Commentary - The Swell Season

The Swell Season, titled after the musical duo it follows, premiered at the TriBeCa Film Festival last night. Notably, it is the follow up to the 2006 Oscar-winning musical film, Once.  Once chronicled the relationship between musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (who now perform under the moniker “The Swell Season”) as they emerged from obscurity. After meeting at Glen’s father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop, the two united in a struggle to overcome their situations through music. In the process, they fell in love. After Once gained distribution, the pair received an Oscar in 2007 for best original song, and ascended to stardom. As the film’s title suggests, Once, is an exploration of the prodigious circumstances that led to what seems like a fated merging of two exceptional musicians. Both are imbued with an incarnate passion for music and the rare ability to capture the raw essence of an emotion through the performance of a song. When their talents unite, the resulting music is paradoxically visceral and transcendent. Catapulting them to the Oscars, Once chronicled their way up and the development of their love story. The Swell Season explores their lives now that they have achieved fame, and the dissipation of their romantic relationship.

While the theme of dealing with celebrity’s unforeseen encumbrances is not uncommon in the music documentary world, The Swell Season takes a fresh look at the subject by focusing on the characters themselves.  Glen and Marketa are interesting as individuals, as musicians, and as a couple. Each is thoughtful, and expresses emotion with clarity and poignancy. A few scenes serve to highlight each character’s unique response to their successes particularly well. These scenes include conversations with each other, family members, and band members. Each interaction offers a nuanced glimpse into their minds. Within their minds live realizations, epiphanies, and fears that are at once compelling and relatable. The difficulty of living up to growing expectations is not unique to the famous, nor is being embroiled in a continual desire to struggle. As the two explore their reactions to their fame, they grow as individuals and begin to separate. Their music mimics the dissolution of their love more expressively than their words or actions. The audience watches as they speak to one another in song, and the dialogue is beautiful. Because their connection is so strong, their music does not seem to suffer as their relationship ends. In fact, the emotions and insights they put into their music as they experience the phenomenon that is stranger than falling in love, falling out of love, are arguably more insightful and universal than their earlier work. The Swell Season selectively incorporates their performances into the fabric of the film. In doing so, the movie provides a robust and textured look at two uniquely talented individuals.