Once upon a time in the Republic

The John Carney way – have idea, get micro budget, make film/TV show, move on - has served him well through the years. From his debut November Afternoon, through On The Edge (with Cillian Murphy and Stephen Rea), to his TV work on Bachelor’s Walk and The Modest Adventures Of David O’Doherty, he has tried to stick to this pure approach. That’s not so easy when you’ve got a bit of success.

“When you have a hot film it can become years and years of work,” he says. “With Bachelor’s Walk for example, it was ‘do you want another series, and maybe another series, and a Christmas special?’ and it was strange because the whole idea was to do something small, get in, get it out and move on. Having no success is actually strangely liberating, because being successful can actually make it harder to go and do your next bit of work. You can’t go into it in the same green, naive way you did the first time where you’re just doing your own thing and it was amazing if it struck.”
Once is the tale of a busker (played by Glen Hansard) who takes up with a piano-playing flower seller from the Czech Republic (played by Marketa Iglova) to make some beautiful music amid a developing relationship. It’s a great feelgood implosion of the Hollywood musical. It took the genre back to the gritty beauty of how music really co-exists with real life, with characters learning new songs together, or singing along to their Walkman as they walk down night-time streets. Standard musical films (and I love them) involve their heroes suddenly breaking into song on crowded streets to find that sailors, street-vendors and urchins have all choreographed a suitable dance routine. But Once is a musical which acknowledges that lots of people do have music in their everyday lives, and that this can be a transformative thing by itself. As a result the incredibly low-budget Once (costing a total of €110,000) went on to win the audience award at the Sundance film festival, scored a great distribution deal and rave reviews, and Steven Spielberg said “a little movie called Once gave me enough inspiration to last me the rest of the year”.
“When we were editing Once, I really had the sense that if nothing else, we had made something really nice which was nothing like anything else,” Carney continues. “I thought it could strike a chord but I never thought it would do as well as it did. If the Sundance thing hadn’t happened, then the film would have been a relatively small pure little thing that a few people would have seen. Getting accepted into Sundance in the first place was so perfect for this film, because it was made in the spirit that Sundance was set up to support and encourage. It made a huge difference. But even then we had no expectation that anything would happen – then we picked up the audience award and the film just took off. We got a really good sales agent and a really good deal and we’ve been doing well ever since.”
So did all the attention turn his head towards Hollywood blockbusters, elaborate tacking shots, A-list actors, and extravagant cinematic helicopter crashes?
“I cut my teeth making films in my back garden with my girlfriend and dad doing Marlon Brando impressions,” he laughs. “My own ethos is that I’d be much more interested in seeing something experimental and unique than something that looked great but had no heart. I mean the Spielberg comment did make me feel good. I’m not a huge fan, but the fact he was touched by the film is amazing. However, I also think it’s important to realise that he’s just another guy. He just happens to be important in the film world.”
So there’s no plans for a lucrative sequel either – no Twice or Once Two? Well, not for now anyway. Carney admits that he has thought about maybe revisiting the characters ten years on (like Richard Linklater did with Before Sunrise and Before Sunset). And he also hasn’t ruled out doing another musical, although this time perhaps something more tongue in cheek and glossy “like how Family Guy do musical numbers... or maybe like Guys And Dolls.” In the short term he’s putting the finishing touches on Zonad a film he’s written with his brother Ciaran and friend Tom Hall, about an escaped convict who convinces a village that he’s from outer space.
He’s planning to make a horror film in Britain based on the MR James ghost story Casting The Runes, and America has called with a big budget and a film called Townhouse, a black comedy featuring an agoraphobic protagonist, which is due to start production in 2008.
“That’s got a massive budget,” he says. “And I’m looking forward to it. But the fancy stuff only works if you’re telling a good story. If you look at Billy Wilder films, there’s rarely any really showy shots. They may be impressionistically lit, but there’s no shot that isn’t purely about moving the plot along or telling the story. There’s no showing off. It’s got to have heart at the end of the day.”