Submarine Q&A. Curzon Soho.

I read about this event as my bus drove past Curzon Soho a few weeks back and I strained my neck trying to log all the details. The film was introduced by the same man that held the interview and after the screening Richard Ayoade, Joe Dunthorne, Sally Hawkins, Yasmin Paige and Craig Roberts took to the stage for a Q&A.

My friend and I were asked if we could have our picture taken before entering the cinema. The Polaroids were then pinned to a board and we were encouraged to take them home as a memento upon leaving. We were given quite a few mementos in fact, from the goody bags under our chair in the cinema (pick'n'mix, a notebook, school report, matches and a HUGE APPLE) to the sparklers being handed out when leaving the complex.

I really enjoyed Submarine; a coming of age film adapted from Joe Dunthorne's novel and directed by Richard Ayoade. All the reviews I have read are nothing short of praise and basically say the same thing - it's beautiful and funny and sad and touching and sweet and scenic all at the same time; none of this "it's a sad/tender/sweet etc moment so we can't have laughs". One would never know that it was Ayoade's first film, clearly a lover of the art. I related to the characters, but they weren't exactly likable... well, sometimes they were. I can't recommend it enough.

The Q&A was awkward from the get go and it continued right the way through until the actors, director, novelist and interviewer left the stage. There weren't enough chairs for a start which meant the interviewer had to sit on a table, he also told Yasmin Paige that his children watched her on Tracy Beaker, "i'm not in Tracy Beaker" came her reply. When questions were thrown over to the audience, a young couple gushed in the direction of Sally Hawkins saying things like "we've come all the way down from Manchester for this", "we loved you in Happy-Go-Lucky" and "last time we saw you, you signed her arm!". They were a little out of it...

My favourite question was from a rather abrupt lady who asked what they did to prepare for filming in Wales and, essentially, making a Welsh film when the majority of the cast and crew weren't Welsh. Richard Ayoade had me in stitches when he said "what do you want me to say? We did press-ups? We wrote a lot of Ls in succession? We wore armour? All the normal things you do when preparing for Wales". He made me laugh plenty more times throughout the interview not least when the interviewer asked him to end on a slightly racist remark: "pfft, the Spanish".

I had such a wonderful night and i'd quite happily to do it all over again.

A thought.

I swear I never used to go bright red and shake when talking to people I admire. I also think i'm to old for this kind of behaviour to be considered cute. Damn.