“The idea is that the film is somewhat directed by him,” Ayoade continues. Oliver thinks of himself “in a tradition of protagonists and, therefore, would view himself filmically.”
Speaking of the influences on his work, Ayoade refers most often to films by Truffaut and Godard, recalling that he “started sometime around 16, probably, becoming interested in French New Wave films” simply as an easy way of studying for French class. His cinephilia may have bloomed late, but these days he’s as comfortable discussing Italian horror flicks and Budd Boetticher westerns as “The 400 Blows.”
The fine lines “Submarine” walks — its self-aware but unprecious tone, its way of teasing characters without mocking them — look like the work of a much more experienced filmmaker. Sally Hawkins, the “Made in Dagenham” star who plays Oliver Tate’s mother, says that Ayoade “knows exactly what he wants, and knows when he’s got it.”
“Some directors are just interested in the acting,” she continues, “and some are just interested in the aesthetic, what it looks like, and leave the acting to you. But Richard has an overview of everything; he’s interested in every aspect of it. I know that sounds obvious, and you’d think that most filmmakers are, but I think perhaps this is the first time I’ve been aware of it. He’s passionate, like an artist, about all aspects, and I don’t think he values one above the other.”
Ayoade is co-writing an adaptation of Dostoevsky’s “The Double,” a “sort of comic” film he hopes will have the feel of Martin Scorsese’s “After Hours” (“one of my favorite comedies,” he says, “if you call it a comedy”).
But don’t expect him to appear in his own movies any time soon.
“I’d have to be in a really good director’s film in order to be good,” he says. “You’d have to have somebody who could really beat some kind of decent performance out of me.”
DeFore is a freelance writer.
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