The money - £1.6 million, which Metzstein says is the most money a first-timer like himself is ever likely to get to play with - came from FilmFour, the lottery and the Glasgow Film Fund. The script came from Jack Lothian, who is still in his 20s. Metzstein was 30 last month. He claims not to feel terribly young.

Designs On Film

He started off studying architecture. Then he stopped, not because he did not like buildings, but because he wanted to make films. He started working as a location scout and a runner, which gave him invaluable experience and insight into the practicalities of the business. The first feature film he worked on was Shallow Grave. He went on to make documentaries for the BBC - about Dogma films and Jimmy Stewart among other subjects - adverts and short films.

Although Late Night Shopping was filmed entirely in Glasgow, Metzstein splits his time between Scotland and London. Despite this, it is a Scottish film, "the writing, the humour, is sub-Bill Forsyth". Most of the actors, however, are English. He thinks it was the only home-grown film shot in Scotland last year.

He hopes, naturally enough, that it will be a big cult hit and that everyone will love it. "I would like to see," he says dreamily, "big queues at the Odeon."

He knows enough about the business, however, to realise that what happens to Late Night Shopping is in the hands of FilmFour, which will handle screening, distribution and promotion. Instead he will concentrate on his next film, another collaboration with Lothian. The pair met when Lothian was babysitting for a friend's child and using their computer to write a novel.

Seems Familiar

Making Late Night Shopping might have been fun but the process of getting to make it has been a less enjoyable one. "I spent ages not quite doing what I wanted to do," he says thoughtfully. "For a long time it didn't come so easy. I was the location scout or the runner on films with the same budget so the environment was familiar. The first day we were on the set I thought, this is really familiar, I've been here before. But this time, I'm the director."

Anyone lamenting the current state of British cinema can take heart from Late Night Shopping. It’s a laidback, low-budget slacker movie with an abundance of the promise and a freshness that have been all too absent from our national screens of late.

Topsy Turvy

Set in a twilight zone of after-hours cafes and empty city streets, Late Night Shopping focuses on the topsy turvy lives of four friends who work in dead-end jobs while the rest of the world sleeps. A sardonic, slow-burning charmer, it was one of the prize-winners at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival and is set to provide a Trainspotting-style stepping stone for the lead quartet of actors including 26-year-old James Lance who plays cocky jack-the-lad, Vincent.

Simply Irresistible

Something of a 21st-century Alfie, supermarket shelf-stacker Vincent sees every woman as an opportunity, even if that woman happens to be a mate’s girlfriend. Oblivious to the consequences of his actions, he places his faith in an irresistible charm, a watch reputed to have been worn by bedroom legend Errol Flynn and a firm rule that he only sleeps with a girl three times. If the character wasn’t played with such twinkling bad boy charm by Lance you could find it very easy to dislike Vincent. In Lance’s hands, Vincent becomes the kind of trouble you might like to invite home.

"The script said something like ‘Vincent is so good-looking that you would want to be him for a day’ and I realised that definitely wasn’t me," says the personable Lance with becoming modesty. "I told them that whatever I lacked in cheekbones I’d make up for in charm because Vincent was a bit of a bastard on the page and I really didn’t like him at first."

The key to understanding Vincent was the character’s obsession with Errol Flynn. Lance read Flynn’s racy memoir, "My Wicked Wicked Ways", and it told him exactly what he needed to know.

Flynn Obsession

"Flynn was a lost soul who never really wanted to be an actor," he explains. "He was a man of the sea but felt he had to live up to this swashbuckling reputation. I think Vincent is a lost soul too. He’s deeply scared and trying to protect himself. Over the course of the film he learns that every action has a consequence, and becomes much more human." A veteran of comedy series like I’m Alan Partridge and Absolutely Fabulous, where he played Saffy’s boyfriend, Lance can currently be seen adding a roguish touch to the ubiquitous commercial for alcoholic beverage, Archers. He has been acting professionally since he was 10 and always knew this was what he wanted to do.

"I was seven years old and doing a musical at school, something like Joseph And His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," he recalls. "I went home and told my mum I wanted to be an actor and when she asked why I told her I liked the applause. Simple as that. I did amateur dramatics, learnt tap dancing and then the BBC were looking for a kid for The Russian Soldier and I got the part. I remember being on the set and they kept feeding you with bacon sandwiches and cream cakes. As a kid that really impressed me. A lot of actors say they went into the business for the glamour, or the beautiful women. For me it was the cream cakes."

All too aware of the precarious nature of his profession, Lance has had his share of dead-end jobs and more than a taste of the lifestyle adopted by the characters in Late Night Shopping.

Character Building

"I’ve never been a shelf-stacker like Vincent but I’ve been pretty close. I think my worst job was working at a drive-thru McDonald’s where I had to clean the floor tiles with a smiling Ronald McDonald sugar spoon and some Ajax. It was very character building. I used to deliver sandwiches in London. I’ve done just about every casual job a ‘resting’ actor can do." Resting hasn’t been much of an option recently. Lance followed the summer 2000 shoot of Late Night Shopping with a return trip to Scotland last autumn for the forthcoming Channel 4 series, The Book Club, in which an American woman moves to Glasgow and meets new friends by establishing a book-reading club. This year, he has completed the film, The Search For John Gissing, with Alan Rickman. He is currently filming a new series of Smack The Pony and is working with a group of friends to establish a theatre company in Brighton. A production of Sam Shepard’s True West is high on the wish list for their launch next year.

Despite a frantic schedule, he has been able to match quality with quantity and acknowledges that commercials like Archers and Wrigley’s Spearmint gum have allowed him the financial comfort to be more selective in other areas of his career. Late Night Shopping is still his biggest break.

"From the word go I thought it was going to turn out well, " he confesses." I loved the script and it was just great to see something British that didn’t deal with drugs, gangland violence or wasn’t still trying to ride the last wave of all those Reservoir Dogs-inspired thrillers. I’ve always been into films. My idols are people like Jack Nicholson, Sam Shepard and Klaus Kinski and I just hope it really does well."

The one and perhaps only drawback to the whole Late Night Shopping experience was that Vincent is a serious smoker and that meant Lance had to suffer for his art.

"I had given up for about a year-and-a-half," he asserts, working himself up to a burst of righteous indignation. "In the film, Vincent smokes in just about every scene but I thought I could get away with lighting up herbal cigarettes. I tried but they are so absolutely vile I had to go back to the real things. Redoing scenes for continuity and everything, I was getting through about 50 a day and then going to the pub afterwards and lighting up. I have given up again but making that film seriously damaged my health!"

Regardless of the long-term impact on his lungs, Lance would be more than eager to join the Late Night Shopping team for their next venture.

Writer Jack Lothian, director Saul Metzstein and producer Angus Lamont have just announced that they are to reunite on Northern Soul, a romantic comedy in which a group of young people travel to Blackpool for a night of dancing and partying to their favourite music.

Late Night Shopping is released on June 22