Sydney Film Festival
Every year I look forward to a couple of film festivals that hit Sydney. The Queer Film Festival that happens around March and then the Sydney Film Festival that is on at the moment.
I study the guide with gusto, pick heaps of films that look interesting. Note that most films I wanna see are on at the same time or when I'm at work and then before you know it the festival is over and you have seen bugger all and tell yourself you'll see heaps next year. Or you think that's ok you'll grab it on DVD, but ya just never can remember all those good films you read about in the guide!
A film that I did manage to see and I recommend to anyone that is into the band The Frames or Glen Hansard is Irish film, Once. (The blurb from the film festival website is below) actually Ill recommend this film to anyone who is into music or a film with a good storyline (hey aren't we all fans of that?).
This movie gives a glimpse into an Ireland that over the last ten years or so has gone under many changes, both with the economic boom and also the influx of Eastern European refugees that now call cities like Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway home and the hardships that they face.
I really liked this film, it was at times a little slow and the music at times repeated itself, but it had plenty of cheeky humour to propel it along and was even reminiscent of film, The Commitments (Glen Hansard played 'Outspan' in that one, the bassist with the crazy red hair). The film is sad, but also very thoughtful in its portrayal of its characters and dosent fall into predictability. The handheld camera gets a little frustrating but the story more than makes up for it.
This film was a sell out at the festival but hopefully it will come to Australia on DVD and if your left wondering what to pick up when next at the DVD store, this one is well worth a look.

Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, John Carney's charming film centres on two musicians on the streets of Dublin. Glen Hansard (of the Irish band The Frames) plays a thirty-something busker who lives and works above his father's vacuum repair shop. He strikes up a conversation with a Czech girl (Markèta Irglová) selling roses to shoppers. He's nursing a broken heart; she's facing a broken marriage. The two are also singer-songwriters - in the film and in real life. They soon begin playing music together, eventually scraping the funds together to record an album. A musical that's not a musical, fiction that's also reality, a captivating romance - that's not a love story.
Dir John Carney
Scr John Carney
Prod Martina Niland
With Glen Hansard, Markèta Irglová
Country Ireland
Running time 85 mins
World Sales/Australian distributor Icon Film Distribution
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