In February 1996, the film "Trainspotting", which was labelled "indie" and "low-cost", was quietly released in the United Kingdom. Unexpectedly, the film achieved an excellent box office once it was released. score. By June 1996, Trainspotting had grossed $17 million in the U.K., and by August it had grossed $40 million worldwide, a huge blow to the filmmaker's $2.5 million production cost. Great compliment. At the same time, the film was well-received by the media and critics alike, with the British "Guardian" claiming that it had indeed captured the spirit of the subculture of the younger generation, while other British films of the same period were gradually forgotten. The film not only was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Award at the 69th Academy Awards in 1996, but also won the tenth place in the British Film Institute's 100 Best British Films of the Century in 1999, and was listed in the British film magazine TotalFilm in 2004. (The Complete Film) ranked it fourth on the list of the greatest British films of all time. Numerous awards have made Trainspotting a fan favorite, and its drug use and sex scenes have caused a lot of controversy, all of which have made director Danny Boyle the focus of the film industry.
Danny Boyle was born in the theater industry, and served as a television executive producer, producing a series of TV and TV series, his first film work was 1994's "Shallow Grave". "Shallow Grave" mainly tells the story of two men and one woman living in a closed apartment, who suspect each other and cheat each other because the new tenant dies unexpectedly in the room and leaves behind a large amount of money. The film has changed the delicate and elegant temperament of British films, with a strong visual style and an unexpected storyline, reflecting the director's superb narrative skills. "Shallow Grave" became one of the most successful hit films in the UK at the time, achieving good box office results. The success of "Shallow Grave" has enabled Danny Boyle to gradually establish his own directing style, and it has also led to his sincere cooperation with producer Andrew MacDonald and screenwriter John Hodge. The next work is the more eye-catching "Trainspotting".
"Trainspotting" continues the fast and fluid narrative style of Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave", reflecting a strong visual impact. Different from "Shallow Grave", the film "Trainspotting", adapted from the novel of the same name, does not deliberately tell a well-planned story. In order to better reflect the essence of the original work, it only intercepts several fragments of the protagonist's life, and uses the unique characteristics of the film. presented on the screen. The original work involves a large number of real descriptions of drug use details. The film uses a more visual way to present the state and hallucinations after drug use, showing a strong surrealist style and postmodern color, which is also consistent with literature. The adaptation together has become the most prominent feature of the film.
As a film adapted from a literary work, "Trainspotting" provides a successful example for the literary adaptation of the film. It not only embodies the essence of the original work, but also achieves the ultimate in filmmaking. The United Kingdom is one of the birthplaces of world films. In the long-term development, British films have formed their own unique dominant style, which is a certain delicate, elegant, euphemistic and calm tone permeating the films. This is of course not unrelated to the excellent British literary tradition. In Britain, which has a profound literary background, films naturally draw materials from literary works. Among them, there are many excellent films adapted from literary works. For example, the adaptations of John Foster and Jane Austen's works by contemporary British films have achieved excellent results. high artistic achievement. "Trainspotting" is adapted from the British writer Owen Welsh's novel of the same name, but whether it is a novel or a movie, "Trainspotting" is very different from the previous British literary and artistic orientation in terms of content, subject matter and aesthetic form. "Trainspotting" is Welsh's first novel and his most famous work. He was named "Poet Laureate of the Drug Age" for writing this book. It can be seen that the core content and themes of the novel are two Word: Drugs. The novel describes the life of a group of addicts at the bottom of society in Scotland, and depicts the details of drug use and hallucinations realistically, which is full of English slang and punchline dialogue. "The Times" once commented on Welsh's writing: "His writing combines style, imagination, intelligence and strength. The tone and style of this book are refreshing to readers who have no appetite for today's novels." The detailed description of life and the inner monologue of the characters, the plot is very weak, although it is full of strong language art, it undoubtedly increases the difficulty of adapting the film.
The screenwriter John Hodge gave up the idea of Welsh rewriting the story, and turned to find a suitable film adaptation, "I want it to be a book that has never been heard and has nothing to do with Scotland. Anyone who knows is likely to see a movie", as it turns out, he did. Compared with the original work, the completed film has only intercepted a small part of the most essential plot fragments, and deleted a lot of descriptions of normal life and minutiae, but it has retained the original language and wonderful inner monologue in the original work. For example, at the beginning of the film, a large section of Mark's voice-over about "choice" impressed many people. The whole film is narrated by Mark's voice-over, which has undoubtedly become an important basis for editing in this film. Due to the weakening of the plot itself, it is very easy to make the film become a patchwork of some scenes, but the voiceover solves this problem very well. With the continuous sound of Mark's voiceover, the picture also appeared correspondingly with his narration, which not only promoted the narrative, but also created a strong sense of rhythm, so that the editing is no longer limited by time and space. For example, in a scene where Mark and other five people were in a bar, Becky sat in the middle and told how good his billiards skills were. Just after he finished speaking, the picture was frozen, and then Mark's voiceover sounded: "That's the story Becky told, it should be said It was Becky's version, and a few days later, Tommy told me the truth, and the truth is always heard from Tommy." The screen then switches to the scene where Tommy tells the story, and as Tommy's story is told, the picture changes. Turning to another version of the situation at the time, Becky's billiards skills were actually terrible. In just a few minutes, the picture takes into account what happened in different time and space, such as Becky's story, Becky's story, Tommy's story, Tommy's story, etc., and Mark's exchange is explained in the scene of Tommy's story. Details of the videotape. When the picture returned to the present again, Mark showed a look of contempt. Obviously, Mark played the role of foresight, giving the picture a lot of space to switch freely. In addition, the extensive use of voiceovers can also reflect the language characteristics of the original work. The actors perform in the original Scottish dialect, which further shows the strong regional characteristics of the film.
