the Sugarhouse area. Words can't describe the impressive artwork throughout, creations of both Sydney and Judy. One of Judy's claims to fame is that she is the creator of the Trix rabbit (wabbit), back in her commercial artist days. Now she specializes in opera posters--my personal favorite was "cats in opera". Sydney, a Brit and a truly accomplished artist in several media and genres, served in WWII and piloted a landing craft on D-Day shuttling troops from ships to the beaches in Normandy. We watched a 20-minute documentary of the 50-year commemoration of D-Day, sprinkled throughout with original photos of the landing. Afterward, we gathered at Mr. Z's for dinner conveniently next door to our theatre.

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