Trainspotting - Little White Lies

Trainspotting D i re ct e d b y D a n ny B oyl e Starrin g Ewa n Mc G re go r, Jo n ny L e e M i l l e r, R o b e r t C a r lyl e , E w e n B r e m n e r, K ev i n M c K i dd Re l e a s e d Fe b r u a r y 1 9 9 6

007

TAKE THE BEST ORGASM YOU’VE EVER HAD... MULTIPLY IT BY d t e h Tr ak t ob s Wuperaio o Ma eS o as y ’ve n c y l h d u t pl it b c u t so tha le of h h bit.

1,000,a y u’re Take the best orgasm you’ve ever had, multiply it by 1,000, and you’re still nowhere near it”. So says Mark Renton, the central character in Danny Boyle’s already-frenziedly-anticipated-and-it’s-still-a-month-till-it-comes-out film version of Irvine Welsh’s best selling Caledonian junkie romp Trainspotting.

And it’s not the pleasure of a fried egg sandwich on a cold day that he’s talking about, or the excitment ofefinding ane unread newspaper left on a train, but the joy of injecting heroin.

Trainspotting’s willingness to face up to the apparently self-evident fact that some people take drugs simply because they enjoy them will not endear g u that this is the most vengaging, r it to everyone. There is no doubt, though, original and resonant cinematic portrayal of delinquent British youth since Quadrophenia. It notm only banishes the memory of such risible recent domestic y the exploitation efforts as Young Americans and Shopping, but also manages a impossible - to make a film about junkiedom so stylish and funny apparently as to beguile people who find the whole idea stunningly tedious.

Ewan McGregor’s charismatically d disreputable performance in the pivotal role of Mark Renton is one of the keys to Trainspotting’s success. The McGregor giving interviews in the Groucho Club is barely recognisable as the soaking here wet, crop-headed desperado who’ll be looking down from the film posters for o near theit”.next eight weeks or so. The jovial 24-year-old has put back on the two

h

t

e

,

m

008 The Trainspotting Issue

i

n

still

now

lle

stone he lost for the role and grown out the crop into an easygoing bed-head/ e stubbly chin combination.

But the most noticeable thing about him is that he talks a lot of sense for an actor.

“It’s a funny thing, me doing interviews,” McGregor points out,o“because it doesn’t really matter what I think about anything: i I just enjoyed being in r the film.” That, of course, is not the way things work, and McGregor is visibly bracing himself for the high level of controversy that Trainspotting’s even-handed r up. “If someone’s constantly telling approach to drug addiction is bound to stir you ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that,” he argues, “especially as a kid - the first thing t you want to do is go and do it. It’s much more responsible to say ‘It’ll make you feel fantastic for a short while but then it will lead to this, this and this’.” o Though is eschews grim documentary realism for a more humorous, sometimes almost surreal approach, Trainspotting pulls no punches in depicting the levels of moral and physical degradation to which the f e junkie might expect h to stoop. (In the memorable sequence, McGregor dives head-first into n the worst toilet in Scotland in search of an opium pessary). But one of the most intersting things about the film i is the way it shows that, while for some people their first taste of heroin is indeed a one-way ticket to despair and death, others - like Renton and his unsavoury friend Sick Boy - have the ability to drift in and out of drug-taking.

c

m

n

he

g

IT BY A THOUSAND, AND YOU’RE STILL NOWHERE NEAR IT...

a h a o n w I s i y e. T i w t b i l k m p e , t’ot r pe l e s myf enalb clh u t’ e a ul h e b u re. o t is. p r o le su

Drifting in and out, as McGregor seems admirably well aware, is exactly a what actors do. “I became a drug addict for six months in preparation for this film’: that’s such a load of bollocks,” he snorts derisively. “If you did that it’s because you wanted to be a drug addict -it’s not going to help the film.” The r at a Trainspotting press kit does mention some research done among junkies d:the new Peter Luxembourg railway station while working on Greenaway film. l “I didn’t hang out with them,” McGregor insists. “I just watched them from u too a distance. I’d never intiate myself into the group because that would be embarrassing (Assumes stereotypical idiot actor voice) ‘Hi, I’m going to play r a drug addict, would you likeeto show me how to do it?”

Much is made of the advisory role played by the ex-addicts of Eddinburgh’s n Athletic Recovery Club in the making of Trainspotting. Eveni in a formal Calton setting, surely it must still be quite embarrasing to meet people who have e been through terrible experinces on the basis p that you’re going to pretend to ibe like them? h “We met a lot of people who had been drug e laddicts, but I didn’t feel that we were using them because I don’tothink they felt we were. A lot of them had read the book and really liked it, and they knew ’s that we were quite serious about wanting to make it into a good film.”

They say you never recapture the thrill of your first recovery experience.

a

I

s

McGregor was certainly deeply impressed by his first encounter with Calton Athketic. “This first time Danny Boyle took me up there, I heard this guy Eamonn - who ended sup being our adviser - tell his drug life story, and it was extraordinary. I’d never heard anything like it; I’d never felt anything like the atmosphere of support in the room; the giving of strength to each s felt almost religous. Hearing e how other, from these hard men and women, low they’d sunk certainly dispelled any ideas that I maybe had of any glamour i because I probably did hame some...I’m involved with the taking of heroin, sure I did.”

Why do those ideas persist in spite of all the evidence to the contrary?

“It’s something that’s got an awful lot of kudos because it’s taboo, becauset,it’s the big bad one. I mean, why is it worse to be injecting heroin into your arm then to be doing a line of coke in a toilet?” McGregor laughs, aware that this might be a controversial statement to me in the middle of Soho, notorious red light district of coke- crazed media whores. “I suppose socially it’s to do with s into e your body makearit the needle - the ideat of an implement putting things all seem very clinical and medical and that sets it apart.”

There is a big b - and for non-syringe fans, appropriately wince-inducing intravenous close-up in Trainspotting. Is that Ewan’s arm? “It is my arm, but t a plastic pipe going into a little pool of blood moulded prosthetically and with 009

IT USES COLORFUL VOCABULARY, IT CONTAINS A LOT OF ENERGY, IT ELEVATES ITS MISERABLE HEROES TO THE STATUS OF ICONS AND IT DOES EVOKE THE EDINBURGH DRUG LANDSCAPE WITH A CONVICTION THAT SEEMS BORN OF CLOSE OBSERVATION.

underneath so you can see the pulse.” Cast members were inured to the horrors of the injection by Eamonn’s expert tuition. “It didn’t seem to mean anything to him,” says McGregor. “I think what means everything to you is what happens after you’ve put it in your arm - everything else is irrelevant.”

The irritating thing about the Irvine Welsh phenomenon is the way some people seem to think the merest acquaintance with his vividly scabrous fictional creations somehow qualifies them as honorary roughnecks. McGregor has no such pretensions. His background was plainly a good deal more comfortable than Renton’s but that does not compromise the integrity of the film. Rather, it enhances its thrilling sense of mobility.

Ewan McGregor grew up in the small and sedate Scottish town of Crieff.

Inspired by the example of his uncle, Local Hero star Denis Lawson, he had decided he wanted to be an actor by the age of nine. “I remember throughout my childhood in the Seventies he [Lawson] used to come up and see us and he’d always look really different from other people I knew. He had flares on and sideburns and beads and a big sheepskin waistcoat and didn’t wear any shoes, and I just wanted to be like him.”

The only cast member to survive from the Trainspotting team’s previous success, Shallow Grave, McGregor has understandable hopes of being “associated with their work in the same way that Martin Donovan is with Hal Hartley”.

That didn’t stop him taking a major role in a new film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. “I got married between Trainspotting and Emma,” he vouchsafes, still somewhat bewildered. “One minute I was lying on the floor with a syringe in my arm, then I got married, then I was standing in this trailer - I’d never had a big trailer before, it was quite nice - with a wig, and top hat and tails, and leather gloves on, and for a moment I thought ‘I can’t go from skinhead drug addict to ha-ha-ha curly wig acting.”

But surely that’s your job? McGregor smiles contentedly. “I would so, yes.”

010 The Trainspotting Issue

In the end, Trainspotting has an anti-drug message, but it presents its case through character studies, not preaching. There are a lot of gruesome images, some of which are presented in an oddly humorous context. For example, take Renton’s headfirst dive into the “worst toilet in Scotland” or Spud’s reaction when he wakes up in soiled sheets. In portraying the cycle of addiction -- using drugs, trying to get clean, then giving in again -- Trainspotting recalls Drugstore Cowboy and The Basketball Diaries. Boyle’s style, however, is distinctly his own. This is a kinetic movie, where everything, including the camera, keeps moving. This isn’t an examination of the Scottish drug culture from the outside looking in, it’s one from the inside looking out.

For one hour, Trainspotting is as compelling as any motion picture to be released this year. It’s exciting, energetic, thought-provoking, and never lets up. Unfortunately, during the film’s last third, the focus starts to shift, and, in doing so, it blurs. Suddenly, after battling addiction for sixty minutes, Renton and his friends become Scotland’s answer to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs -- a group of inept thieves committing the “dodgiest scam” in a lifetime of petty crimes. There’s mistrust, betrayal, and bloodshed. But, while this material has some appeal, it’s debatable whether it belongs here. For a segment like this to really work, it needs more time and attention than Boyle and

screenwriter John Hodge are able to give it. As such, the subplot seems almost like an afterthought, taking the film away from its darker, more compelling material and opening the door to a hopeful, if ironic, ending.

These friends sleep where they can--in bars, in squats, in the beds of girls they meet at dance clubs. They have assorted girlfriends, and there is even a baby in the movie, but they are not settled in any way, and no place is home.

Near the beginning of the film, Renton decides to clean up, and nails himself into a room with soup, ice cream, milk of magnesia, Valium, water, a TV set, and buckets for urine, feces, and vomit. Soon the nails have been ripped from the door jambs, but eventually Renton does detox (``I don’t feel the sickness yet but it’s in the mail, that’s for sure’’), and he even goes straight for a while, taking a job in London as a rental agent.

But his friends find him, a promising drug deal comes along, and in one of the most disturbing images in the movie, Renton throws away his hard-earned sobriety by testing the drug, and declaring it... wonderful. No doubt about it, drugs do make him feel good. It’s just that they make him feel bad all the rest of the time. ``What do drugs make you feel like?’’ George Carlin asked. ``They make you feel like more drugs.’’ The characters in ``Trainspotting’’ are violent (they attack a tourist on the street) and carelessly amoral (no one, no matter how desperate, should regard a baby the way they seem to). The legends they rehearse about each other are all based on screwing up, causing pain, and taking outrageous steps to find or avoid drugs. One day they try to take a walk in the countryside, but such an ordinary action is far beyond their ability to perform.

You could call it an anti-heritage British movie, except you can see a bit of Hogarth in it. You could also dub it the natural successor to Naked, except that only Mike Leigh is capable of succeeding himself. If David Thewlis in

naked seemed like a Jimmy Porter for the nineties, McGregor’s Renton is the weasled remains of a contemporary Alfie.

Strange, the cult following ``Trainspotting’’ has generated in the UK, as a book, a play and a movie. It uses a colorful vocabulary, it contains a lot of energy, it elevates its miserable heroes to the status of icons (in their own eyes, that is), and it does evoke the Edinburgh drug landscape with a conviction that seems born of close observation. But what else does it do? Does it lead anywhere?

Say anything? Not really. That’s the whole point. Drug use is not linear but circular. You never get anywhere unless you keep returning to the starting point. But you make fierce friends along the way. Too bad if they die.

Anticipation. A shocking, painfully subjective trawl through the Edinburgh heroin culture of the 1980s.

Enjoyment.

A sensation.

In Retrospect.

This may not have the weight of ‘Great Art’, but it crystallises youthful disaffection with the verve of the best and brightest pop culture.

011

LWLies: What do you love about movies?

Danny Boyle: What I love about movies I think is the dark room and you sit there with strangers. If you think about it psychologically... If you asked somebody from another planet to ask us about what do you think psychologically about people who go and sit with a load of strangers in a dark room and watch 40 foot high versions of themselves kissing and shagging and hurting each other, you’d think, "That’s insane. They’re mad people, they’re absolutely mad.” And I love the way we play our madness on it, really.

Editor Matt Bochenski mat@thechurchoflondon.com

Editor-at-Large Jonathan Crocker jonathan@thechurchoflondon.com

Creative Director Paul Willoughby paul@thechurchoflondon.com

Deputy Editor Adam Woodward adam@thechurchoflondon.com

Publishing Assistant Hannah El-Boghdady hannah@thechurchoflondon.com

Digital Designer Evan Lelliott evan@thechurchoflondon.com

Designer Angus McPherson design@thechurchoflondon.com

Interns

Contributing Editors Ellen E Jones, Kevin Maher, Dan Stewart, Jonathan Williams

Paul Weedon, Fabrizio Festa

Words, pictures, thanks...

