There isn’t anything specific about it: it’s not the ‘70s or ‘80s, it’s just kind of a mashup.” There’s no mobile phones there’s no new technology it’s kind of stuck in a time. He adds: “I think also resonates with people because it’s so well-made, and it has a nostalgia to it. Jordana strikes up a formative romance with Oliver, but problems at home push them apart. “I owe so much to him I feel like he opened my eyes to cinema.” ![]() “ had such an interesting way of looking at Oliver Tate’s life, and it’s like he was in a movie that he’d want to see… I think that’s why Submarine felt so fresh and so original,” he says. Roberts, who last year directed his second feature, heartfelt drama Eternal Beauty, credits Ayoade’s direction as a profound influence on his career since. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life.”Īyoade’s spontaneous approach permeates Submarine itself, with a few key scenes – including the New Wave-style ‘Two Weeks Of Lovemaking’ montage – featuring extensive improvisation. “He shot us climbing trees and running across the beach on a Super8 camera I had never done either as a kid, so I felt like I was getting to experience this freedom through the character of Jordana. It was the first time that I’d really been around nature,” she explains. I remember Richard had this joke with me ‘Michael Cera is waiting at any point to come in – so don’t mess it up!’”īut for Paige, who grew up in inner city London, this experience – regardless of the uncertain circumstances – was truly a formative one: “Richard literally filmed us being kids. “They had a script – but it was nerve-wracking because we didn’t know if we had the part. “We spent two or three days running around Barry Island with Erik Wilson and Richard, just shooting a bunch of stuff. “He made the story his own, which is much more important than trying to be faithful to the book.”įollowing a series of audition tapes in summer 2009, Ayoade, who was keen to keep the action close to Dunthorne’s Welsh roots, invited Roberts and Paige to record screen tests around Barry Island, south Wales, where sequences of the movie would later be shot. “I felt like really connected with the story of Submarine and had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with it,” says Dunthorne. Even better, they seemed to really click with Dunthorne’s self-deprecating brand of humour. Warp’s producers and Ayoade, best known for oddball sitcoms The IT Crowd and The Mighty Boosh, were smitten with the melancholic tale of young love. Richard Ayoade, who made his directorial debut with ‘Submarine’. “Looking back, I can see how lucky it all was but at the time I just thought: ‘OK, so this is how the film industry works!’” ![]() ![]() “It all happened weirdly quickly and easily,” he tells NME. It was an instant hit.Įven before the novel was published in February that year, Burke had optioned the screen rights, and swiftly roped in Ayoade – who had directed Arctic Monkeys’ freaky ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ music video for Warp the previous year – to work on the screenplay.įor Dunthorne, who had long been a devoted fan of the label and its roster of left-field artists including Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Plaid, the quickfire turnaround felt like a miracle. After persuading his housemate, a film student, to apply he got him to show the Warp boss his newly-finished manuscript of Submarine. In early 2008, the Swansea-born Dunthorne, then studying at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, was scouring the web for new music when he stumbled upon a job advert asking for interns at indie movie outfit Warp Films. Oliver (Craig Roberts) and Jordana (Yasmin Paige). With a pair of complex characters in Oliver Tate ( Craig Roberts), a painfully idiosyncratic 15-year-old struggling with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage and Jordana Bevan (Paige), his quasi-pyromaniac girlfriend Submarine stood out from a crowd of stereotypical high school romcoms – and set the tone for a wave of quirky British comedies that would follow ( Sing Street, The End Of The F***ing World and more). Initially shown in just 59 UK cinemas, Richard Ayoade’s directorial debut gathered steam via word-of-mouth and soon won a wide release after box office-busting first-week ticket sales. “It’s a universal story of that first encounter of love, where you’re just completely not aware of who you are.” She’s talking, of course, about Submarine – the perfectly awkward coming-of-age drama that was released 10 years ago next week.Īdapted from Joe Dunthorne’s acclaimed novel of the same name, the film has become a cult classic thanks to its open-hearted portrayal of teen life in Welsh suburbia. “This film is timeless,” says actress Yasmin Paige.
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