“Choose a life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. (…) Choose rotting away in the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself, choose your future. Choose life… But why would I want to do a thing like that?”
The purpose of Renton and his friends is clear from the beginning: take heroin. In short, this is exactly what Irvine Welsh tells us in her novel and Danny Boyle later adapted it for the big screen with this film, the solidarity that deeply links those who put drugs before any other interest. The story clearly follows a period in the story of these guys, without taking someone’s side or moralizing, among lies, despair, and even a bit of British humor. What made it a real cult, in addition to the setting and narration of a story on the edge of discomfort, is the stylistic expression of 90s punk inspired by the heroin-chic subculture, expressed by the looks of the characters.
Trainspotting is a real mental but above all visual trip and the use of wide-angle lens and colour manipulation in photography justify its hallucinogenic effect. The director wants to make us participate in what is happening not only by showing it but also by arousing in us the same unstable feelings and moods of a parallel reality.
But this reality “really” existed, sometimes it was hidden, but someone like the German photographer Tilman did not miss the opportunity to document it. From Scotland we move to German capital, the avant-garde Berlin, which in the meantime had also established a sort of unwritten law against photography in some clubs like the Berghain, in order to ensure the protection and privacy of its visitors.
In there everything is possible and everyone can express themselves.
In those years, Tilman made a reportage shot in analogical, of which each frame represents unique testimonies, excited, stoned youths yearning for freedom. His collection contains more than 10,000 images from 1991 to 1997 and, on the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall, they were included in the exhibition called “No Photos on the Dance Floor“.
Did you know: Oasis were asked to contribute to the soundtrack, but Noel Gallagher declined, as he thought the film was actually about trainspotters.
Genre: Drammatico
Director: Danny Boyle
Director of photography: Brian Tufano
Writers: Irvine Welsh, John Hodge (screenplay)
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller
