TRAINSPOTTING

Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), deeply addicted to heroin, regularly hangs out with the mates he grew up with in an Edinburgh neighbourhood: Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Tommy (Kevin McKidd), and the psychopathic Begbie (Robert Carlyle). Their get-togethers are filled with drug-taking, dealing, brawls, theft, partying until the early hours, and casual flings with girls they’ve just met. Renton, as he explains in his now-iconic monologue, decides to "choose life" and break free from his addiction, but – as we all know – old habits die hard. Moving to London is nowhere near enough to escape his past. 

Danny Boyle, who made himself known to cinema-goers with the black comedy SHALLOW GRAVE (1994), was forging an iron while it was hot. 

Taking Irvine Welsh's wildly controversial novel, he created an Oscar-nominated Best Screenplay work of such intensity that the famous scene set in ‘the filthiest toilet in Scotland’ is just the tip of the iceberg regarding on-screen obscenity. A kind of British answer to Quentin Tarantino's PULP FICTION (1994), pulsating with an eclectic soundtrack (ranging from seventies rhythms to club music), abounding in bold and hallucinatory visuals, this at times, genuinely disgusting film has gained cult status and, despite its modest budget, has made a fortune, became a massive box office hit. 

But this is far more than mere entertainment. The world depicted is indeed humorous and surreal, yet at the same time brutal and deeply pessimistic, showing that there’s nothing glamorous about taking drugs. The high is, at best, only temporary.

Text: Rafał Glapiak

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TRAINSPOTTING will be shown at special screening in TAMA Club (Niezłomnych 2 Street).