Tim Atkins, Lewis Bazley, Kayt Bochenski, Laurence Boyce, Paul Bradshaw, James Bramble, David Bray, Dan Brightmore, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Davis, Livia Dragomir, Paul Fairclough, SJ Fowler, Ricardo Fumanal, Lauren Gentry, David Jenkins, Audrey Lowry, Kingsley Marshall, Christopher Neilan, Holly Pester, Tom Seymour, Cyrus Shahrad, Marcus Slease, Victoria Talbot, Andy Tweddle, Josh Winning, Joe Wilson, Jason Wood, Vania Zouravliov

Managing Director Danny Miller danny@thechurchoflondon.com Commercial Director Dean Faulkner dean@thechurchoflondon.com

Published by The Church of London 71a Leonard Street London EC2A 4QS +44 (0) 207 7293675

018 The Trainspotting Issue

Publishing Director Vince Medeiros vince@thechurchoflondon.com Special Projects Steph Pomphrey steph@thechurchoflondon.com

Editorial Director Matt Bochenski matt@thechurchoflondon.com Ad Sales Executive Rebecca Scurlock becks@thechurchoflondon.com

Distributed by COMAG Specialist Tavistock Works Tavistock Road, West Drayton Middlesex UB7 7QX andy.hounslow@comag.co.uk

Creative Director Rob Longworth rob@thechurchoflondon.com

Digital Director Alex Capes alex@thechurchoflondon.com

Marketing &Distribution Manager Anna Hopson anna@thechurchoflondon.com

Subsciption enquiries subs@thechurchoflondon.com -

Cover illustration by Paul Willoughby

Chapter 3 Girl Liz Haycroft liz@thechurchoflondon.com

The articles appearing within this publication reflect the opinions and attitudes of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the publishers or editorial team.

Made with paper from sustainable sources.

LWLies is published six times a year.

ISSN 1745-9168 TCOLondon 2012

e

b

C b

i

R

s

u

S

020 The Trainspotting Issue

022 The Trainspotting Issue

023

025

024 The Trainspotting Issue

A restless and energetic filmmaker.

He’s British cinema’s great chameleon.

027

I

n his 16-year career, Danny Boyle has delivered some of British cinema’s most iconic moments; from an apocalyptic London in 28 Days Later… to Renton’s Iggy Pop-fuelled opening sprint in Trainspotting. Two years ago the keys to Hollywood were handed to Boyle on a silver platter after Slumdog Millionaire swept the Oscars and catapulted the Lancashireborn filmmaker firmly into the big leagues.

But Boyle didn’t go the Hollywood route. Instead, he rounded up his trusty crew, grabbed a young A-lister and set course for canyon country, Utah. The result, 127 Hours,affirms Boyle’s talent with electrifying aplomb.

LWLies sat down with the Lancashire-born director recently to to discuss the making of the film, reflect on his career so far and find out where he plans on going from here.

LWLies: We’ve heard that there have been paramedics on standby at screenings of 127 Hours…

Boyle: Yeah, it’s turned out to be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, that’s the problem. I’ve seen people passing out in a few screenings myself actually. I’ve taken them outside and watched them recover.

But I would say that it isn’t revulsion, they wake up and they go back in because they’re already so involved and invested with the character.

It’s certainly not gratuitous.

No and I think there’s so much empathy with the character that people are drawn to him. What I’ve tried to explain to people is that Franco’s performance is so good, so believable… it’s not the blood, or the knife, or the noise – you’ve seen far worse things in lots of movies – it’s actually his performance. It’s the way he’s built the story through the character and lead up to that climactic point – that’s why people might find it too much. There’s this great story, which is true, about this guy at one of the test screenings and he – you know they give out cards at the end?

Yeah…

And so this guy’s passed out and they took him out and he woke up and went back in he said ‘I’m gonna mark this excellent by the way.’

It’s like… it’s just insane how people can react so strongly, so viscerally, and yet still enjoy it so much. But you just go with it and hope people will like it at the end.

Can you talk a little about how you came to make the film?

Sure, well I heard about it in 2003, when it happened. I lived in London but it was a worldwide story, you could sense the fascination for it straight away. And I read [Aron Ralston’s] book in 2006 and I went to meet him in Holland, he was on tour, or on holiday or something, and I went to meet him… I wouldn’t say we got on that well, I had a very different vision of it than he did, I thought very strongly it was a one-person film; that you should see it through an actor. And he didn’t, he was very clear he wanted it told as a drama-documentary, ideally like Touching the Void. But I thought that wasn’t right for this story – I love that film, I think it’s brilliantly made and brilliantly told, but I felt this had to be told from a first person expeence and that only an actor would be able to get you to watch that scene, which of course is the crucial scene in many ways. If you’re going to show it as fully and as brutally as is in his book then there’s no way you could do that outside a horror context without a great actor taking you there. We separated then and agreed to meet another day, which I never thought we would. But he changed because my vision for the movie remained the same and after Slumdog I think he realised that we were decent filmmakers, that also some of Slumdog was tough, so we weren’t going to shy away from that.

We weren’t going to do a bullshit ending on it.

Was it hard to convince him that when you approached with the angle of doing a dramatisation?

Yeah but I think he knew we weren’t going to have a surgeon out trekking with his wife that comes along and saves the hand or any shit like that. But also, Aron’s a bright guy and he knew it was going to be impossible to finance a documentary on the scale he wanted; they’d never managed to raise any money. But most importantly 028 The Trainspotting Issue

in all this he’d met his wife, Jessica, and she has changed him I think and he is more trusting now. I think originally he was cautious because we said ‘You’ve got to let us tell this our way, you can’t control it like you might be able to a documentary.’ But we did let him do that with the script and would tell us if something was accurate or not, but he didn’t have veto over anything.

You’ve gotta keep that. So we listened to some stuff he said and on other stuff we ignored him.So we listened to some stuff he said and on other stuff we ignored him.

There’s a powerful and poignant sense of realisation when he says, “This rock has been waiting for me my whole life.”

That’s it. There’s a great quote from Cormac McCarthy in All the Pretty Horses that says that grace is ‘the power that heals men, and brings them to safety long after all other resources are exhausted.’ And it’s very, very true, because what gets him out of there is not power, which everybody thinks it is, but the change that comes from within him. We always thought that there was a journey in this film that’s not jut a survival journey but an emotional journey of him reaching back to people through his camera, through his memories, through his longing, through his hallucinations.

It’s also a journey he has to make alone, quite literally, because no one knew he was lost…

That still amazes me. He had that cockiness you have when you’re 27 and he went off all the time without a word to anyone. It’s that raw, omnipotent, immortal, invulnerable attitude. I tell you what you visit this fucking place and it’s unreal. I’m sure it’s probably because I’m old but you think ‘fucking hell, if you come here on your own you’re fucking asking for it.’ And the rescue services actually said to us that you’d never find anyone during the day, maybe at night if they could light a fire, but never in the day. You just can’t see anything and you can’t cover enough ground to do a proper search.

How conscious are you of not repeating yourself?

Yeah I kind of invent a reason for it, I don’t know whether it is just kneejerk, wanting to do something different, or whether it’s a more noble reason which is that I always say it’s like your first film is your best film because although it’s technically not your best, the techniques that you learn the longer you make films are not necessarily a good thing. Quite often all they’re adding to is the manipulative nature of cinema. I mean all cinema is manipulative, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Dardenne Brothers or Spielberg, it’s all manipulative. There’s an innocence about your first film that is fantastic, where you don’t know what you’re doing and you have to find out quickly what it is. And the only way you can get back to that is to pick a subject where you don’t really know how to do it. And I’ve never tried to go into a film that’s the same tone as the last one, because the danger with that is you think ‘Oh, I know how to do this, we’ll just do that.’ Even if you pick something different though you always bump into yourself and you start to think you’re making the same fucking film and that does happen. But those thing you hope people won’t notice and the story itself dominates so much that it takes the attention away from the style or the way you’ve gone about telling it.

You have quite a distinct style though…

Of course you do have fingerprints that you leave on stuff and you’re always aware that some people like those and some people don’t. But if you get too self-conscious about it you’ll lose the battle and it won’t be your film anymore.

Is Shallow Grave your favourite of the films you’ve made?

Well it’s my dad’s favourite film. Every time he watches a movie he says ‘Well, yeah it was alright, it wasn’t as good as Shallow Grave.’ No I’m very fond of it because it’s not a particularly emotional film but it’s the first one and you never get back to that again, it’s amazing. Blood Simple is good evidence of that for me; I don’t think the Coen Brothers have ever been better than that. I remember the first time I saw that movie it was like ‘What?!’ It’s the audacity of it, you know.

027

You’re seen in many ways as an ambassador for British film, but what do you think about its current health?

After having a huge success like Slumdog how do you keep yourself grounded?

The UK Film Council closing I think is a real blow, but even that’s difficult to know how it’s going to manifest itself because it’s been said that the money will remain in play. But you just don’t know. I can understand why they’re doing it because it’s been perceived as a Labour quango, but actually I signed a letter from the UK Film Council with Stephen Taylor, which in retrospect I can see was a disastrous thing to have done, supporting Gordon Brown saying how much he’d done for the British film industry.

Well, age helps. Anybody that it happens to in their thirties I think ‘fucking good luck mate’, because it’s quite tough. It’s a bit insane really.

It must have been a crazy couple of years for you…

Yeah and it’s lovely to get back to work and to work on something that has a restrictive budget. But it’s only the fact that I’ve done a number of films – some of which had worked successfully and some of which had not worked at all critically or commercially – that helps me find a balance. It’s a big warm cuddle being extended to you, but you’ve got to remember that it is fake, or if you’re being generous temporary, and you have to learn to deal with it circumspectly and not get too involved in all the warm cuddling everywhere.

You’ll find yourself very lonely then at the end of it.

Does having the same crew with you help?

Which may be true, but it’s not exactly the right thing to do when you can see this new government arriving. It’s a great shame that it’s gone though because although it has its critics any stability that you can find in this industry is precious. It was only running for 10 years and really you need to say 20 or 30 years before you can start talking about that level of stability that you need.

It’s a surprisingly elite industry and the UKFC were trying to open it up to other areas of the public domain, and I don’t see how that course of action is going to be continued now. To be honest I always saw the music industry as being the more successful representation of our cultural aspirations as a country, because it’s much wider, it’s much more open. If you’re express you think ‘I’ll form a band’, you don’t think ‘I’ll make a movie’. Compared to our music industry we only really have occasional hits.

Do you think we’re slightly inhibited by our culture in that respect?

We try and stick together and do things as a family because it’s a long campaign [making a film] and there are many temptations within that and many people put in front of you the opportunity to split, join your own band you know. It’s a big factor, staying together, because everyone knows you and they know how it’s done, they know your fallibilities and they don’t accept all the warm cuddles.

After Slumdog were you determined to keep it small in terms of budget and production?

There’s usually two options after a big success: a huge movie where everybody’s cashing in getting huge fees, or a vanity project that nobody wants to do and is a disaster and is unwatchable. I’m sure the studio thought this was the vanity project.

Partly because we’re traditionally more interested in theatre and literature, we don’t worship the camera in the way the Americans do. It’s a part of their lives like it isn’t here. You know, we don’t go to the movies on Christmas Day. It’s their artform – the French and the Indians would disagree, but it is the American art.

It’s certainly not ours.

LWLies: Trainspotting was the film that, kind of, opened my eyes to the fact that people were making films that felt like they were for me, and if you didn’t get it, it’s because it wasn’t for you. You weren’t supposed to get it. Do you think Slumdog might do something similar for India? Is it capturing a zeitgeist in a similar way?

Boyle: It’s slightly different there because I think what reaction there has been amongst people is that they are surprised that a Westerner has made a film like that. It’s more in that territory rather than it being a generational thing. It’s more a cultural thing. They do take the piss there behind your back out of westerners turning up, making films about westerners there, there’s always a cow in it and, you know… They used to joke with me, ‘Oh, I bet there’s cows in it.’ It’s that kind of thing that they just… And they’re very respectful when it’s being made but actually what they regard it as is just, you know… So it’s more that kind of reaction that we’ve had. But I know what you mean because for me, when I was that kind of age, when I was in my late teens it was Nic Roeg films which did it for me, which is just like, this was it: it was fractured and it didn’t make sense on a surface level, and I had that thing for him.

Interestingly, BAFTA have never given him a prize, and I absolutely had such a row with Duncan Kenworthy about it, and he’s agreed… They’re giving him one next March. Because he, for 10 years, just made films that were it for me.

I remember taking my dad to see The Man Who Fell To Earth to persuade him and he’s just, like, ‘What the fuck?’

030 The Trainspotting Issue

How conscious are you of not repeating yourself?

Yeah I kind of invent a reason for it, I don’t know whether it is just kneejerk, wanting to do something different, or whether it’s a more noble reason which is that I always say it’s like your first film is your best film because although it’s technically not your best, the techniques that you learn the longer you make films are not necessarily a good thing. Quite often all they’re adding to is the manipulative nature of cinema. I mean all cinema is manipulative, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Dardenne Brothers or Spielberg, it’s all manipulative.

There’s an innocence about your first film that is fantastic, where you don’t know what you’re doing and you have to find out quickly what it is. And the only way you can get back to that is to pick a subject where you don’t really know how to do it. And I’ve never tried to go into a film that’s the same tone as the last one, because the danger with that is you think ‘Oh, I know how to do this, we’ll just do that.’ Even if you pick something different though you always bump into yourself and you start to think you’re making the same fucking film and that does happen. But those thing you hope people won’t notice and the story itself dominates so much that it takes the attention away from the style or the way you’ve gone about telling it.

What are your plans for that as artistic director?

Well, I’m presenting it to the IOC in a computer pre-vis form and then it’s a case of bringing it to life.

