Begin Again
Short description
Gretta, a songwriter from England, arrives in New York with her boyfriend Dave, a musician whose career is taking off. When he leaves her for the opportunities his new fame brings, she stays in the city with little to hold on to. Dan Mulligan, a record executive whose own life and career have come apart, hears her perform one night in a small Manhattan bar and is struck by her talent. He proposes they make an album together, despite having no money, no band and no studio.
John Carney wrote and directed the film, which followed his 2007 feature Once and preceded Sing Street and Flora and Son. Mark Ruffalo plays Dan, Keira Knightley plays Gretta, and Adam Levine appears as Dave. Hailee Steinfeld, Catherine Keener and James Corden are also in the cast, which numbers 49 credited performers.
Made for 8 million dollars, the film took 64 million worldwide, a strong return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 7.4/10 from 176,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2/10 from 4,079 votes; critics rated it 6.9/10 across 166 reviews, so audiences and critics landed in similar territory.
What's left behind the scenes
- Scarlett Johansson could have played the lead role, but ultimately left the project.
- Mark Ruffalo was John Carney’s first choice, and he agreed to participate in the film after the director sent him a draft of the script.
- To reduce the budget, some scenes, including those on Times Square, were filmed at night with a handheld camera.
- Some lines in the film were the result of improvisation, particularly those spoken by the characters played by Mark Ruffalo and James Corden.
- To prepare for her role, Keira Knightley had to learn to play the guitar. Her husband, musician James Righton, offered to help her. According to Knightley, the results of their lessons were disastrous and nearly led to "divorce and murder."
- Before filming began, Mark Ruffalo and Keira Knightley spent a couple of weeks getting to know each other to become comfortable and make improvising on set easier.
- The apartment in New York that the characters played by Keira Knightley and Adam Levine are shown to live in actually belongs to Levine and his wife, Behati Prinsloo.
- When the main characters are sitting in a secluded café (before a small argument), a gray-haired woman reading can be seen behind Mark Ruffalo – that is Keira Knightley’s mother.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
