Say it ain't so, Glen & Mar!

Man, I can't believe that Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova -- aka the stars of ONCE -- have broken up in real life! I have seriously been upset about this since I heard about this yesterday. At the risk of sounding too melodramatic, this is, like, a terrible blow to the very notion of all that which is love. The movie, of course, is one of the great romances of all time -- it hit me with a cinematic thunderbolt like few movies ever have. The movie and soundtrack have dominated my DVD player and iPod for the better part of the past year-plus. And the real-life story of Glen and Mar is almost as magical, with the two of them falling in love and making music while making a movie about falling in love and making music. One of the great things about their relationship was that it really was like an extension of the movie -- a real-life epilogue, in which things turn out exactly the way we'd hoped -- which was profoundly awesome. I'm almost afraid to re-watch the movie now, because I can't help but wonder if it will lose some of its power now that "real life" has reared its ugly head....

On the plus side, the breakup appears to be amicable and Glen and Mar are still friends, and they will surely continue making beautiful music together in the literal sense. I feel lucky, though, to have seen them live in concert (a two-hour epic performance at a sold-out Radio City Music Hall) when they were still dating and in love, because I'm sure it added a whole level of passion that will not really exist from this point on. And that is a shame, because goddamn, they put on an amazing show, and the Once soundtrack and the first Swell Season album are top-notch.

Anyway... what can ya do... but man, this sucks. Damn crap.

(BTW, if, after all this time, you haven't yet seen ONCE... for fuck's sake, go to the video store, update your Netflix, do a Torrent search, or whatever you have to do, and WATCH IT. That is an order!)


Also, remember that time I started a new movie blog but haven't actually written about any new movies that I've watched? I've been yammering on and on about last year's movies and the Oscar nominations and whatnot, and that's all well and good, but we need some goddamn movie reviews up in here. And so it shall be... soon... I promise.