In a tragic development, Glen Hansard, the Oscar-winning star of the 2007 film “Once” (one of many celebrated works by director John Carney), has died in a motorcycle crash. He was 56.
Hansard might have first grabbed audiences’ attention when he played Outspan Foster, the guitarist for the eponymous band in the 1991 classic “The Commitments” (as directed by the legendary Alan Parker). Hansard, however, was always a musician first and foremost, and he’s better known for his music career leading his band The Frames, formed in 1990. The Frames were a big deal in Hansard’s native Ireland, with their 2004 album “Burn the Maps” hitting #1 on the Irish Album Charts.
In 2006, Hansard teamed with Czech pianist and songwriter Markéta Irglová to form The Swell Season, which released their first album that year. Hansard and Irglová then parlayed their Swell Season experience to the big screen for “Once,” which is, without hyperbole, one of the best (and most romantic) movies about music ever made. In “Once,” Hansard plays an unnamed street busker in Dublin who, while chasing a thief one afternoon, runs into an unnamed magazine vendor (Irglová).
As it so happens, she, too, is a musician, and the pair immediately bond over their mutual passion for singing and playing. In the film’s most exhilarating scene, the duo play one of Hansard’s songs, “Falling Slowly,” in a music shop, finding that they are musically bonding in a powerful and ineffable way. “Falling Slowly,” a beautiful, plaintive ballad, won Hansard and Irglová their Oscar. It’s one of the best movie songs ever written by a fictional band. Hansard’s character eventually comes on to the Irglová character, but she shoots him down. So, instead, they elect to write several more songs together and record them for an album.
Once is achingly romantic
The bulk of “Once” details how Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová’s characters cut a demo. They gather up several other musicians, all struggling buskers, and put together songs based on their own experiences. There are many technical scenes about the joys of mixing music, finding the right take, and just loving the entire process. In one notable scene, the band listens to their demo and loves how it sounds. The real test, though, will have to come when they listen to it in a moving car on crappy speakers. If it works in a car, then it’s perfect.
Hansard and Irglová’s characters also spend a lot of time together and learn about one another’s personal lives. The Irglová character, for instance, has a toddler at home and a husband back in the Czech Republic. Likewise, the Hansard character has an ex-girlfriend in London that he might want to get back together with.
But, of course, they are falling in love with each other. Their circumstances prevent them from realizing anything romantic or sexual, but they have something even more important: They make beautiful music together.
And it was genuine. Soon after “Once” was released, it became widely known that Hansard and Irglová were dating for real. “Once” is essentially their courtship and swelling hearts captured on film. The pair broke up after two years, but “Once” was a record of their romance. After the movie became a hit, and the two leads won Academy Awards, they went on tour, an experience documented in a 2011 film simply titled “The Swell Season.” That movie shows that touring put a strain on their relationship.
Hansard was a great musician and an honest, gentle soul. Rest in peace, sir.
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