ONCE is a glorious little film that restores one's faith in independent filmmaking. Although it is a musical and a love story, both genres I mostly dislike, both elements are done in a refreshingly original way. ONCE tells of two musicians who meet, play music together, make a CD, and perhaps fall

in love sounds familiar, but wait until you experience the film.

Filmed in Dublin, one of the musicians is a busker, who plays covers in the streets during his lunch break and his own material when no one is around; the other is a sweet-faced Czech immigrant, a would be pianist who captures his original music.

Yes, it is a musical, but only most musicals, where the actors into song and dance at unnatural moments, every musical piece is performed directly from the story material. The two leads are mostly inarticulate, and they can only express themselves through the songs they compose. And, yes, it is a love story, but there a no falling in love montage swquences, no self-conscious quirkiness that seems to be de riguer in most movies these days (E.G. GARDEN STATE). The would be lovers do come with emotional and physical baggage, but that serves less to enhance the melodrama than to serve the impact of the discovery of one another that makes their love so heartachingly real.

Apart from the integration of the music into the narrative, what makes ONCE different is its narrative. Most dramatic structures are filled with discovery and reversal. ONCE is a story almost entirely structured on discovery, as the two characters's stories unfold and their relationship develops. There have been many favorable comparisons to RENT, which, in fact, is simarilarly set in Bohemian life (the inspiration for RENT was the Paris set opera LA BOHEME). But I'm reminded of another French play inspired musical THE FANTASTICS,based on a play by Edmond Rostand, whose CYRANO DE BERGERAC is a classic of unrequited love. In its day, THE FANTISTICS was popular because it was a refreshing antithesis to the over-produced Broadway musicals. Like THE FANTASTICS, the leads in ONCE have no names, only, in the credits "the Boy" and "The Girl" Their lack of specificity and the way the story unfolds gives the film an almost fable like quality, or perhaps something of a fairy tale. That allows us to take delight in their visit to the loan officer who is a frustrated would be rocker, or to the jaded tech person at the studio, who gets perhaps too suddenly caught up in the music he hears.

Just as the story is one of discovery and unfolding, so is the experience of watching ONCE. Not only is it wondrously underproduced, it is also less than an hour and a half. You won't want it to end, and the music and the faces of the boy and the girl will stay with you for days.

Learn more about David Kleiler and his company Local Sightings http://www.localsightings.com/ Making Independent Film Happen