At 3 a.m. writer Conor McPherson, actors Peter Mc- Donald and Peter Caffrey and director Paddy Breathnach were standing comparatively steadily in the sculpture court of Edinburgh Art College at the party to celebrate the world premiere of their dark-toned, ebullient road movie, I Went Down at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
At Edinburgh's three-week arts binge, the parties have ranged from the film festival's opening night - at which it was difficult to procure more than one glass of wine and a single crisp - to the bacchanalian blend of cocktails, oysters and champagne, with hundreds of guests floating to the soundtrack provided by the Ministry of Sound, at the party hosted by London's ultra-hip Soho House media club and the film's distributors.
Tickets to the `I Went Down At Soho House' party were the most sought after of the entire festival and actor Alan Rickman held court beside the male nudes while director Ang Lee circled with a host of Fringe performers. The premiere was sold out and the crowd laughed and burst into applause during the film, while one of the stars, Peter Caffrey, smoked and cackled at the back.
Beforehand, director Paddy Breathnach set the tone with his introductory speech, saying that he and Conor McPherson had to dilute the language in the script "for the sake of decency". Then he told the crowd "so I'd like to thank you shower of f**** for coming to this poncy Irish film made by a shower of Irish f****", so we knew exactly where we were. But in the wee small hours at the Soho House party, which quickly began to resemble the fall of Pompeii, very few could say the same.