Matthew Caldwell
Creative Director, HP Newsgram

[Editor's Note: Since we first filmed the exclusive duet with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, the film "Once" was recognized with The World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. If you haven't queued up the duet yet, we strongly encourage you to do so. And when the film hits a theater near you, we suggest you get in line as soon as possible!]

One of the most popular films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival is Once. It’s a unique pseudo-musical story about a Dublin busker (Glen Hansard) and an immigrant Czech rose-peddler (Marketa Irglova) who meet and make beautiful music together.

The two leads of the film, the curly-haired and witty Hansard and the shy yet complex Irglova, are a breed apart because they’re full-time musicians who were asked to star in a feature film.

This double talent (acting & singing) provides them with double exposure at Sundance as they play music gigs almost every night, while their film Once plays during the day. (In fact they even got up on stage after their film premiere and melted the audience with a melodic duet. Some people are calling this one of the finest moments in this year’s festival).

Their double talent might be why the press can’t get enough of them, and you can’t walk 10 paces without seeing a photo of Hansard (who’s also in the popular Irish band The Frames).

HP has been proud to feature the musical side of Sundance this year, and we invited Hansard & Irglova to sing a duet for us. When they accepted, we were excited overjoyed.

With a calm ease, Hansard and Irglova joined us in a snowy groove of trees outside festival headquarters. Glen unpacked his beat-up, yet charming, guitar and microphones were applied to their lapels.

When our soundman asked them to sound check, in an instant they broke into a full-fledged refrain from one of their hit songs, and it literally made me weak in the knees – the sound of their voices being so powerful and lush. I was in awe.

About halfway through the performance several songbirds hovered then landed on a branch, just above Hansard’s head and sang along.

See their myspace page – The Swell Season

(* Special thanks to Belinda Tijerina, David Llamas, Venita Hawkins-Bird and Jim Smith who saw Hansard & Irglova perform at ASCAP’s Music Café.)

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