Monday 7 March 2011

Ultra Culture Cinema #06: Submarine

I failed to say anything about December's Ultra Culture Cinema screening of Catfish because I was so ill that it was all I could do to make it through the film without voiding myself of every last drop of bodily fluids, so I didn't really pay much attention to the trademark "high jinks" and "shenanigans" that accompany these events. I'd apologise for this but I'm reasonably sure you don't care.

Anyway, last Friday night I was in full control of all my personal exits, so I took myself to London's ICA for the sixth in Sky Movies' Blog Of The Year (ouch) Ultra Culture's now almost mythical screenings of very good films: Submarine.
I was going to write 4,000 words about the evening, but we all know that a picture speaks a thousand words, so instead here are four pictures that more or less (less) convey general high jinkery and shenaniganness. Hopefully they also show what it's like to sit behind an eleven-foot-tall News Of The World film critic in a cinema.
Host Charlie Lyne wearing some kind of jumper thing.

The two people in the middle observing the "high jinks" with confusion and fear are the stars of Submarine, Yasmin Paige and Craig Roberts. They obviously need to go to more Ultra Culture Cinema nights.

This man was made to wear a lot of feather boas in order to woo a complete stranger as part of the "shenanigans".

A film is starting somewhere on the other side of Robbie Collin.

Apart from all this there was the customary introductory video in which innocent tourists are made to display a staggering lack of knowledge about something peculiarly British (this episode's topic: Wales), lots of free pop, sweets and biscuits and a "zine" (like a magazine but not maga) with interviews, pictures, important phone numbers and a highly meta introduction from Submarine's protagonist Oliver Tate:
It makes more sense when you've seen the film.

More on Submarine nearer its official release date of March 18th (spoiler: It's brilliant).

3 comments :

  1. Please don't wait till 18th March, publish your review right away.

    "Brilliant" is your one word which is good enough for me. Could it be because you care what happens to Oliver Tate, the central character? I believe this to be an essential ingredient of any good film. This was lacking in 'Inception' where I don't suppose that by the end of the film anyone cared what happened to anyone in the confusing swirl of dreams within dreams. That is why it lost out to 'The King's Speech'. (The only exception to this rule is don't put your lead character in a coffin unless you are Quentin Tarantino and the actor is Uma Therman.)

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  2. Jee-Woon Kim and Rodrigo Cortes can and have put lead characters in coffins with gusto. If you haven't seen A Bittersweet Life (Kim) you really should

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  3. The Incredible Suit forgot to bring his periscope with him for use during the Submarine screening. It can clear any top hat or Carmen Miranda headress blocking the view.

    Ping...Ping...Ping that is the sound of the AsDic locator.

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