影视英语听力 第46期：Once 曾经

一名街头卖艺的爱尔兰小伙子正在弹奏一首好听而悲伤的歌，他猛然抬头，发现一个女孩站在自己面前，瞪着大眼睛好奇地打量自己——这就是一个动人故事的开始…

对话文本:

Once, directed and written by James Carney, was one of the standouts of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why. It’s a completely charming movie, small, modest, a little bit anecdotal, making no great claims for itself, making no big dramatic points. That just works on every level. It’s a simple enough story ,takes place in Dublin. It’s about two people, their names are never given. One is a street musician played by Glen Hansard, the other is a Czech immigrant played by Marketa Irglova.

What develops between them is a romance of sorts, but it really takes place entirely through their shared love of music. The two main performers are really singers and songwriters ,and they are there performing their own compositions, and that gives the movie a special appeal. Even if it's not quite your style of music, it’s a kind of earnest folk pop, little bit like Melissa Etheridge, maybe. It still really works because it shows how much these people care about this project, about this music. It animates the movie. It makes it come alive , and it gives you something to care about.

The thing about Once that is really special is as if characters seem very real, without ever seem dull. Their problems are not earth-shaking. There is nothing melodramatic or overdone about it. And yet, it just works. You can’t take your eyes off these people ,you care very much about what’s gonna happen to them. And it holds you in a delicious kind of suspense even though the states don’t seem to be all that high. Because they are high for these people, these are their lives after all.

You’re never quite sure how it’s gonna end up. But when it does end, you feel like you really see something wonderful and almost perfect.