The success of the novel into a film is also reflected in the photography. Although the original book largely describes the shocking lives of the protagonists, the overall tone of the novel is still realistic. The details of life in it are real and shocking. If it is put on the screen intact, it will greatly affect the viewing experience of the film. Boyle, who has always been against the realist tradition, obviously knows what to do. "The novel focuses on the character's state of mind, which is what we try to capture. That means from the drug addict's point of view rather than from the bystander. Filming from a point of view.” The film has a lot of complex camera movement, the angles chosen and the way it is shot are stunning and visually striking. For example, in the scene where Mark is running on the street, the director did not choose the usual panorama (the panorama usually reflects the relationship between the two sides of the chase), nor did he choose to switch the two sides of the chase (usually to reflect the tension of the chase), but chose a different The high close-up mainly shoots Mark and Spade, and the police behind him are placed in the background and become small. Such a choice of scenes clearly puts Mark and Spad in the spotlight, with the police in the background. In other words, this chase is not so much a police pursuit as it is Mark's aimless run, in which the director was able to introduce Mark. It is worth noting that the director also chose a line of sight that is different from normal viewing in the film, and there are many scenes that appear at an angle that is almost close to the ground, such as running with Mark or walking across the room's feet. When introducing Mark's apartment where a group of people gathered to take drugs, the director also designed a shot that moved close to the ground to show the structure of the apartment. In this shot, we first see the baby playing on the ground, and then we see the people on the left who are taking drugs. Since the line of sight of the camera is basically parallel to the baby, this shot obviously emphasizes the presence of the baby, which is in harmony with people. The contrast of drug use produced a strong visual stimulus. In addition, the film also has some special perspective shots, such as the shots inside the syringe. As the heroin is injected into Mark's blood vessels, the audience also sees a corresponding shot inside the syringe, and the visual effect is extremely strong. We know that Mark almost died suddenly after this injection, so the director deliberately emphasized "this injection" here, and the camera inside the needle tube obviously magnified the effect of this injection. In addition to giving people visual stimulation, these exaggerated lens designs, as Boyle himself said, well represent some unusual viewpoints of drug addicts. At this point, the expressive power of the film is far more than novel. In addition, the director also strengthened the musical elements in the film, and a large number of rock and electronic music gave the film a strong sense of rhythm and era.
The surrealism and post-modern colors in "Trainspotting" are unforgettable, and it strengthens the theme and visual expression of the film from another aspect. The surrealist genre in film history was born in France in the 1920s, represented by Louis Buñuel's "An Andalusian Dog" (1928). Surrealist films were deeply influenced by Freud's psychoanalytic theory, trying to express dreams and subconsciousness in the film, and put obscure and grotesque scenes on the screen, so as to express the chaos, pain and loss of the subjective world of human beings, which also includes Dissatisfaction with life and cynicism about capitalist society. Although the movement didn't take long to die, it was an invaluable boost to the expansion of the expressive realm of cinema. Nowadays, more and more movies show people's dreams and hallucinations, and they also borrow a lot of expression techniques from surreal movies. "Trainspotting" is a typical example. The most impressive thing in Trainspotting is the scenes with strong surrealism. For example, in a scene where Mark reaches into the toilet to take out the two suppositories, the first moment is really disgusting, but the next moment the director miraculously makes Mark stick his whole body into the toilet, suddenly turning into a fantastic seabed world picture. This scene is extremely abrupt in the whole film, and it is caught in the middle of a scene that is very real before and after. It is difficult to explain with normal logic. How did Mark get those two suppositories? If he didn't get into the toilet whole, why did he come out of the toilet wet? If he really got into the toilet, how could the toilet be the sea? When seeing this scene, the audience must be full of doubts, but before these doubts continued, they were immediately attracted by the next episode. For this scene, screenwriter Hodge said: "Although I like to watch realistic films, I don't want to write like that. I'm always looking for a way to deviate from realism. When I write the scene in the bathroom It really bored me when I was looking at things in a generally realistic way. So I got down the toilet." At this point Hodge apparently agreed with Boyle, who also hated realism, and the scene It was their chance to challenge realism. Facts have proved that this extremely abrupt scene not only did not destroy the overall effect of the film, but instead gave people great visual stimulation and became a classic section of the film. In fact, the inexplicability of this scene is also a reflection of Mark's state at the time. Because of the hallucination of drug addiction, Mark may not know how he found the two suppositories, let alone why he was soaked all over. Instead, he took it for granted that he got into the toilet.