030 The Trainspotting Issue

AS A PRODUCER, ANDREW MACDONALD HAS PLAYED A DEFINITVE ROLE IN REVITALISING AND SHAPING BRITISH CINEMA, AND BRINGING WORLDWIDE ATTENTION TO THE SCOTTISH FILM INDUSTRY. HIS CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS WITH DANNY BOYLE, AND WRITTERS JOHN HODGE ALEX GARLAND, WHICH PRODUCED CLASSICS SUCH AS SHALLOW GRAVE, TRAINSPOTTING, 28 DAYS LATER AND SUNSHINE, HAVE SHOWN JUST HOW INVENTIVE AND TALENTED US BRITS CAN BE. HERE HE TALKS FONDLY ABOUT WORKING ON SHALLOW GRAVE AND TRAINSPOTTING, DANNY BOYLE’S SUCCESS AND HOW HE GOT IN FILMMAKING. LWLies: How true is the legend that John Hodge came up to you at the Edinburgh Film Festival with the idea for Shallow Grave on scraps of paper?

Macdonald: He did come up to me in Edinburgh, in Bannerman’s Bar, and he did come up to me there with scrap paper, with the idea of the script.

LWLies: Did it take you a long time to persuade him that you could get it made?

Macdonald: I probably lied to him a bit about it. I met John Hodge through his sister, Grace, who was an assistant film editor, and he was a doctor.

I was working as a location manager at Scottish Television and he wanted to be a screenwriter and I wanted to be a producer. So we were both trying it on with each other a little bit.

Macdonald: When we first got hold of Trainspotting, I don’t think anyone had ever thought about it being a movie. By the time we tried to finalise the rights it had become a bigger deal. But because of Shallow Grave and, I guess, because we wanted to make it cheaply, it was kind of obvious we could get it done if we put our mind to it. He was very, very generous once we discussed it; I don’t remember it being particularly hard. I remember being very nervous about meeting him the first time, in case he made us get through tons of alcohol and drugs. And I remember he had a water in the GFT [Glasgow Film Theatre] bar the first time I met him. He’s a great guy though, really great and very generous. He just wanted a remix of the book.

LWLies: I read a story that the production of Shallow Grave had to auction off props to in order to raise enough money to get film stock. How true is this? Was it really that hard?

Macdonald: It was quite a hard film because it was everybody’s first film – Danny Boyle, John Hodge and myself. And we certainly ran out of money that’s for sure, numerous times. We had hardly any film stock left at all, and the props from the inside of the house and the flat were from my dad’s house.

But we managed to get through it, and your first time is always a great experience and you look back at it with the problems you have now and it kind of looks ordinary.

LWLies: How involved was Irvine Welsh in the making of Trainspotting?

I read that he had resisted previous approaches to adapt his novel – was it hard to get permission from him to go ahead?

LWLies: And didn’t he play a small character in the film?

Macdonald: Yeah, I was very keen to get him to play, he played Mikey Forrester, as he jokingly said, ‘One of the most unpleasant characters in the entire book’. And I thought once Irvine played a part he couldn’t really slag it off too much. He was very keen, he came over from Amsterdam. And it was obviously good for all the actors and the crew to have the guy who was the creator of the book.

LWLies: And I guess it’s always hard to please the original author and stay faithful to the book.

033

Macdonald: Yeah, and obviously fans, because everyone sees it differently.

But what I think John Hodge did was to capture the tone and that’s the hardest thing when you are doing these books and he did that brilliantly. And perhaps not as well when we did The Beach. It shows how difficult it is.

LWLies: Did you see foresee the problems that were going to happen with Trainspotting in the US, what with having to re-dub some dialogue and the controversy that the film got after people like Senator Bob Dole said the film was glorifying drug use?

Macdonald: We re-dubbed a few bits of Begby but it didn’t really make much difference to be honest. And we had to take out the shot of Ewan McGregor pulling his condom off and I think we had to take out a shot of a syringe breaking the skin. You just worry how it is at Mother Superior’s. But they were seconds and it was all a bit silly really. And of course we had the controversy about drug use here, but we knew right at the beginning that if we were going to make this film we were determined to show on one side why people might take drugs, and on another side what they might do to you. And particularly heroin, and that’s what the book did so brilliantly – it didn’t describe them just as victims.

And it was incredibly funny and black. But I think from our experience with drug and recovery groups and people involved in the hard end of that life, what we did is really representative. And people seem to be pleased with that. And I think it’s mainly conservative individuals who believe differently. And it all helps our publicity. I remember it was on the Today programme the day it came out that somebody was offering prayers for the people about to see it.

Macdonald: We haven’t made a film together for a while now, but obviously we did back then. And it was great because it was the only thing we knew.

Then of courselots of other temptations get thrown in everybody’s way. And it’s hard to work together for a long long time because apart from me everybody has to like the same idea, and it’s very hard to come up with lots of good ideas.

LWLies:

And how did you first meet Danny Boyle?

Macdo nald: I had the script of Shallow Grave and I went around meeting all the directors that were interested who I thought had a chance of getting fun ding. So he had done a lot of great television work and that’s how we met. And he was desperate to make a film and he loved Shallow Grave – he understood its black humour and obviously it was a great choice.

LWLies: Is there still an intention make the sequel to Trainspotting, Porno with Danny Boyle and John Hodge?

Macdonald: We wanted to make a sequel to those characters’ story and Irvine wrote Porno and that’s what it is and it’s about them growing up. It’s in the works but we never quite get it together for lots of reasons and we’re still at the very early stage. But the main thing is that Irvine and John Hodge have been talking about ideas of how to adapt the book. We want to make it with exactly the same cast, and that will be another problem, getting everybody together at the same time. But I’m sure everybody would like to do that who liked the first film, because it’s all about the characters.

LWLies: What did you think of the recent success of Boyle’s Slumdog?

Do you think it will change the British film industry in any way?

Macdonald: I don’t think it will change the British film industry but I do think it means that Danny can do any film he wants now, and I think it’s a fantastic film. It’s great for everybody in Britain because it shows that a small film can win everything and Danny’s done that over and over again.

It’s pretty amazing.

LWLies: And was it hard selling a film with such dark subject matter?

Macdonald: I think because we were very aware of that we wanted it to be as funny and as fast-paced and entertaining as it could be, while preserving that tone. And we were very aware of, why would anybody want to see this movie?. So we tried very hard to make the film fit, and what we began from was that we had made Shallow Grave which was successful and had made a star of Ewan, and Ewan McGregor was in this film. So we had a head start and I think people underestimate that. And also we made it for two million quid for Channel 4. The risk was pretty minimal.

LWLies: And did you realise what stars the films would make of its lead actors?

Macdonald: We were just very fortunate, we had the cream of young actors, particularly Scottish ones. It was a bit of magic; you had Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor, Peter Mullen, Ewen Bremner, Kelly Macdonald… And the rest of the cast were just the crew, Irvine and myself, which made them look even better. There isn’t anything like that now, hasn’t been since. I knew they were all great.

LWLies: You’ve worked on numerous projects with Danny Boyle and John Hodge now. Do you have a very close working relationship?

034 The Trainspotting Issue

LWLies: Seeing as your grandfather was Emeric Pressburger, was it a natural step for you to get into filmmaking? Were you immersed in that world from the start?

Macdonald: Well, I grew up on the West coast of Scotland and my father and mother, who was his daughter, wasn’t in film production. Then I discovered his films as a young guy, and it just led me to believe that it’s possible when somebody in your own family has been in that business. And that’s what started me off because it’s quite a leap and obviously his films have been incredibly inspirational. And in a sense continuity and working in London you get it pretty good really and it’s very difficult to go and do something else sometimes. You know, it’s the craziness of producing small British films for the world , that’s what we try to do.

034 The Trainspotting Issue

‘I WON’T BUY

INTO THE HOLLYWOOD THING...I WANT TO

BE IN GOOD

MOVIES’ 037

We are all familiar with its most famous son, Rob “Roy” MacGregor, immortalised in legend and played by Liam Neeson on film. And the clan boasts other renowned sons. There was John McGregor, a piper who fought and died alongside Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie at the Alamo: another John, this time MacGregor, who introduced canoeing to Great Britain: there was the folk singer and TV star, Jimmy MacGregor. And, since where there is fame there is usually notoriety, there is Ian MacGregor, the former boss of British Coal, who helped Margaret Thatcher crush the miners in the mid-Eighties.

But surely the name Gregor rose to its highest peak of fame as young Ewan McGregor, Scotland’s biggest movie star since Sean Connery, climbed inexorably through the Hollywood ranks. He crooned with and pined for Nicole Kidman in the award-winning Moulin Rouge. He fought alongside Josh Hartnett and Tom Sizemore in Ridley Scott’s super-contemporary military action epic Black Hawk Down. And then he was the young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy that began with The Phantom Menace, amongst the most successful films of all time. Add to this the controversy surrounding Trainspotting and the many furores caused by Ewan’s continual onscreen nudity, and you have a very famous actor, indeed.

Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on the 31st of March, 1971, in Crieff, Perthshire, out in the sticks a few miles north of Edinburgh. His parents James Charles Stuart McGregor and Carole Diane Lawson - were both teachers, ensuring that Ewan and his older brother Colin (now an RAF pilot) were given a liberal and rounded education. James was furthermore director of the Crieff Highland Games, an event held annually since 1870 and Ewan would come to help him, actually being awarded the title of Chieftain of the Games in 2001. He would remain very close to his parents, Carole still acting as his official spokesperson, as well as dealing with his personal appearances and fan mail.

Ewan was an active child. He enjoyed swimming and sub-aqua diving, and learned the drums, guitar and French Horn. Riding was a big hobby, and he’d eventually get a job at the stables of Crieff Hydro. At school, he did very little acting, but he did perform as soloist for both the choir and orchestra, and recite poetry at school revues. Singing was always in Ewan’s repertoire.

At parties, he’d entertain his friends and family with impersonations of Elvis Presley, doing Hound Dog or Don’t Be Cruel, and he’s utilised his musical abilities often in his movies, singing in both Velvet Goldmine and Moulin Rouge and playing brass in Brassed Off. Ewan has often been drawn to period drama and, having done Lipstick, now played the ambitious Julian Sorrel, alongside Alice Krige and Rachel Weisz in a BBC adaptation of Stendhal’s romantic novel, Scarlet & Black. But McGregor was to make his name in far more testing and controversial productions and the first came next. This was Shallow Grave, written by John Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle. Here Ewan played Alex Law, one of three flatmates (the others being played by Kerry Fox and Christopher Eccleston), who advertise for a fourth person to share. They interview various people - one being Ewan’s mum Carole! then choose the excruciatingly wide Keith Allen. Soon finding him dead, and loaded with cash, they . well, let’s just say that Shallow Grave, despite a slightly smartarsed script, was the most convincing and shocking bloodbath since Hellraiser.

038 The Trainspotting Issue

In Trainspotting - written by Irvine Welsh and adapted by the Hodge/ Boyle team - Ewan starred as Mark “Rent Boy” Renton, an Edinburgh junkie attempting to escape the malign influence both of heroin and his seedy buddies, a sorry bunch including Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy and Robert Carlyle as the crazily violent Begbie. Researching the role, McGregor toyed with the notion of actually experimenting with heroin but, feeling that would be disrespectful to the real-life addicts he’d spoken to (as well as being bloody stupid), he chose instead to undergo a drastic weight-loss.

Trainspotting, of course, was an Oscar-nominated success You can still see in him the lad who, fresh out of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, auditioned for the role of a callow, long-haired journalist in Danny Boyle’s 1994 crime thriller, Shallow Grave. That led to Trainspotting (1996) and his role as the heroin addict Renton, for which McGregor shaved his head and shed nearly 30 pounds. “In Shallow Grave, Ewan was the dashing, romantic hero you might expect from British period drama,” Boyle says. “The transformation to Trainspotting was extraordinary. Ewan is a rare metal— golden, quite delicate—who flowers best under strange circumstances. You have to handle him very carefully. He’s a mercurial, undefinable presence that can’t be ordered on room service.”

Trainspotting made McGregor part of a new generation of directors and actors— among them Boyle, Jude Law, Robert Carlyle, and Christopher Eccleston— whose mix of woozy charm and masculine ferocity helped liberate British cinema from the kitchen-sink realism of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach. “You can’t imagine what it felt like in the mid-’90s,” McGregor says, “to be the star of that film, to be part of that British youth culture, with Oasis and Trainspotting and all of that. It was a heady time.”

It was also a time, he admits, when McGregor at times indulged to excess.

Once, he says, he went drunk to Iggy Pop’s dressing room. “He didn’t say anything, so I said, ‘I kind of played you in a film,’ and he said, ‘Oh, well.’ And I ended up doing Iggy Pop in front of Iggy Pop. And somewhere in the back of my brain, in that drunken moment, something went, Whoa, what the hell are you doing? Stop doing Iggy Pop! So I beat my retreat.” McGregor says he hasn’t had a drink in nine years.

He may have become a star by playing a hollow- eyed junkie, but McGregor soon became a romantic draw. Moulin Rouge! (2001), the vibrant, overstuffed Baz Luhrmann musical, split critics but resonated with women moviegoers, who salivated over his slinky transformation from boy to man, from the starving writer who worships Nicole Kidman from afar to the dashing party animal in gleaming white shirt and tails, to the bereft lover and tragic hero who mourns their doomed affair. So potent was McGregor’s chemistry with Kidman that it sparked rumors that grew ever more lurid in Internet speculation.

“I had the time of my life on Moulin Rouge!,” McGregor says, eyes alight.

