Trainspotting Question Analysis
Trainspotting
Trainspotting was released in 1996, from director Danny Boyle
and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Johnny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle.
The film focuses on the lives of heroin addicts and the struggles they face in
Edinburgh being young in early 90s.
The first clip I will be analysing
from Trainspotting is the very opening scene which involves Renton and Spud
(Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner) sprinting away from security guards as it
would appear they have just stolen something from a shop and so run down a
street to escape. The very first thing we see is a long, wide shot of a street
in Edinburgh and then all of a sudden 2 legs disturb the scene and there is a
low mid shot of Renton’s feet as he runs away, also Iggy Pop’s Lust for life
begins to play, this is non diegetic sounds over the images of the 2 friends
running away. Next we see a double shot of Renton and Spud being the main
subjects. They look nervous yet sort of excited because they want to gain from
this experience so are adamant to escape. From the mise-en-scene of how each
character looks, Renton has a shaved head and dirty coloured jacket, implying
he may not be financially stable and not have money for nicer clothes, it also
could mean he spends money elsewhere. The fact that they are stealing something
in the first place provides exposition that they don’t work therefore don’t earn
money so they have to steal. It is clear that the youth of Scotland is
portrayed across these characters so they have been specifically clothed and
made to look to achieve a high accuracy in representing Scottish youth. He is
very pale which suggests that he spends most of his time inside, which I know
is a fact, and therefore lacks the social ability to mix with others. Just from
these opening shots, we can make a clear correlation between the ways each
character looks and link it to the themes of the movie, such as drug use. We
then see another wide shot of the characters’ legs however this time it’s from
behind and as they are running, items are falling from them. This provides a
comedic element and how they have so much stuff, implies the youth culture
trapped in a drug life have to steal everything they can survive. The
Mise-en-scene here effectively establishes a time because the technology and
items they have stolen are all retro and also shoe design much older and worn
than nowadays, added to this they are wearing skinny jeans which most kids
would wear so it is stereotypical to the youth in Scotland. The quick cuts and
fast paced music relates to the speed of young people and how specifically
Renton and Spud may be seen as metaphors for youth society running away from
their demons.
As the camera cuts again, Renton is
running down some stairs and the camera is tracking backwards with him, I feel
a closeness in this shot as the camera could have been halfway down street
watching it all unfold in a single fixed position however to create more of a
closeness to the individual, Boyle filmed as we are following Renton, perhaps
following his life and we will see how it plays out. Drug addicts are usually
very paranoid and so the closeness represents how they don’t branch out into
other places or with other people, they stick with themselves, therefore we are
experiencing how he feels. Also with the general aesthetics of the film for
example wide shots and location shooting, the film feels more of an accurate
interpretation of youth cultures and drug addicts because it’s the real world,
with real events and real actions so the maintained use of wide shots and natural
lighting are effectively telling me what each character is doing at their point
in life right now, how they’re feeling and how we are supposed to feel. When
Renton is running down the stairs, his overall outfit is visible and it is
clear that due to the top that’s too small, the super skinny jeans, baggy and
dusty jacket, all of this mise-en-scene adds meaning to the films because this
isn’t a large scale Sci-fi epic, it’s a real world drama that relies on
aesthetics common to youth cultures and effectively does so. Later in the
opening scene each character is introduced with a voiceover and a few interesting
things about them. When we see all of them together they are playing football,
stereotypically a game representing male dominance and so to have these guys
playing football, it shows that the male youth do the most laddish things they
can. Further in the scene when Begbie is focused on, he is seen in a bar with
whisky, a cigarette and some beer, all things commonly associated with what men
do. It is also interesting that while most of the guys do drugs, Begbie says he
doesn’t want to poison himself with drugs, meanwhile smoking and drinking, so
it’s ironic and as an audience we laugh and believe this is what happens in
youth groups.
Another scene in the movie using
aesthetics to depict drug addiction is the detox scene after Renton overdoses.
The scene opens with extreme close ups of a door being locked. Straight off the
bat we have a theme of locking troubles away and how drug addicts are
constantly paranoid, they need to keep things locked up so by using the door
handle as a large metaphor, this mise-en-scene generates an initial thought for
the duration of the scene. As the camera cuts to within the room, there is a long
shot of Renton in his bed as some techno music starts to play, as well as
another voiceover. The recurring use of non diegetic music and voiceovers
express how young people like to listen to music all the time, yet it can also
imply that drug addicts lose their mind and so the constant music is just the
start of turning crazy and hallucinating. A slow dolly shot occurs and then a
shot from behind Renton as the room appears to be extending in this reverse
dolly zoom. It’s a strange way to film however given the experiences Renton is
having right now at this point, it feels a perfect way to make me as an
audience partially feel what he is feeling. The mise-en-scene in the shot
provides context to the film because the wallpapers in his room are of trains,
also the way the camera is moving is similar to that of a train. The aesthetics
of the current shot reveal that in his parents’ house, they haven’t got lots of
luxuries however they kept his room how he left it because families stick
together and so although Renton, symbolism for youth culture, may have messed
up, his parents, symbolism for wider society, will help him recover and care
for him. Ewan McGregor is providing a voice over still, listing all the
feelings he has right now, as mise-en-scene his acting is very good because it
feels more realistic than other portrayals of drug addicts, his scatty
behaviour also expresses true actions of someone on drugs.
The hallucinations begin as the non
diegetic music increases in pitch and tempo, as well as these conventions,
there is low key lighting present throughout so compared to other scenes, and
the feel is darker than before because in reality, this part for drug addicts
is a very dark time and highly stressful so the aesthetics need to have a
better representation because without this and the mise-en-scene, the film
would have a totally different feel and wouldn’t be as impactful, in depicting
drug addicts and youth in Scotland. Close ups of Renton are popularly used and
due to the craziness inside his head, these shots make it seem that once again
we are inside his head and everything he is experiencing, we are made to feel
similarly, for example with the hallucinations of Diane. These mid shots, still
low key lighting, seem quite freaky and scary because he didn’t want to see her
again but his illusions make it impossible to escape and because it’s totally
unexpected from inside his room as he has just overdosed hours before. The
edits become faster here and jump cuts are used as the scene changes with each
new hallucination, despite taking place in his bedroom the entire time. This
can be used to represent while a drug addict may be in the same place during
certain events, their minds are very much out of place and constantly having
multiple dreams and scary thoughts. Overall the film has an extremely deep
impact and the crew did a lot of work into finding out how drug addicts acted
and how youth in Scotland acted and this is portrayed on screen which means all
of the aesthetics are perfect, the mise-en-scene expressed fantastically, and overall
style of the film nailed.
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