'Once' and the out-of-tune Oscar voters

Rock vet Glen Hansard didn't want to get excited about the Oscars.

"I'm not supposed to care, but I do," said the singer, who along with Marketa Irglova performs as Swell Season. The two wrote and composed the music for "Once," which was nominated for an Oscar for best song. 

"I'm surprised with myself," he said. "At the end of the day, it's a bunch of people in another country deciding whether your film is worthy or not. It's something that's arguable, whether it's worth taking to heart. But it's such a lovely thing when you get it."

Come Feb. 24, Hansard and Irglova will see their passionate acoustic duet "Falling Slowly" go up against three songs from Disney's musical "Enchanted," as well as the gospel "Raise It Up" from "August Rush," a song performed by Jamia Simone Nash & Impact Repertory Theatre. Hansard has already earned two Grammy nominations this year, and though he has spent his career in the music industry, as leader of Irish rock group the Frames, he said it's the Oscar that's far more meaningful.

"I have to say, the thing with the Grammys is that it's a different stratosphere," Hansard said. "It's corporate rock."

Hansard said he lost his cool, rock-'n'-roll composure when the Oscar nom came down. Said Hansard: "I had been trying to say, 'It doesn't really matter.' This should not be important. All you do is make your work and put out your songs, and it shouldn't be important what the world thinks. But on the other hand, this is the Oscars. I kept thinking about my mother, and my family, and how proud everyone in Ireland would be."

"Once" stood out in a crowded year for music films, playing out like a live-action mix tape in which the characters learn to understand their emotions through pop songs. Hansard and Irglova spent much of 2007 on tour as Swell Season, and performed at a number of screenings at the request of Fox Searchlight.

"Once" was directed by former Frames member John Carney, and though the Frames have been around since the early '90s, it was a film that finally put Hansard's music on the map to U.S. audiences.

"When I say to my mother that we played to 1,000 people in New York, she has this idea that those 1,000 people are all artists and students," he said. "She doesn't think they're, like, the public. She gauges success on a different level. But when I told her we got the Oscar nomination, she flipped. Every year my mother would bring us into the living room and we'd watch the Oscars. It was bigger than the World Cup."

"Once" was one of a few artist-driven scores in 2007, with the other most notable efforts being Eddie Vedder's contributions to "Into the Wild" and Sondre Lerche's work in "Dan in Real Life." Both were shut out at the Oscars, and they weren't the only major artists to go without a nomination. Shakira ("Love in the Time of Cholera"), Diane Warren ("American Gangster"), Lou Reed ("Gravity") and John Mayer ("The Bucket List") failed to receive nominations.

If one is wondering where Vedder's cuts from "Into the Wild" went, one need look no further than the official Oscar rules. Voting on the songs comes directly after a screening of the clips. In a theater, it's hard to deny the delightful scenes of "Enchanted," and though the Oscars should surely take into account a song's relevance to a film, the nominated songs should also work outside a movie.

The "Whistle While You Work"-inspired "Happy Working Song" might be a pivotal scene in "Enchanted," but it's also directly tied to "Enchanted." A great movie song isn't all that different from one piece of a concept album -- it must be able to stand apart, and be enjoyed without any knowledge whatsoever of the film.

As much as I enjoyed "Enchanted," its music doesn't pass this test, at least not in a year that saw strong songs from Shakira, Vedder and Warren. Furthermore, increasing speculation, according to the New York Times' David Carr, that the music from "Once" is ineligible for an Oscar only serves to call into the question the relevancy of the category's rules.

The likely cause for confusion: "Falling Slowly," which is vital to the development of the film's characters, appeared on the Frames' 2006 album "The Cost," and there's now some question as to whether the song was written explicitly for the film.

In an earlier interview with Hansard, he discussed the process in which songs where written for the film, one in which he was not originally slated to act. "We basically brought John songs," Hansard said. "He liked some, and he didn’t like others, and he wrote themes around the songs that we gave him."

That kind of musical inspiration is evident on the screen, and hopefully why this mini-controversy will soon fade. In "Once," the music often illustrates an emotion that the characters are unable to express to one another, and it's one of the more loving odes to pop music in recent memory.

(Ringo H. W. Chiu / For the Times)

Comments

[eldarion]

bravo! If anyone has ever made a film where the music is more relevant to the characters and the story than they are in this film, well they've been hiding it under a bed somewhere. The songs ARE this film, how can there even be an issue? These rules need changing to avoid these situations. These are Amazing songs and an amazing film! Let it be recognised and given it's well deserved chance!

[RBBrittain]

I pointed out "Falling Slowly"'s problem in the forums, but I also pointed out what happened with "In The Deep" from "Crash" which may save it: If the song was originally composed for use in the film, it's OK even though it appeared on another album before the film actually made it to theaters. (Kathleen "Bird" York recorded "In The Deep" on at least one other album before "Crash" came out, but since she wrote it FOR "Crash", it kept its nomination even though it lost the Oscar to Three 6 Mafia.)

[eldarion]

the production of Once happened before the recording of the two records never mind their release!! everyone here knows the song was written for the film!! cant see it stopping them ultimately can you?

[-Todd Martens]

I don't think so, Eldarion, but things sometimes get ugly during Oscar season. That being said, I believe it will all blow over, as RBBRittain says, in the same manner that "In the Deep" from "Crash" did. Only a couple songs from "Once" were submitted for consideration, and the studio most likely has the documentation to back it up.

[Julie]

I am so happy that He is performing at the Oscars. His other band The Frames is one of my all time fav's. If you haven't heard it, I highly recommend checking out their site http://www.theframes.ie its amazing.