Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter best known as frontman of The Frames and star of the film Once, died last week at the age of 56 following a motorcycle accident. The crash happened late at night after he had performed at a traditional music session in a Dublin pub, a death that this Hollywood Reporter tribute frames as strikingly and tragically cinematic, given how closely Hansard's music and public persona were bound up with film and storytelling throughout his career.

The piece, written by Hollywood Reporter editor Steven Zeitchik, is a personal remembrance rather than a straight news report, recalling a mid-2000s Frames concert at New York's South Street Seaport where Hansard performed "Fitzcarraldo," a song inspired by Werner Herzog's 1982 film of the same name. Zeitchik draws a parallel between Hansard's death and that of Buddy Holly as dramatised in the 1987 film La Bamba, reflecting on how Hansard's artistry, rooted in busking and lo-fi, orchestrally rich songwriting compared to acts like Belle and Sebastian, always carried a strong sense of drama and narrative, right up to the unexpected circumstances of his passing.