In addition, some hallucinatory scenes depicting drug addiction episodes in the film are also relished by their surreal psychedelic style. For example, in a scene where Mark almost died suddenly, Mark, who had just been injected with impure heroin, fell into the carpet. The director arranged Mark's subjective shot to make this surreal scene come true. Another example is that Mark was locked in the room and forced to detox. As a result, he became addicted to drugs and had a series of hallucinations. The whole bed seemed to be moving fast. Mark saw the conceited Becky in the quilt, but when he opened the quilt, he disappeared, and he was there again. The room saw Tommy and Spade, especially the dead baby girl crawling towards him from the ceiling, which was also mixed with clips from the TV puzzle program, which presented Mark's post-drug addiction in an extremely visual way. Subjective feelings, the imagination of the director is amazing. In addition to the handling of these scenes, the use of color in the film is also very eye-catching, which also reflects the characteristics of surrealism. The film is permeated with a variety of bright and saturated colors, like advertising posters. The apartment where Mark and a group of people took drugs is a typical space. In this space, the director broke the barriers between walls and doors, turning the whole apartment into a big place divided into different areas, and different areas have different color. In the opening paragraph about the apartment, we can see that Mark's room is orange-red, the hallway is green, the baby's room is yellow and green, and the sick boy's room is purple and red. The colors are arranged together, and it looks extremely exaggerated and distorted and full of psychedelic colors. Regarding the use of colors in the film, director Boyle said: "It's not a hallucinogen effect, but a deliberate temptation." According to the director, these bright colors create a dreamlike effect invisibly, which makes drug use The scenes are also "photogenic" and become pleasing to people's eyes. Music is also used to advance the plot and express the blurred surreal mood. The protagonist Mark fell into a trance on the street after overdosing on drugs. The slow motion of high-speed photography is matched with the peaceful and beautiful rural folk color "Perfect Day", which tries to describe the surreal pleasure after drug addiction. The subsequent detoxification process is also expressed in surrealistic ways. One moment in the picture is his girlfriend Diane singing playfully; the next moment, his companion Spade is sitting on the iron gate of the prison in handcuffs and shackles; Climbing up towards him. In conjunction with these absurd and extremely terrifying shots, the background is accompanied by avant-garde experimental noisy electronic rock music, which constitutes a strong sensory stimulation, and strives to describe the pain of drug addiction. True, a classic.
As a film describing the lives of drug addicts, "Trainspotting" presents a lot of details of drug use through the camera. After the film was released, some critics criticized it for glorifying drug use behavior, which would lead to imitation by teenagers. In fact, this film has indeed had a profound impact on the younger generation, and is considered to represent the decadence, confusion and rebellion of contemporary youth, and has become a sought-after object by many young people. Just looking at the expression and content of the film, we can indeed see that the director expresses a unique view of tradition and culture in the film. It tries to subvert the deep thinking of traditional art films with a counter-cultural standpoint, and collages all kinds of films with a consumerist attitude. Artistic techniques and means are used to dissolve the silent numbness and pain in the hearts of the contemporary young generation. In the film, when Tommy said, "Don't you feel proud to be a Scotsman?", Mark's response was intriguing: "When the Scots are the worst, we are the lowest, the scum of the earth, yes The most unfortunate, pitiful, pathetic garbage in the civilized world. Some people hate the British, but I don't, they are just rotten. And we, on the other hand, are colonized by rotten people. We are even used to being colonized I can't find any decent culture in the world." The words revealed a critical attitude towards Scottish culture and history. But if this is the voice of contemporary Scottish youth, if it is a young generation's manifesto against traditional culture, then drug use is clearly a powerful practice of their slogan, a matter of course to be praised. However, the film emphasizes the importance of Mark's "getting out" and "getting out" throughout. In the end, Mark was lucky enough not to be infected with AIDS, and became one of many young people working hard in big cities, leading a so-called "new life". In order to maintain such a life, Mark finally betrayed his friends, got rid of drugs forever, and got rid of his friends. Mark's final ending is undoubtedly in conflict with his own comments, and the film's seemingly rebellious appearance is also diluted by such a happy ending. In this way, the film's anti-traditional youth culture itself is also contradictory. After experiencing the fierce rebellion of youth, Mark may still live a "normal life" like his parents in the future.
Although the theme of this film is full of contradictions, its keynote is the alienation and dismantling of traditional propositions such as the sense of sublime, tragedy and mission. In a certain sense, it reflects the spiritual crisis of contemporary Western youth in the postmodern context. The director integrated this ideological temperament into the novel performance content, reflection perspective, frame structure and mirror language, which made the film highlight the strong experimental nature and avant-garde stance. Therefore, rather than seeing the film as a textbook for youth rebelling against society, it is better to think of it as a successful experiment in the audiovisual language of film by director Boyle, who reflects a marginal subject in a pleasing and stimulating fluent tone. In this way, it is not difficult to understand the huge commercial success of this dark film.
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