Film Interpretations of the State of the British Music Scene

I recently watched the film 'Once' (trailer shown above) starring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. It is a beautiful film about a busker and his relationship with an immigrant; set in Dublin, their love story is told through their music rehearsal and recordings, which sends out the message that music is life or at least should be. On top of this it shows that real people make music and that music should tell their stories.

This film offers a unique insight into a depiction of musicians lives. The film is not cliched or main stream however it appeals to a wide audience although it was not a huge blockbuster and was filmed on a very small budget it received high acclaim and average box office revenue. This film represents the music industry as very difficult as the main character lives in a pokey flat with his dad and has to busk to get his music out there in the wide world.




Another film I watched about the music scene in Britain is August Rush starring Freddie Highmore, Robin Williams, and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. This film is a higher budget mainstream film aimed at a larger audience, however it bears many of the same connotations about the music industry as 'Once' which is a lower budget niche film.

As a modern reworking of 'Oliver Twist' its the story of an orphaned boy who runs away from the care home in the country and comes to London where he discovers his natural ability to play, compose and conduct music. He seems almost possessed in his abilities as he rapidly learns to play many different instruments and write an entire orchestra's concertos in about a day and all because his parents were two contrasting but fabulous musicians, now this seems a little weird that musical ability is hereditary but after all it is a hollywoodised film.

This however is not what we are interested in for this film depicts the music industry from four different points of view, the dominant being that of the young boy (Freddie Highmore), another from his mother an award winning cellist, his father (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who is the singer in a rock band and a homeless man/squatter (Robin Williams). All these contrasting views mingle and give a fuller picture of what the music means.

The film shows the music industry predominantly through the little boy's eyes as a magical talent that comes naturally to him and will eventually bring back his parents to him. In the end at a concert that he is the star of, his music actually does bring his parents miraculously together in a crowd of thousands and August just so happens to see them in the crown and recognise who they are although he has never seen them before, this is somewhat far fetched and extraordinary but i think this is the point that the director is trying to get across. Kirsten Sheridan the director is showing us that music brings people together, evokes many emotions and is a complete miracle.

Similarly Robin Williams' character, Maxwell 'Wizard' Wallace, looks after homeless children in London who have a talent for music as he himself is musical, however although the music brings them together an awes the children he is also using the music as a way to keep the children happy as they give him all their earnings from busking around the city. So Wizard represents music as a way to make money and manipulate people.

There is another film I must mention in connection to this topic just because it is a great film and gives an insight into the irish music scene. Released in 1991 its called 'The Commitments' and the trailer is shown below:



This film portrays music as a way to interact with people and make new friends but it is also shown as a very competitive business that disguises the people behind it. For example the lead singer of the band that is formed has an amazing voice and wows everyone who hears it but behind his music and away from the publics eye he is an egotistic prat.