How was the film?

To Temple Bar's Meeting House Square on Friday night for the first night of Movies on the Square, one of the main attractions in Temple Bar Cultural Trust's summer programme. Last night was the opening night so there was lots of young beautiful types queueing up to have their photo taken (tilting their heads and dropping their knee the way girls on America's next Top Model do) for The Dubliner and not queueing up to get their hands on free gourmet burgers. After all, the camera adds 10lbs and all that...

The films are being shown in Meeting House Square with a huge canopy protecting the audience from the rain. It was a very wet night but the canopy, a pretty elaborate affair that sprang from one corner of the square to the other making the space feel more like a dome, kept us all dry as the rain came down outside. It couldn't do much about the cold but at least we were dry. Interestingly, I passed by today and ducked into the square for a moment. The canopy was down today so obviously they're just going to put it up every Friday for the night. It looked like a permanent fixture last night but I guess it must go up and down with relative ease. I wouldn't fancy folding it up afterwards though..

As is often the case, the crowd was a bit of a mixed bag - most of whom showed up to see the opening night's film, The Commitments, and not to listen to Republic of Loose, who were there, somewhat reluctantly, to entertain the crowd before the film. At the best of times, they're an entertaining bunch with a sweet line in funky rock and roll. At the worst of times, they're a disinterested bunch of chancers with a belligerent bear of a frontman. You can guess which version showed up last night. I had to laugh at the irony of getting a Dublin band with an oversized charismatic frontman who eventually implode spectacularly to warm up a crowd of people waiting to see The Commitments, a film about a Dublin Band with an oversized charismatic frontman.. ..you get my point. So they plugged away petulantly before miraculously getting some of the crowd to stand up and move about a little. Eventually (it felt like they were up there for hours) they finished up and the film started..

Now I'm sure they were opening night's teething problems but I've got to say that the sound was atrocious. It varied from being slowed down to speeding up and then slowing down again. Very frustrating while it lasted. And then, once it sorted itself out, we were confronted with the worst thing you have to deal with when attending events in a public space - the public. What is it with people (I'm trying to be balanced, but we that more often than not it's girls, right?) who go to gigs and just want to talk all the way through it? That's bad enough but, seriously, what possesses them to go to a film and talk and talk and talk..

"And then i said to him and he looked at me and like I didn't even know what to do but like she was there and I hadn't been there for ages and we walked in and the bar was packed and I saw what she was wearing and she's just a stupid bitch and she was like who do you think you are and I'm like who does she think she is and anyway we were there first and I didn't want to go in the first place and it's not my fault she can't keep her boyfriend and OH MY GOD, HIII!! I didn't know you were going to be here too it's great, isn't it I love this film...."

We said our goodbyes and left. You'd have done the same.

The festival is on for the rest of the summer on Friday nights. Tickets are free and I hope it's a huge success. They're showing some really good comedies every week. And Borat. If you go, bring a midnight feast and sit near the front, in the middle of your row. You'll have a great time.