“It was the most extraordinary set to be on, full of life and color and music.”

It’s a rare actor who revels in an eight-month shoot, but it was precisely Moulin’s excess and lack of knowing irony about love that attracted him. “I like brave romance,” avows McGregor, who as the son of schoolteachers in a small Scottish town near Perth spent weekend afternoons working his way though women’s melodramas from the 1930s and 1940s on television. “What frustrates me about romantic films today is when we shroud them in comedy because the idea of romance is so embarrassing.”

005

Ewan McGregor joins Clash in a retrospective look over Danny Boyle’s seminal 1996 cult classic Trainspotting.

Fifteen years since its release, Trainspotting is without a doubt firmly positioned at the forefront of most audience’s minds when they think of British cinema. So iconic is the film that it even edges out golden oldies such as The Bridge On The River Kwai in the BFI’s top ten selection of the favorite British films of the 20th century.

Telling the story of a group of junkies in Edinburgh, it arrived amid Cool Britannia, when Britpop ruled the airwaves, and introduced an incredible ensemble cast whose careers were ultimately transformed overnight: Robert Carlyle, Ewan Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kelly Macdonald and, in the lead role, Ewan McGregor.

“At twenty-four, I was in a brilliant youthful, ruling-the-world kind of mood,” explains McGregor, who played the film’s lovable but disreputable skag-obsessed Renton. “I thought everything I was involved in was going to be some huge hit back then, but truthfully, I don’t think that anyone could have predicted just how successful Trainspotting would be today. I mean, it’s still the main thing people ask me about when they come up to me in the street. I really get a sense that it’s possibly the biggest film I’ve done, or definitely the most successful in terms of being in the human consciousness.”

“You know, through all the years of talking about Porno, I’ve never actually been given a script,” confesses McGregor, who has regularly been suggested to disapprove of a sequel. “I don’t like being the guy that’s making it not happen, especially when all the other guys want to make it. But I wouldn’t want to do a sequel to Trainspotting if it was just for the sake of it, and if I’m honest about it, I wasn’t that blown away by the book. I mean, I love Irvine Welsh’s stuff and I think he’s a brilliant writer - Trainspotting blew me away - but I felt Porno was kinda going over old ground a little bit from the Trainspotting novel. It felt a little bit like Welsh had written a good sequel to the movie, but not a good sequel to his novel. There’s too many poor sequels in the world, and it would be terrible to damage Trainspotting’s reputation by making people remember a slightly poorer, clumsy follow-on.”

“It’s not something that I would completely dismiss off-hand until I’ve seen a script,” he admits. “I mean, it could be excellent, but even then cinema’s moved along so much because of Trainspotting, because of Danny’s brilliance.

Some of the shots and the energy in that movie, audiences have become so much more used to that vibe now, whereas then it was new, it was different.

So on top of the script, we’d need to feel that sense of originality again, and how would that be created? How would they do that? I don’t know myself but it’d be interesting to see what they could come up with for sure. So

‘I THOUGHT EVERYTHING I WAS INVOLVED IN WAS GOING TO BE SOME HUGE HIT BACK THEN, BUT TRUTHFULLY, I DON’T THINK THAT ANYONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED JUST HOW SUCCESSFUL TRAINSPOTTING WOULD BE TODAY. I MEAN, IT’S STILL THE MAIN THING PEOPLE ASK ME ABOUT WHEN THY COME UP TO ME IN THE STREET. I REALLY GET A SENSE THAT IT’S POSSIBLY THE BIGGEST FILM I’VE DONE, OR DEFINITELY THE MOST SUCCESFUL IN TERMS OF BEING IN THE HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.’ Yet, despite the film’s infectiously entertaining and quick-witted humour Trainspotting has not always been on the receiving end of positive press. In fact for many years after its release, it was routinely condemned, forever at the centre of debates for its apparent attractive and sexy allure of glorifying drug use. “I’ve never believed that,” an authoritative McGregor proclaims.

“The story is right there in front of your eyes to see and there’s a great deal of grief and terrible shit going on in it. I mean, yes, the film had a flavour about it, but that’s because it’s very engaging. In the book, you didn’t want to put it down because you wanted to be in amongst these people - when in actual fact if you met these people it’d be a nightmare - and I think that’s kind of what we achieved with the film.”

“There’s something very vibrant about it and something charming about these characters. Yeah, there’s moments in the early scenes when they’re taking drugs and they look like they’re having the time of their lives, but that’s because it is the time of their lives. In a way it’s because they haven’t really got anything else, that’s why people take drugs and why people become addicted to them. It’s an escape, and it’s an escape in their case because of poverty and hopelessness. So to not show that side of it, that moment of high they we’re trying to reach, that wouldn’t be the whole story. Maybe people just don’t like the mix of that stylised look and the subject matter, but I think ultimately it doesn’t matter. The film’s not saying ‘taking heroin is great’, and there’s just no question really; we’re not showing a happy way of life.”

Since the release of Welsh’s 2002 follow-up novel Porno - set ten years after Trainspotting, with the pornography business providing the central focus of the story - news of a possible movie sequel has been rife; with the latest mumblings coming from Danny Boyle himself, when in December he said simply that “it will happen”.

040 The Trainspotting Issue

I guess the answer is, we’ll have to wait and see.”

You can still see in him the lad who, fresh out of London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama, auditioned for the role of a callow, long-haired journalist in Danny Boyle’s 1994 crime thriller, Shallow Grave. That led to Trainspotting (1996) and his role as the heroin addict Renton, for which McGregor shaved his head and shed nearly 30 pounds. “In Shallow Grave, Ewan was the dashing, romantic hero you might expect from British period drama,” Boyle says. “The transformation to Trainspotting was extraordinary.

Ewan is a rare metal— golden, quite delicate—who flowers best under strange circumstances. You have to handle him very carefully. He’s a mercurial, undefinable presence that can’t be ordered on room service.”

Trainspotting made McGregor part of a new generation of directors and actors— among them Boyle, Jude Law, Robert Carlyle, and Christopher Eccleston— whose mix of woozy charm and masculine ferocity helped liberate British cinema from the kitchen-sink realism of Mike Leigh and Ken Loach.

“You can’t imagine what it felt like in the mid-’90s,” McGregor says, “to be the star of that film, to be part of that British youth culture, with Oasis and Trainspotting and all of that. It was a heady time.”

It was also a time, he admits, when McGregor at times indulged to excess. Once, he says, he went drunk to Iggy Pop’s dressing room. “He didn’t say anything, so I said, ‘I kind of played you in a film,’ and he said, ‘Oh, well.’ And I ended up doing Iggy Pop in front of Iggy Pop. And somewhere in the back of my brain, in that drunken moment, something went, Whoa, what the hell are you doing? Stop doing Iggy Pop! So I beat my retreat.” McGregor says he hasn’t had a drink in nine years.

044 The Trainspotting Issue

043

E emotional force of the film.

The score of the film is almost entirely comprised of pre-recorded music-pop songs, along with two cues(discrete musical segments) drawn from the classical tradition (Carmen and a chorale prelude by Bach). This collage of pop songs situates the film squarely within contemporary scoring practice, though the score is perhaps unusually extensive. Such collage scores are often assumed to represent the triumph of commercial over aesthetic logic, resulting in incoherence and dissipation of narrative unity.

Yet there is nothing chaotic or casual about Trainspotting’s score.

Far from being a random smorgasbord of songs, most of the pieces in Trainspotting fall into three clear groupings according to style and era: the David Bowie/Lou Reed/Iggy Pop axis from the 1970s;the Britpop of Pulp, Blur, Elastica and Sleeper of the 1990s; and the 1990s techno-dance music of Bedrock and Ice MC. Interestingly, the two final musical cues in the film, from Leftfield and Underworld, represent a kind of fusion of techno with musical elements derived from rock; in this sense there is a kind of “narrative” implicit in the

Welsh has remarked that Reed and Pop were more important influences on the novel than any writer, and the film certainly honours this dimensions of the novel by placing collaborations between Bowie and Reed and Bowie and Pop at the hub of the film’s musical structure. But the film does more than merely reiterate the musical references of the novel. By basing the score around these songs, and making the songs so much more than aurally wallpaper, the film makes the music itself palpable. It would be hard to overestimate the ‘value added’ by the songs to the meaning and

ordering of the music itself, quite aside from the dramatic functions it performs. In addition to the core groupings and their representatives listed so far, there are a number of songs by contemporaries and fellow travellers:the piece by Eno thus relates to the Bowie grouping, while the song by Primal Scream is aligned with those of both the Britpoppers and the dance-rock outfits.

There are what appear to be some ‘rogue’ cues which fall outside of these groupings - not only the two classical cues, but Heaven 17’s “Temptation” and New Order’s ‘Temptation’ (two different

BY BASING THE SCORE AROUND THESE SONGS, AND MAKING THE SONGS SO MUCH MORE THAN AURALLY WALLPAPER, THE FILM MAKES THE MUSIC ITSELF PALPABLE

veryone knows what happened to popular music in the early 1960s: the Beatles happened, and they set a trend.

The dominant American traditions were appropriated by British musicians and inflected in distinctive ways, and the balance of creative power shifted. Britain became a small superpower in the world of pop music, a position it has maintained, if not quite at the spectacular level achieved in the mid-1960s.

There is nothing to compare with this cultural shift in the world of film-making. While members of the British film establishment have occasionally (and optimistically) aped the rhetoric of the British music industry - think of Colin Welland’s Oscar -winning speech declaration, ‘the British are coming!’, evoking the idea of ‘British invasion’ of the US led by the Merseybeat bands - the British film industry as a whole remains a small, marginal affair, economically and culturally. Some part of the success and unusual prominence of Trainspotting can be ascribed to the way the film appeared as a musical phenomenon, a film that had at least as much to do with Britpop, and various earlier trends in British (and American) music, as it did with any traditions of British film-making.

044 The Trainspotting Issue

songs;the latter appears both in its recorded version and twice as a fragment sung, by a character within the film). But in fact these cues form the basis of a further, and crucial, 1980s grouping, established more indirectly and cunningly, nut no less palpably.

While the Eno, Heaven 17 and New Order cues are the only pieces which were recorded and released in the 1980s, many of the 1990s bands featured - several of which were riding high at the time of Trainspotting’s release - hard back in one way or another to the 1980s. Sleeper’s contribution, ‘Atomic’, is a cover of a song by Blondie, a number one hit in 1980; Pulp and Primal Scream had been active recording bands s ince the 1980s; and Blur and Elastica overtly refer back, stylistically, to punk and new wave acts of the early 1980s (like Wire).

So, in addition to the three core musical groupings, the film also establishes a musical timeline running from the early 1970s (‘Perfect Day’ was released in 1972) through to the time of the film’s release (the recording by Primal Scream, Sleeper Pulp, Leftfield and Damon Albarn are all dated in 1996 on the accompanying CD), even though the timeline is not laid out in a simple chronological fashion. Instead, through an intricate cross-referencing of era, style and influence, the film creates a complex musical weave, varied in style, mood and function.

The significance of the songs in Trainspotting, and in particular their place within the film’s mobile narration, is evident throughout this study. Here I want to focus on two sequences where the importance and sophistication of the interrelationship between the songs and the action seem inescapable - those employing Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ and ‘Carmen-Habanera’, an extract from George Bizet’s opera Carmen. While certain principles hold for both sequences, they are sufficiently different in character to suggest some of the range and variation in the film’s use of music. The two sequences also differ in the extent to which the music dominates the soundtrack, or competes with voice-over and dialogue.

Along with the opening ‘Lust for Life’ montage, the sequence accompanied by Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ must rank as among the most celebrated and memorable in the film. This is no doubt due in part to the fact that the song was well-known (originally the B-side of ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, and a track on the simultaneous album Transformer, both hits in the US and Britain) before being used in the film. But the fame of the sequence also arises from the sustained, prominent and complex role that the song plays within it (the song is used in its entirety, and dominates the sound mix throughout, unchallenged by Renton’s voice-over). ‘Perfect Day’ is a kind of epic love song - a sentimental ballad which moves between softly articulated verses and grandly orchestrated choruses. But the song is no ordinary love song - in part, because of the overtones brought to it by its composer and performer.

Reed had been a member of the Velvet Underground, the 1960s group notorious for both musical

045

experimentation and lyrical daring, with songs addressing drugtaking (‘Waiting for the Man’) and sado-masochism (‘Venus in Furs’; the band’s name came from a photographic book purporting to depict America’s ‘sexual corruption’), among other hitherto taboo subjects. The Velvets’ song ‘Heroin’, from 1967’s The Velvet Underground and Nico, casts heroin as the singer-narrator’s lover and spouse: ‘Heroin, be the death of me/Heroin, it’s my wife and it’s my life’. The album from which a ‘Perfect Day’ is drawn, Transformer, is a kind of panorama of the New York underground (‘Walk on the Wild Side’, most famously, is an affectionate ode to Warhol’s Factory entourage of queers, hustlers, drag queens and junkies). Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, whose influence is pervasive on Transformer, the ‘Unholy Trinity’ of Bowie, Reed and Pop became synonymous with drug use (as well as, in the case of Bowie and Reed, androgyny, bisexuality and post -1960s libertinism in general).

Against this backdrop, then, it is not hard to see why ‘Perfect Day’ is something other than the simple paean to friendship and love that it might appear to be. We might well take ‘Perfect Day’ for an innocent love song if all we hear is a fragment of its triumphal, soaring chorus, as we might do in an ad or indeed in another film; but what is distinctive here is that the film appropriates the whole song, drawing out and exploiting all of its emotional colours.

Among these are some distinctly dark

shades intimated by the song, even if the nature of these sinister elements remains ambiguous. For Nick Cave, these darker qualities are the ones that make a love song authentic: ‘the love song is never simply happy... It must fist embrace the potential for pain... The love songmust be resonate with the whispers of sorrow and the echoes of grief. By juxtaposing the song with Renton’s trip, Trainspotting draws these elements to the surface, interpreting the song, in effect, as a ‘drug song’. In doing so, the film builds on the personification of heroin as a charismatic lover established earlier, implicitly by Sick Boy, who asserts:’personally - I mean that’s what counts, right, personality- that’s what keeps a relationship going through the years - like heroin. I mean - heroin’s got great fuckin’ personality.’

I want to focus on a particular moment in the ‘Perfect Day’ sequence which lies at the heart of the multilayered narration achieved through the interaction of the song and the narrative action (as it is rendered visually and through dialogue). The moment occurs as the song’s (apparently) exultant first chorus begins and we see an ambulance moving left to right in the background (as it has done in an earlier shot), across the end of a street. We need to take note of several things here. First, what is it that gives the song its ‘epic’ quality as it moves into the chorus? The tentative quality of the opening verse is now overcome by the shift from minor to major key, the emphatic piano chords which shape the chorus, the firmer presence of drum and bass, the reverberant multitracking of Reed’s voice, the assertion of the string orchestration (present but barely perceptible

046 The Trainspotting Issue

during the first verse), and of course, the marked rise in volume in the song as a whole which follows from these shifts. However, this entire movement towards musical grandeur is set in counterpoint to what is occurring visually. The shot of the ambulance cranes down to reveal Renton in the foreground, lying prone in the middle of the road; a solid blanket of dark grey cloud hangs over the otherwise deserted estate; this is the desolate scene that we see as we hear Reed declare ‘it’s such a perfect day’.

Now at this point we also realise that the ambulance is probably not meant for Renton, since we see the vehicle drive past the street on which Renton lies; in the midst of one of the bleakest moments in the story, the film has playfully misdirected us. Earlier in the sequence, when Swanney offers to call a ‘taxi’ for Renton, we are led to believe that he means an ambulance, because his question is immediately followed by the sound and first shot of the ambulance.

Now we discover that he really did mean a taxi, emphasising that for Swanney and even Renton, this is an unremarkable event; Renton may be having a bad, potentially fatal reaction to the heroin, but it’s nothing to break into a sweat about it. This brings to mind a scene cut from the released version of the film, in which Swanney is recovering in hospital from a leg amputation, the result of a gangrenous infection caused by ‘jagging’ directly into an artery. Even in this circumstance, Swanney remains incorrigibly cheerful; of all the characters in the film, he above all has genuinely chosen to renounce life, and live with the imminent possibility of injury or death.

As we have seen, the types of music drawn on by Trainspotting are diverse, from contemporary electro-pop to a Tin Pal Alley ballad, from proto-punk anthems to classical compositions.

This brings to our attention the way in which the film creates a kind of dialogue among its musical fragments. The force and the meaning of the score emerges not just from individual musical cues, but from the contrasts between pieces of music. The ambiguous, modulated lyricism of ‘Perfect Day’ is followed by the fast, unrelenting

pulse of ‘Dark and Long’; the mordant wit of ‘Mile End’ is succeeded by the hedonistic ‘For What You Dream Of ’; the spiky, intricate guitar work of ‘2:1’ precedes the lugubrious Bach organ composition, which itself is followed by Spud’s plain but heartfelt rendition of ‘Two Little Boys’. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this kind of dialectical contrast between successive musical cues occurs at the very beginning of the film, where ‘Lust for Life’ is succeeded by ‘Carmen-Habanera’. Bizet’s composition contrasts with Pop’s song on almost every level. While ‘Lust for Life’ is a casually buffed-up piece of garage rock, ‘Carmen-Habanera’ is an elegant adaptation of a traditional dance form.

The two pieces are separated briefly by the title credit, Bizet’s composition beginning over the tail end of this shot and the sound of a train. The incongruity of the music is immediately felt as the film cuts to an establishing shot of Renton’s drab, sparely furnished room. As with the songs discussed so far, however, the relationship between the music and the action here is subtle and variable, not simply one of incongruity of ironic contrast. The music is composed of two string voices, in the bass of the treble registers. The bass voice repeats a four-note motif, while the dominant treble voice articulates a developing melody; the rhythmic and melodic counterpoint (in the musical sense) between the two voices is suggestive of ritual, choreographed movement, representing the movements of the two lovers in the original opera. Here, however, the dance is be-

047

tween Renton and heroin; and if the composition in its original context is a song of seduction, the action here concerns resisting the seductive pull of - indeed, the addictive craving for - heroin.

For all the passion in Bizet’s composition, then, there is a powerful sense of decorum attached to it, at variance with Renton’s surroundings and his voice-over, as he nails planks of wood over the door to imprison himself, and lays out the array of items necessary for coming off heroin, including pornography and three buckets (for urine, faeces and vomitus). Yet the decorum of the song is not totally at odds with the action: Renton’s approach is systematic and methodical; the very choice of words in the voice-over signals this concern (‘urine’ rather than ‘piss’,’faeces’ rather than ‘shite’,and ‘vomitus’ rather than ‘puke’). And just as Renton’s objects accumulate, so the orchestration of the composition builds, with the addition accumulate, so the orchestration of the composition builds, with the addition of flute, piano, and trumpet, different instruments assuming the role of lead voice from phrase to phrase.

Everything in place, Renton looks in the mirror:’All I need is one final hit to soothe the pain while the valium takes effect. ‘This line of the voice-over coincides with a loud four-note phase, on the last note of which the film cuts to the planks of wood - now lying on the floor. As the shot tilts up we realise that Renton is on the phone, desperately trying to locate a score. Here the temporal ellipsis so often created through the use of music is enlisted in the service of a kind of comic backflip in the story - a single, exquisitely timed cut encapsulating the collapse of all Renton’s careful preparations. Another elliptical joke immediately follows, as the film cuts directly from Renton on the phone (‘can you help me out?’) to a close-up of the anal opium suppositories he is offered in place of the heroin he has expecting (‘what the fuck are these?’). Recall that the film wittily misleads us in a similar fashion in the ‘Perfect Day’ sequence, drawing us into the mistaken assumption that the ambulance is destined for Renton. If the ‘plank’ example is like a backflip, the ‘ambulance’ and ‘suppository’ examples have the quality of a magician’s trick: ‘now you see it, now you don’t’. Once again that playful, impish spirit of the film is manifest.

Of course, the soundtrack is comprised of much more than the songs, and it is important to understand how the songs are combined with voice-over, dialogue and sound effects in the sound mix. Two sonic motifs stand out in Trainspotting’s soundscape. The first is a rushing, ‘wind’ noise, an expressionistic effect which provides dramatic emphasis, and often signals departures from realism (the sound accompanies, for example, Begbie’s arm as it moves backwards to throw the beeper glass; Renton as he leaps from the wall; and Renton again as he lurches upright, chemically sprung from his heroin stupor). The second motif involves the juxtaposition of music with, or it’s abrupt termination by, coarse everyday sounds. We’ve already seen how ‘Dark and Long’ acts as a rhythmic bed for various dissonant sounds. Similarly, the majesty of ‘Perfect Day’ is broken by the sound of a siren and an alarm bell, and the lulling rhythm and muted timbre of ‘Deep Blue Day’ is curtailed by a door slamming shut and the sound of Renton’s squelching, toilet-soaked sneakers.

On the morning-after-the-night-before, the quiet ambience of the domestic life in Diane’s parents’ spacious apartment (including Diane singing New Order’s ‘Temptation’ in the shower) is contrasted with Spud’s awakening to the sound of noisy aircraft flying over the house scheme (sonic pollution to match the tactile and olfactory pollution of his own making that he is about to discover). Allison’s screams continue as ‘Sing’ gradually rises in the sound mix; the sound of Renton’s doorbell ringing terminates the kinetic ‘Think About the Way’, bring the ‘swinging’ Renton back down to earth with a bump. And appropriately enough, it is the vicious sound of Begbie smashing a beer glass that the truncated ‘Statuesque’, the song which accompanies the gang’s celebrations after the successful drug deal, a song expressive of the buoyant (if jokingly paranoid) mood of the gang. This pattern brings out once again the transcendent power often ascribed to music in the film-it’s power to lift characters out of confinement to a particular time and place, it’s ability to transform the most dismal of circumstances. But here, too, the limitation on that power is made apparent by the dead weight of material actuality.

TRAINSPOTTING, THE FIRST NOVEL BY IRVINE WELSH, BECAME A STAGE PLAY AND THEN A POPULAR FEATURE FILM. SINCE TRAINSPOTTING, WELSH HAS WRITTEN EIGHT BOOKS. THE ACID HOUSE WAS ALSO ADDAPTED TO A FILM. HIS BOOKS ARE KNOWN FOR THEIR PHONETIC SCOTTISH SLANG THAT MAKES US LOOK LIKE GOOFS WHEN WE HAVE TO SOUND OUT THE WORDS OUT LOUD AT CAFES OR IN PARKS TO UNDERSTAND THEM.

What’s your reasoning behind using dashes instead of quotation marks for characters’ dialogue? Did it drive your editor nuts?

I was writing my first book Trainspotting and I started using inverted commas, you know, the quote marks and parentheses and all that, and it kind of seemed a bit poncy, a bit foppish. And it’s one thing I always hated when people sort of go like... when they do this thing with two fingers and all that.

(Irvine makes two-finger quote marks in the air.) I really hated that and I just thought, “I have to do this.” It seemed too much to belong to the standard English which I wasn’t writing in. So, I was looking at some books and I was reading Roddy Doyle’s book, The Commitments, and I think it seemed to kind of gain something. He’s doing that Dublin voice and he’s using that dash and it seemed to gain power, and visually it seemed to look better. I kind of just liked it, you know what I mean? It was a basic aesthetic kind of choice, really.

The publishers are okay with it. I think that they’re quite used to that kind of thing now. My publisher is the same publisher who published Roddy Doyle, so maybe he paved the way for them, yeah?

I’m a fan of it because I think as a reader it conveys a faster pace; I don’t know if you find that, too.

I do, Tony, it kind of moves on. It sort of just goes bang, bang, bang.

It’s sort of like boxer’s jabs, straight into the face you know, dooph, dooph, dooph. These commas just seem to kind of hold things up a bit, I find.

It’s funny you used a boxing metaphor because you have boxed. Do you still box?

I started boxing a bit when I was a kid, and I got right back into it when I was here in San Francisco. My friend Paul Wade has got the 3rd St. Gym, which

is the best boxing gym in San Francisco. Paul’s a fantastic trainer and dedicated trainer, and since I was training with him, I just got back into it and I do it all the time now, back in Dublin, back in Edinburgh. I got a gym in Chicago when I’m over there and it’s something you kind of get used to doin’. I couldn’t go back and not do it now.

Do you actively spar with partners?

Yeah. The problem is I’m 47 now and I’m sparring with guys who are usually half my age who are fit and faster and stronger. It keeps you on your toes. You know, I find it compliments writin’. You see when you’re writin’, your head’s all over the place, and in boxing you got to be right there at the moment because otherwise you’re going to get hurt. So it’s just a great discipline, just a great way of re-ordering your head.

When you’re sparring, there’s somebody watching you and you got your headgear on so you’re not taking serious blows to the head or serious blows to the gut. It’s just jabs and it keeps you fit and the training keeps you fit and it stops you from drinkin’ too much as well because you can’t go and spar if you’ve been drinkin’, with a hangover, you just can’t do it. It’s the worse thing in the world I can think of is to be climbing into the ring to spar with someone with a hangover.

So it helps you drink less, too?

It helps me drink less as well, which is a great thing for me.

Were you drinking pretty heavily for a while?

I’ve always been kind of a binge drinker, kind of a binge-and-bust type person. I’ve always done sportin’ things. I’ve always run marathons and played football and so I’ve always been that “all or nothing” type of person; 049

do this thing and get obsessed with it, and then I won’t drink for ages and then I’ll go out and drink heavily for a few weeks, then get fed up with it and sort of get back into training again. So it’s always been that kind of battle with me.

You talked about discipline of boxing. What about discipline of writing? What’s your writing schedule like?

I let what I’m doing dictate the process, so I’m not the kind of person that’s up at six in the morning and saying, “Well, I’ll do a few hours work,” I like to build a little regime around the piece of work that I’m doing at the time, you know. It might not be the same one. Sometimes it becomes a nighter and I’ll just work during the night and sleep during the day. Other times I’ll get up early, maybe six o’clock in the morning and go for a run and then be at my desk at seven o’clock and just work straight through until twelve, and then go for something to eat or go to a bar or something like that, or go to the bookie’s and back to the writing again. I make up a different regime all the time. I have to have a kind of regime. Once I get into that, I have to have something to do everyday, when I’m writing. When I’m not writing, it doesn’t matter, I can sit back and take notes or whatever. But when I’m actually on something like a project, a book, or a screenplay, or a short story that I’ve got to close by a certain time, I have to be disciplined about it and put a regular kind of regime in place.

Do you prefer working with a deadline?

I think so. If the publisher doesn’t set me one, I’ll set one for myself, so I need them I think.

Your first book was Trainspotting. What did it feel like when you saw your book adapted for the big screen?

It was quite a strange feeling. I mean, I’d seen it on stage first, but to see it in the cinema was kind of a weird thing. I was in the film myself. I had a part in it, so I was on set most of the time when it was being filmed, but I purposely tried not to look at any of the rushes. I just wanted to see it in the cinema, and at the cinema where it was playing, I invited some friends, people that were quite critical, like Jeff Barrett from Heavenly Records, and Paulo Hewitt, and Bobby Gillespie, and Duffy from Primal Scream; people who were quite attached to the book and would be quite gobby if they didn’t like the film. But they were all blown away and all really exhilarated by it.

It was a great feeling for me to see it come off like that. It could’ve been a shit film. It could’ve been done badly. But I don’t think that Danny Boyle would make a mess of it because he’s such a great director.

I mean at that time he’d just done Shallow Grave so he was on fire, like. I was actually surprised at how strong the film was and how great the characters were. It captured the spirit of the whole thing, yeah?

What was the experience of teaching writing in Chicago like for you?

I was doing the proper academic type stuff, it was the BFA and MFA type stuff.

I thought the students were great and the staff was brilliant and it kind of was good for me but I couldn’t have done it longer than I did. I did it for six months and that was more than enough for me.

I think you suffer as a writer possibly, having to look at and criticize all the people’s work, you know what I mean?

I think it’s bad for you. I think writing is a very selfish, obsessive game.

I think writers have to be very single minded about their own stuff, and the whole concept of it being taught doesn’t actually really sit that comfortable with me, you know what I mean?

I think a lot of these programs have emerged now 050 The Trainspotting Issue

now and I don’t think you should let anybody under thirty on them. I think for older people they work, but for younger people I keep saying “Just get a job,” or “If you want to be a writer, get a job and have something to write about or do a course that’s going to give you some knowledge rather than writing skills,” like. You get writing skills anyway if you just write, you know what I mean? But if you want some knowledge, you want to get some, do some kind of engineering or science or business or social studies or history or geography or something like that will give you a good general knowledge for when you go to write.

There are so many students that are really good writers, younger ones, but they don’t have a thing to write about, every essay I got had like “It all started when we were in high school” kind of thing you know. I’m like “Oh my god.” It’s the Scottish equivalent of some guys going to say, “Two pints of heavy please, barman,” in the first line of the thing, you know.

So it’s just a lot of young people crying out when they should’ve done some traveling or should’ve done a bit of work you know. The older people, I see it works for them because they need the confidence to get their stuff evaluated and read out and the feedback and all that, so I think that works there. What also worries me is that these programs are driven by the fact that there’s so many schools teaching this now. So you’re not teaching people to be writers, you’re teaching people to be teachers of creative fiction. So, it’s supply and demand basically. People want to do these courses.

So much of it has to do with motivation as well, you really can’t teach that. You can teach people the skills and that kind of thing but so much of it has to do with personal motivation, you know.

You see people like Alan Warner (Morvern Callar) for example, he’s just a writer. You don’t have to tell him to be a writer to go and do a course. He’s just a writer, that’s what he is basically. I think there’s some kind of element in that. If you got that in you, you know what you need to do and you’ll do it.

People like Will Self and Chuck Palahniuk, they’re just writers, nobody has to tell them or show them how to do creative writing.

They’ll just batter away at it until they find their creative voice,until they find something that works for them and then they’ll go off with it, you know.

Is that how you feel the development of Trainspotting worked out for you?

Yeah, it’s like Ray Bradbury said, “In the writing game you jump off a cliff and then you construct your wings on the way down and you just hope you get a good working pair before you hit the ground.” And I think that’s the way it is, you’re just trying to see what works every time you’re doing it.

Do you ever get writer’s block? How do you deal with it?

Never had it, no. To me, it’s the other problem, I got so many other ideas that I just don’t have time to realize them all. So I’ve never had writer’s block I’ve never had that kind of thing where I can’t write. I’ve had kind of a paralysis where I don’t know how to finish this story or I don’t know where to take that story or where this is going, and basically I just find that I put them away and work on something else and to work on that, and you’ll find a way through doing that to unblock the other stuff you were doing. It’s not a kind of writer’s block that you can’t write anything, it’s just you’re not quite sure where to take the next thing.

So, do you have a lot of ideas and partially written manuscripts sitting in a drawer somewhere just waiting?

Yeah. What I do is I don’t work on something and then finish it. I work on a few things and get them up to basically a certain level, and then I just keep working on it until one grabs me and assumes critical mass and I just have to go with it and finish it. And when that happens, I can look back at other things, and if they’re not so good, I’ll just bend them. And if they are good, I’ll reuse them again and take them off and go with them.

I finished a book that’s coming out next year, a collection of stories, and I’m pretty much on the way to doing another one, I’m about halfway through another novel and I’m not exactly sure as to what’s going to happen in it and how it’s going to finish and all that. And I’ve got ideas for a next novel after that, so it feels like I’m way ahead of the game.

You lived in San Francisco for a while. How long did you live here?

I was only living here for eight months in between the Mission and Castro, but it seemed a lot longer, I think it’s because I’ve been here every year for the last fifteen years. I’ve spent a couple of weeks here every year, either on book tours or DJing or visiting friends. So I got a good network of close friends here, so it feels like I was here longer than I actually was. I love it here.With my visa, my wife’s American, and we weren’t married at the time, if my visa hadn’t have run out, I’d probably still be here. I keep making tentative plans

In my defense, at the time we were quite innocent. People would cry wolf to me, you know, authority figures, parents, teachers, the health education experts had said that “Smoke a joint and it’ll kill you, don’t smoke that stuff,” and you know, smoking my first joint, I was shitting myself. I thought I was just going to pass out and die from the smoke. “Speed will kill you,” you know.

I used to take my blues, go to a bunkhouse, and jump around. Then it’s like “Heroin will kill you” and it’s like you hear it and it sounds like bullshit… but it almost did, I mean, it did kill a lot of people. A lot of good people as well as a lot of assholes but a lot of really brilliant people as well. And the whole H.I.V. thing was, I was fortunate that I was off it before that whole H.I.V. thing kicked off and that wiped out so many good people over in Scotland.

I was so innocent at the time about the whole thing as to the impact and what the effects of it were. Now you still see people get involved in it, and it’s basically because there’s nothing for them to do. They’re either unemployed or underemployed or underpaid or bored, and it’s like people need compelling dramas in their life. We’re all drama queens and it’s like people know by taking drugs or by dealing drugs or by taking guns out into the street or knives out into the street, they’re going to get into bother or they’re going to get somebody else into bother or something really bad is going to happen. It’s almost like people think, it’s better that something bad happens than nothing happening at all. There’s a need for compelling drama. There’s a need for stories in peoples’ life; even if they’re horrible stories, people seem to need to have them.

I DID THE COLD TURKEY THING. I JUST SORTED IT OUT AND IT WAS TOUGH GOING, PHYSICALLY TOUGH GOING; FOR MAYBE ABOUT FOUR MONTHS, IT WAS PHYSICALLY HARD GOIN’. I FELT ROUGH AND SICK AND ILL FOR LONG TIME, BUT I FELT I COULD COME THROUGH IT AND I COULD GET TO THE END OF IT I THINK MORE THAN BEING PHYSICALLY TOUGH GOING, MENTALLY IT LEFT ME SORT OF WASTED WITHOUT ANY SELF-CONFIDENCE OR SELF-BELIEF. I FELT LIKE EVERYTHING WAS STRIPPED AWAY. to return to California and I don’t know. We’ve been looking at places to live in California from here to down the coast as far away as LA and everywhere in between basically. I would like to come back here at some point, even if it’s doing it only for the winters, like. I’d be able to write so much more because I’d be able to get up earlier with the light and stay up later and all that stuff.

I like San Francisco very much as a town and I feel very much at home here.

(I pull out Irvine’s latest book and show him one of my favorite lines from it) Here’s something I love from your book on page 250: “It’s more offensive to use the word cunt, than to buy a handgun...” The setting was in San Francisco in that part. Would you like to comment on that?

Yeah, it’s weird, you know, you can buy a handgun, but when you go down to the South and there’s people walking around in restaurants with handguns in their holsters and stuff like that, and I think, well, if I get drunk, I don’t want to bump into this guy or fall across him. This is crazy, this is absolutely crazy. Yet if you say the word, “cunt,” you’re going to be ostracized, and you think, why is there this big taboo with words? Why not taboo on handguns? That would make more sense. More people would be alive, you know what I mean. I’ve called a few people cunts and none of them have died.

But if I shot them with a handgun, yeah, different thing.

When did you get clean from heroin?

I stopped using heroin in 1983 and I tried it once again back in ’91’92 when I was writing Trainspotting just to see what it was like because I couldn’t remember it and it was horrible. It was sort of like every come down I had had it was like it was right still emotionally in the system. I member feeling really sick, which I didn’t feel before when I started so, I think that tells you you can’t go back. The older you get, you see it in as a disease of stupidity, really. I think all drug and alcohol addiction is to some extent because you know where the route is going to take you, so there’s no real point to go down that road.

Did it take you going into rehab to get yourself clean?

I did the cold turkey thing. I just sorted it out and it was tough going, physically tough going; for maybe about four months, it was physically hard goin’. I felt rough and sick and ill for long time, but I felt I could come through it and I could get to the end of it. I think more than being physically tough going, mentally it left me sort of wasted without any self-confidence or selfbelief. I felt like everything was stripped away.

When you come off gear, you have to build a whole new set of relationships because you don’t want to be associating again like you were when you were on gear. As much as you’d like to try to help them, but you can’t.

That’s why I didn’t want to get into any AA or anything like that because I just didn’t want to be around people that had that shared back story. I didn’t want to have someone encouraging me not to be this kind of person. I just wanted to be... I mean, I just became straight as fuck after that. I went to get a job and I wanted to work hard and just do that kind of thing, meet a nice girl and get married and settle down, and I wanted to be that kind of person. One of the things that I realized was that to some extent, I’d kind of thrown out the baby in the bath water. It was like, you don’t have to choose to be a boring 9-5 white collar sort of home and garden type of guy or a fucked up junkie in the streets, there is a spectrum in between you can do. You can do other things that kind of transcends both these things. You can get into art, you can be an artist, and you can do these different things that are... that’s what I was looking for all along, the excitement and the buzz of heroin, I think I was looking for something that was going to give me that buzz. But then realizing something that I really wanted to be, yeah?

051

052 The Trainspotting Issue

A

mong the many quotable passages in Irvine Welsh’s first novel, Trainspotting, one stands out: “Choose life,” says Mark ‘Rent-boy’ Renton. “Choose a job. Choose a career.

Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning ...

Choose life ... But why would I want to do a thing like that?”

He chose heroin instead. There were many like him – and figures released this week by the General Register Office for Scotland bleakly underlined Welsh’s satirical point: that what they were really choosing was death. Drugrelated fatalities increased by 26% from 2007 to 2008 – there is now up to one every four days in the Lothians. Four in five of the dead are men, and the greatest increase is among men aged 35 and above, long-term heroin users who have come to be called the Trainspotting generation.

Welsh’s scabrous novel is set in Leith, Edinburgh, in the mid-1980s, when heroin use there was just taking off. Opiates had been a part of Edinburgh life for centuries: pure opium, the historian Michael Fry has pointed out, arrived in the city in 1693. By 1877 it was widespread among the middle classes (who could afford it). Heroin was first synthesised in 1884, and Edinburgh factories were soon manufacturing it. “By the end of the 19th century,” writes Fry, “Edinburgh produced most of the world’s opiate drugs, heroin included.” Production continues to this day.

In the 1980s things changed drastically, for a number of reasons. There was more supply – a sudden influx of cheap heroin from Pakistan, which was welcomed, says Welsh, by the “big pool of heroin users up here”. And supply coincided with unprecedented receptivity. The 70s had ended with massive unemployment, felt particularly keenly in working-class, previously industrial areas, and the 60s’ brainwave, peripheral housing schemes which, by the late 70s, writes Aaron Kelly in his monograph on Irvine Welsh, “had already stagnated socially into ghettos”. In 1979 a referendum on devolution failed, and Margaret Thatcher was elected.

When Trainspotting was first published, Welsh says, he was roundly chastised for glamorising heroin abuse. It is true that his harsh rhythms, and, when Danny Boyle’s film came out, its driving soundtrack, humour, and attractive lead (Ewan McGregor) gave it a gritty, sexy allure. The film was shown out of competition at the Cannes film festival, but became the festival’s one unqualified hit. It made more than $30m (£18m) – was so popular, in fact, that for some years afterwards Tim Bell, 63, lay chaplain for the Port of Leith, used to run Trainspotting walking tours in his spare time (The Classic, according to his website, involves visits to “Sick Boy’s pub – Leith police station – Welsh’s flat – Dockers’ Club – Leith Central Station – Central Bar – Fitay the Walk – Kirkgate – Banana Flats – Shore”.) Welsh is still irritated by the attacks – “I look now at all the drugs education; they’re actually using outtakes from Trainspotting!” – and talking to those who were there at the time it becomes clear that he was only describing what was going on, what he knew, what he still knows, because among the men dying now are boys he met then. It’s true there were those, a few, who took the book and the film too much to heart, and saw glamour where they should have seen despair. “I remember

speaking to a community activist in Muirhouse and she was telling me how people had seen Trainspotting as a manual of how to behave,” says Gordon Munro, a Leith city councillor.

“It’s got this bullshit aura or mystique, a dark underworld feel,” says David, who started using heroin in the mid-90s and is now clean. “In reality [heroin addiction] is the furthest thing from that. It’s just degradation. Every day is a living hell.” It was exacerbated by rave culture – “people were taking heroin to come down from the ecstasy,” says Willie, a 42-year-old who began injecting heroin when he was a teenager, in about 1985 (he has been on methadone since Christmas) – but heroin chic was not a concept that seems to have made many inroads. “I don’t think that went past London fashion week, to be honest,” says Mark, dismissively.

As for the users themselves, they say there was little culture, not a scene as such. “You try and keep away from people,” says David. “You just want to be left alone to do heroin. Even if someone overdoses, your first thought is not, ‘Oh, are they OK?’ Your first thought is to seek out where they got the heroin from – that’s how sad it is. Everyone uses everyone, and if you do build relationships it’s for a common purpose, to get what you need. It’s dog eat dog.”

“I don’t think it’s the kind of drug you take to be happy,” says Mikey, a 35year-old who started using heroin 10 years ago and has tried to kill himself several times. “It’s a drug you take to take away pain, to put your life on hold, numb everything. Most of the people I know, that’s why they take it. Trainspotting generation? I don’t think that’s got anything to do with anything.”

What it had to do with, mostly, was thousands of young people with nothing to do, and no prospects. “By 1983 you had 3.6 million unemployed,” says Welsh. “It tells its own story – you’ve got a lot of people with a lot of time on their hands. The government was basically creating demand.” And they were naive. “You’re talking about people who wouldn’t normally be involved the heroin scene,” Welsh once said. “People didn’t have the [Alexander] Trocchi-esque attitude of setting themselves up in opposition to society. It was just people who didn’t have a fucking clue.” Mark remembers people overdosing on heroin, and friends injecting them with speed to bring them round. “You just can’t do that. But they didn’t know.”

And they were Scottish. A 2008 study in the British Medical Journal of the so-called “Scottish effect” (mortality is 15% higher in Scotland than in England and Wales) found that the excess was mainly accounted for by males aged under 45 – and that at least a third of that was due to problem drug use, usually heroin. This difference – and thus the rate of current deaths – can be ascribed to a peculiarly Scottish cocktail of risks. Firstly there’s an underlying issue of self-esteem. “Englishness is the norm,” says Welsh. “Scottishness is increasingly seen as a second-class thing. There’s always been an idea of two types of Scots – those who went to London and made it big, and the second-raters who stayed home. It’s a very negative thing.” In Thatcher’s Britain “Scots were losers, young people were losers, the unemployed were losers,” as Bell puts it.

Then there are specific cultural habits. “The crack cocaine scene you see in the south, the stimulant scene of Birmingham or Manchester, that’s not taken off here,” says Mark. “Culturally, a lot of people prefer depressing drugs like opiates – heroin, Temazepam. The problem is if you take these drugs in combination and add alcohol that can increase risk factors.”

There is also a distinct preference for needles. “It’s whisky versus beer,” says Welsh. “In Scotland we’ve always gone for the dangerous hit. In England there’s always been a more mellow way – the slow pint of beer in a pub. That’s just my own observation.” There’s more defiance in it –

053

“even the most desperate junkies and alcoholics often have this swaggering bonhomie about them” – and it’s more efficient. “I don’t want to stereotype,” says Welsh, “but it’s more cost-effective to inject [heroin] than to burn it in foil, when you’re burning it into the air, effectively.” “It’s simple economics,” adds Mark. “You get a bigger, better bang for your buck.”

In Scotland, the heroin problem was dealt with as a law-enforcement issue: authorities deliberately made it difficult for users to obtain clean needles, forcing them to share – and thus contributing, directly, to an explosion of Aids cases. “Dundee and Edinburgh were the two main hotspots,” says Mark.

“A lot of the people I was working with were the same age as me, and 80% of them were HIV positive. There were no antiretrovirals then, so a lot of them were dying.”

“I was in prison in the 80s,” says Willie. “Lots of people were injecting.

Some had the virus and they weren’t telling people – they were sharing the needles. That helped kill a lot of people.” Drugs policy changed, partly as a result of the Aids crisis, partly, suggests Mark, as a direct result of the success of Trainspotting, and there are now needle-exchanges – but as Mikey points out, it doesn’t help that the police tend to use the needle-exchanges as bait. “If you go to get safe equipment you know you’ll get busted.”

And it has become a way of life. “There are estates,” says Welsh, “with three generations who have graduated from alcohol to smack. You could go to any of their mobile phones, and the call-list would be all dealers and junkies.

you’re a working-class kid in the schemes,” he says, “what are the alternatives?

There aren’t many. If you go to a middle-class district in Edinburgh there are cafes and bars, people have money and jobs. You go to a scheme just a few miles down the road from where I am just now, there’s nothing there. It’s all boarded-up places, maybe a corner shop where you can get milk and rolls, there might a local scheme pub and a bookie – nothing else.” He is contemptuous of the Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie’s term for the Trainspotting era – a “wasted decade”: “It’s more than a wasted decade – it’s been a wasted 35 years.” And neither he nor Mark see it getting better any time soon: according to the Scottish parliament, some 1.2 million people in Scotland live in poor households – 25% of the population. Mark says he read this week’s headlines about rising joblessness with a sense of foreboding. “I just see another lost generation – there may be new substances, cheap alcohol and such – but I think we’ll see a modern version of the Trainspotting generation.”

Meanwhile, that generation is dying 30, 40 years too early. Partly it’s the result of long-term addiction. “People who come into these services have very difficult past lives,” says Mark. “You’ve got psychological scars, physical scars in terms of chronic poor health, and a lot of them are living in poverty and deprivation – wrap all that together and it’s not exactly rocket science.’”

And partly – again – there is naivety, exacerbated by a twisted social morality. Many of the dying may not even be on heroin anymore. “They will say, proudly, ‘I’m clean now,’” says Mark. “What they’re saying is ‘I’m no longer taking

“I DON’T WANT TO STEREOTYPE,” SAYS WELSH, “BUT IS MORE COSTEFFECTIVE TO INJECT [HEROIN] THAN TO BURN IT IN FOIL, WHEN YOU’RE BURNING IT INTO THE AIR, EFFECTIVELY.’ “IT’S SIMPLE ECONOMICS,” “YOU GET A BIGGER, BETTER BANG, FOR YOUR BUCK.” “In some families you have the alcoholic grandfather, the son who’s been an alcoholic and heroin addict and the grandson who’s a heroin addict. The generation before that might have been heavy drinkers but in there was work in the shipyards, so they had a reason not to get wasted.”

At The Junction, a local health project in Leith, spokeswoman Sam Anderson says that if the younger generation aren’t on heroin, they’ll be on something else: “The kids we are dealing with now have aunts, uncles, parents who were part of that generation. They are aware of the worst it has done, so they will tend to use different drugs. It is not that all the problems behind that have changed, however. They just choose other ways.”

But “over the last 10 years [heroin use] has increased so much it’s unbelievable,” says Mikey. “Ten years ago it was easy to get cannabis – now you can get heroin just as easily.” How easily? “Two minutes.” He is particularly exercised by the recent closure of the Links Project in Leith, where addicts were taken in before being referred to rehabilitation units. There is a new programme called Leap, but, Mikey says, they don’t take anyone on anything above 30ml of methadone a day; many people he knows are on 130-160ml. “There’s nowhere for them to detox now. I know of three or four deaths that wouldn’t have happened [if it was still open].” According to Audit Scotland, there are more than 50,000 heroin users in Scotland, and waiting lists of up to two years for treatment.

The answer, says Welsh, is to provide something outside drugs – opportunities, and rehabilitation. But this is not happening. “If you’re a working-class kid in the schemes,” he says, “what are the alternatives? There aren’t many. If

054 The Trainspotting Issue

taking unacceptable drugs. I’m no longer a dirty junkie.’” But a lot of them will have hepatitis C that hasn’t been diagnosed or treated – and damages the liver. “They might be drinking half a bottle of vodka a day, and literally drinking themselves to death. It’s a comment on how we view drugs in this society. I find it quite sad.”

When I called Willie, who lives in Leith, almost the first thing he told me was that there had just been another death that evening just down the street from his flat, and the coroner had arrived. “I heard it was an overdose.”

Di recte d by Ru p er t Sa n d e rs Starring Kr isten St ewa r t , Ch r i s H e ms wo r t h , C h a r l i e S t e r o n Rele ase d Ju n e 1

I

t’s not often that you find the same character duking it out with themselves over ticket sales – the last time we can recall it happening was back in 1983 when Sean Connery and Roger Moore went head-to-head with their respective Bond films. But with two distinctly different big screen interpretations of Snow White due next year, 2012 looks set to be a good year for the resurgent tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Over the past week, trailers for Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and The Huntsmen and Tarsem Singh’s Mirror, Mirror have both surfaced within days of one another. Each offers a brief glimpse of the dramatically different styles employed to bring each director’s unique vision of the classic fairy tale to life.

While both light on detail, each trailer seems to be a fair indicator of what audience can expect.

Both appear to fit neatly into their own respective genre niches and what’s most apparent at first glance is the dramatic contrast in tone between the two.

Sanders’ film appears to have shirked any semblance of Disney’s wistfully fanciful quality in favour of a dark and brooding approach with more of an emphasis on thrills.

Anchored by voice narration from Charlize Theron’s sinister Evil Queen, Huntsman is a film clearly rooted in action fantasy, with gothic overtones and moody action set pieces.

Tarsem’s film on the other hand, appears to have opted for a much more campy and lurid approach with Mirror, Mirror’s trailer suggesting that all the lavish hallmarks of his previous work are present. It represents something of an unexpected departure into much more light-hearted for the Immortals director and once again, the trailer is largely powered by narration from the Evil Queen, portrayed here by a far less menacing, but much more acid-tongued Julia Roberts, who appears to be having a whale of a time.

Lamentably, in terms of our leading lady, casting choices are fairly unexciting. While Huntsman features Twilight alumnus and emotional vacuum Kristen Stewart as the titular heroine, Mirror’s casting takes a considerable gamble by placing relative newcomer Lily Collins in the role. Both certainly look the part and all bets are off as to who will come off the best, but we’re banking on Collins being in with a good shot.

Meanwhile, dependable support can be found across the board with Chris Hemsworth taking the eponymous role of the Huntsman in Sanders’

by an impressive roster of British actors as the dwarves including the likes of Bob Hoskins, Ray Winstone and Ian McShane. Mirror, Mirror on the other hand features Armie Hammer as the much sought-after Prince Andrew, while Nathan Lane fills the role of Brighton, the Evil Queen’s snivelling assistant.

Kristen Stewart is the actress tasked with making Snow something beyond a woman waiting to be rescued, while also proving that she herself is a box office draw outside of the Twilight arena: “I’m used with small movies”, se says. “ So it’s kind of insane that this was the thing I instinctively wanted to do”.

Mirror, Mirror will be the first to hit UK screens in March, while Snow White and The Huntsman is currently slated for a June release.

Anticipation. blockbuster.

An effects-driven

Enjoyment.

Kristen Stewart like you’ve never seen her before.

In Retrospect. feels different.

This looks and

057

Directe d by Mar k An d rews Starring Kelly Mac d o n a l d , J u l i e Wa l t e rs , Em m a Th o m p s o n R e leas e d Ju n e 2 2

L

ike The Incredibles (directed by Brad Bird), Brave is a Pixar film not directed by the core group of directors at the studio.

Brave‘s director is Mark Andrews, who previously directed the short, One Man Band.

Here are the details about Brave‘s storyline that have been released: “A rugged and mythic Scotland is the setting for Pixar’s action-adventure Brave. The impetuous, tangle-haired Merida, though a daughter of royalty, would prefer to make her mark as a great archer. A clash of wills with her mother compels Merida to make a reckless choice, which unleashes unintended peril on her father’s kingdom and her mother’s life. Merida struggles with the unpredictable forces of nature, magic and a dark, ancient curse to set things right. The storytelling wizards of Pixar conjure humor, fantasy and excitement in this rich Highland tale.”

When Pixar began, the rules were simple. No fairy tales, no songs. That was, John Lasseter and his colleagues reckoned, the best way to distinguish their studio’s product from Disney and the rest of Hollywood’s animated output. The second rule more-or-less stands, unless you count some Randy Newman ditties, or WALL-E’s devotion 058 The Trainspotting Issue

to Hello Dolly. But with the studio’s new film, Brave, it seems the prohibition against fairy tales has finally lapsed. It is, after all, the story of a princess and takes place in a Scottish kingdom sometime between 800 and 1200 AD, making it only the second Pixar film not to be set in a largely modernday world.

ill. The rest is an original story conceived by The Prince of Egypt’s Brenda Chapman as The Bear And The Bow, but when the film reaches us, it, will be under a new game and with a new director and a changed cast and Billy Connolly, Emma Thompson, Craig Ferguson and Kevin McKidd rounding out her family and friends.

However, director Mark Andrews promises LWL that Pixar hasn’t gone all, well, Disney, and that the aforementioned royal offspring, Princess Merida (Kelly Macdonald), will most decidedly not be a cutesy, romantic ‘Disney Princess’, either in spirit or in the sense of joining one of the studio’s biggest brands. “Making her a princess just makes the stakes a lot higher,” says the jovial and energetic Andrews. “She can’t make a selfish decision that might have consequences for the kingdom.

But this is not a fairy tale. The fairy tale has a connotation that is lighter and a lot more magic. In our film she doesn’t find a prince who’s going to save her from the dilemma. She saves herself and sorts out her own problems. It’s more an epic fantasy adventure.”

“Brenda was developing around 2005,2006” explains Andrews, who joined the studio with Brad Bird and went on to script John Carter with Andrew Stanton. Making this film was difficult and Brenda played a fantastic role creating this world. But Pixar asked me to jump on board late in the summer and help them take it to the finish line. I thought, “Sure, why not?”

The publicity emphasises the mythic angle, although the only element of the film based on actual Scottish legend are the will-o’-the-wisps that “lead you to your fate” - whether for good or

Anticipation.

It’s visually very out of the Pixar space.

Enjoyment.

Funny and thrilling. But not a masterpiece.

In Retrospect.

Their focus on story and creativity is almost unrivalled in the history of Hollywood.

Directe d by Ben Drew Starring Riz Ahm e d , N a t h a l i e P r e s s R e leas e d May 4

W

ith his album the defamation of Strickland Banks selling like the proverbial, Ben Drew - aka Plan B - is one of the hottest acts in British music. And now he’s getting into film. He’s already acted in the likes of Adulthood and Harry Brown, and has the co-lead in the upcoming big-screen version of The Sweeney, so this is not your typical example of a music star arbitrarily deciding to give movies a go because it looks like fun. Far from it. Instead, B - sorry, Drew - has bashed the keyboard and grabbed the megaphone as writer/director of his own feature, Ill Manors. Set in East London, it’s the “hip hop musical version of Crash”, in short - though the soundtrack (which doubles as Drew’s latest album) provides a narrative accompaniment to the action, rather than being sung by actors.

An ensemble with several storylines - one of which is modelled after Drew’s short film Michelle - Ill Manors aims to be nothing if not honest and intense. “The most important thing about me is

Directe d by Jam e s Mc Te i g u e Starring Joh n Cu s ack, Al i c e Eve R e leas e d Ap r il 27

I’m a storyteller,” says Drew, out the back of the Earl of Essex pub in Manor Park inbetween setups. “I use the gifts that have been given to me to tell stories. Music is one vehicle and now film is.

I’ve had to learn how to make a film - but I know how to tell a story.”

The cast includes Natalie Press (My Summer of Love) and the brilliant Riz Ahmed, who in the next scene is debating the merits of selling an apparently unwanted baby. The camera rolls. “What the fuck,” he barks. “Are you Jeremy Kyle or something?”

Then, before the next take, Drew has a chat. “The Jeremy Kyle line is weird. Change it to Trisha. ‘Do you think you’re Trisha, you cunt?’ Either that or drop it, altogether.’

Drew certainly isn’t precious about his script, striving to get the most believable performances he can within the brisk, low-budget shoot. It’s his hope to tell an authentic story showing the real London and hip-hop culture, rather than tabloid stereotypes “It’s a multi-character story that really kinf of sheds

W

hile Edgar Allen Poe possibly the most compelling writer of horror fiction ever to have to put ink on paper, few films have been made that focus on the man himself.

And certainly not fictionalised tales of the last days of his life that find him helping a detective to investigate a serial killer drawing inspiration from his work. Which is why The Raven, directed by V for Vendetta’s James McTeigue is an odd hybrid of murder mystery and literary not-quite history.

light on the subject-matter of hip-hop music, you know?” he says. “Kids from the street respect hiphop music because it’s talking about an environment that they live in. It’s shedding light on what hip-hop music is about and kind of explaining. ‘Yeah, this shit does go on and this is why we write about it in music.” Expect the results to be uncompromising.

Anticipation.

Bruising, moving

and utterly compelling.

Enjoyment.

Bruising, moving and utterly compelling.

In Retrospect.

line of the panel, finding the perfect way to describe the legendary writter:“He was the godfather of Goth.”

While Cusack got to run around looking for a serial killer and turning a literary legend into an action hero, Alice Eve instead got to spend a lot of time buried alive as Emily, the woman Poe is in love with, and who is kidnapped as part of a cruel game by the killer. It involved being pelted with a lot of what McTeigue had assured her was “clean” dirt. And the director was the one doing the dirt-chucking… “James would throw it in my face.

We were in Serbia, in the winter. I had a spit cup next to me. So… Method.”

Cusack plays Poe, and he was quick to explain what he saw in Poe that made him want to play a slightly tweaked version of the man. “It’s obviously all conjecture because I wasn’t there, it seemed to me that he held females up to an almost... He didn’t really like the company of men. He saw any man, he wanted to get into a fight with them, he either want to get into a duel with them or insult Anticipation. Poe’s stories put in them,” Cusack said about Poe’s relationships. “He action. held women up to a muse-like – his version of heaven was the perfect, untouched woman… He had this sense of yearning for women, but women Enjoyment. No, ‘enjoyment’ is not the right word for it. abandoning him.”

Cusack also likened him to another famous author. “I saw some of Hunter S Thompson in Poe In Retrospect. Last days of Edgar – his unflinching ability to delve into the abyss Allan Poe’s life. and come back. He reminded me of Hunter in that way.” But the actor definitely got the best 059

Select Filmography Joss Whedon

Summer’s Secret Weapon

The cabin in the Woods (2012) Captain America (2011) Thor (2011) Serenity (2005) X-Men (2000) Toy Story (1995)

I nterview by Ad am Woo d wa rd

B

alton Rouge, deepest Louisiana. LWL is walking on shells, and not ones of the eggy variety. Around us are the remains of what used to be a warship’s bridge. Scorched circuit boards dangle from wires, blackened computer screens teeter from their brackets, and beneath our feet is the gritty crunch of broken glass, and thousands upon thousands of spent bullet casings.

Really bloody big ones.

“HA, HA, HA” bellows US Navy Captain Rick Hoffman the movie’s naval advisor who’s showing LWL around Battleship’s neurotically accurate maritime sets. “We fired all this yesterday. BIG battle scene, and next door they’re filming that kiddie vampire movie, what’s that called?”

“Twilight?” LWL ventures.

“Yeah, that one.” sniffs Captain Hoffman.

“They were trying to do some SOPPY LOVE SCENE and they COMPLAINED about the NOISE!” he grins, delighted apparently at the notion of Edward and Bella’s long-delayed conjugals being rudely interrupted by Berg’s Armageddonish antics.

“So do you KNOW what we DID?” LWL ponders the notion that push-ups might be involved should we not have a good answer.

“WE DID IT AGAIN!” he bellows.

It ain’t easy being a vampire in love. Especially, it seems, when Peter Berg’s in town.

A little later we watch the man at work. The scene has Alex Hopper surveying the damage to his destroyer after one of the movie’s extra-terrestrials, currently confining the US fleet to an area just off Hawaii via a mysterious forcefield has exited his tub in somewhat chaotic circumstances. Behind him is a slab of hull into which an unhealthy-looking hole has been ripped.

“Action!” yells Berg. On the monitor we see his shot come together, a slow crane zoom taking in some of the chaos before pulling into a close-up of Kitsch.

As Berg ponders the scene, the camera continues its drift past Kitsch’s handsome mug and settles itself on a perfectly composed shot of the

060 The Trainspotting Issue

car park. “Holy shit.” yells Berg. “Rogue camera!” and breaks into a coughing fit, possibly in disgust, as cinematographer Tobias Schliessler shimmies over to his wayward crane and prods at it.

“It helps that Peter’s an actor and a very good one,” says Liam Neeson during the enforced break.

“He really takes his time getting everything set up, sometimes four or five cameras, and then it’s total focus on the performances. We get to repeat scenes without him calling cut, which is a real help because when you cut, the energy dissipates a little.

You’ve always got his full attention. Everybody looks up to him. He really is the governor on this set.”

We call it the ‘swamp fever’, says ‘the governor’s on the way to his trailer, sneezing again, prompting an assistant to hand over tissues and Tylenol. “It’s been going around the crew and it hit me full force a couple of days ago. You’ll see all of a sudden I have a lot of friends on set. Everybody’s bringing me medicine and food, hot drinks. They don’t really give a shit,” he grins. “They just want to be out of here for Christmas.”

Inside his trailer, Berg raids the fridge and ponders the pressure he’s let himself in for. Battleship, the result of an often derided deal between Universal and toy company Hasbro, has a rumoured budget drifting north of $200 million. Subsequently, Universal has pulled out of such mooted Hasbro projects as McG’s Ouija (reportedly costing it $5 million in penalty payments), Ridley Scott’s Monopoly and Strech Armstrong. Battleship is almost last movie standing. A lot is riding on Berg’s maritime malarkey.

“This is the first time I’ve talked about the movie to anyone outside the studio, really,” he says before marvelling at the scale of the project he’s taken on. “We’ve been filming for three-and-a-half months, we’ve been miles out in the Pacific Ocean, we’ve been to Hawaii, then in the mountains. A lot of bad weather. Huge sets. This is a big film. Everybody’s tired. I’d done Hancock, whis was a big effects movie, but it was a contained thing with three characters. This spans the entire world. One day we’re on one American ship, then we’re on another

ship with a whole different crew. Then we’re on a Japanese destroyer, then the bad guys and all their ships... Every six days there’s a whole new group of actors. And then we’re up in the Himalayas, Scotland, Hong Kong, France, a jet propulsion lab, NASA for four days...”

Berg’s canny enough director to know that when these movies come to grief, it’s never the locations, the effects or spectacle that dooms them; it’s character and story, or mostly lack thereof. His own films, from Very Bad Things in 1998 to the underrated, Saudi-set thriller The Kingdom, have all boasted sharply drawn characters and tight narratives, possibly a result of his background as an actor. Is there a danger it’s precisely these qualities that get wrung out in the chaos of production and edit?

“I like looking at guys like J. J. Abrams or Jon Favreau, Gore Verbinski,” he says. “They all have movies with fascinating characters. I love Jack Sparrow, and I love what Favreau’s done with Iron Man: he’s got an actor like Robert Downey out of purgatory and put a character in these films who brings this complexity.

“And it’s struck me that studios, they don’t really care,” he continues. “You can do as much artistry as you want; as long as they make money they don’t interfere. And they find out that actually people like a little acting, they like a little subversivenes.. They can handle it. The studio quite reasonably wants a certain return on their investment. I could be a dick and say, you know ‘I’m an artist. Fuck off, give me my $200 million and leave me the fuck alone.’

But there’s no need for that kind of nastiness,” he laughs. “Look, they want to win, and they’re depending on me. I really appreciate that.”

And without having to service stars, directors have been more creative with their casting. “It used to be you’d say, ‘I’m making Battleship’ and they’d give you a list with eight actors on. And the actors fucked you,” he says. “They either asked for ridiculous amounts. Because everybody was fighting for the same eight actors, they got what they wanted.

Directe d by Jos s W h e d o n Starring Rob er t Down ey J r. , Ch r i s Eva n s , Sca r l e t t Jo h a n s s o n R e leas e d May 4

M

arvel, in an effort to keep their tent pole production at the forefront of the moviegoing public’s mind, has been trickling out stills of late for its upcoming adaptation of The Avengers. But at the risk of sounding like a thankless fan, the latest photo is a little underwhelming.

Explosions? Villains threatening heroes? Do or die conundrums? Nope, just a couple superheroes taking a stroll.

The Avengers, the culmination of several solo superhero movies, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger will open this May 4th, and the most recent photo concentrates on the flight-less characters of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Captain America (Chris Evans) and the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) as they walk through what looks like either S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters or the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.

In January 2012, Marvel Studios held a global Twitter chat. The 30-minute live tweeting event featured writer/director Joss Whedon, cast members Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston and Clark Gregg and a 10-second tease of the 30second Super Bowl advert that aired during Super Bowl XLVI in February.According to the Los Angeles

Times, Disney paid an estimated $4 million for the 30-second spot.

In February 2012, Marvel announced the release of a second limited series comic book tie-in entitled “Black Widow Strikes” written by Fred Van Lente, who wrote “Captain America: First Vengeance”, which served as a prequel to Captain America: The First Avenger. The story is set between Iron Man 2 and The Avengers and follows Black Widow as she runs down some loose ends from Iron Man 2, namely some bootleg Stark technology that Justin Hammer made.

Marvel’s reported $300 million gamble will not only fulfill comic book fans’ lifelong dreams by uniting the power pack of Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grub, but it finally gives Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury - the one-eyed S.H.I.E.L.D. commander who actually does all the Avengers assembling - the chance to do something other than show up for one scene and impart crucial information, like a bald Basil Exposition. “It’s like standing around with a lightsaber and not taking it out,” says Jackson, speaking from experience, of his fifth outing as Fury. “Nick Furry is supposed to be Nick Furry. He has a history of violence and

action, and all of a sudden I get to do it. It’s a relief to put a weapon in my hand or knock somebody down and get to do things that are very Nick Fury-like.”

This iteration of Fury is at the forefront of The Avengers movie, a hard-as-nails heavyweight who reacts to a Loki (Tom Hiddleston)-led alien threat to Earth by bringing together a group of walking egos that may, ultimately be impossible for Fury to control “S.H.I.E.L.D. is our in”, says director Joss Whedon. “Fury is a great puppetmaster, but at the end of the day, any of these guys can knock him silly. He has to bring the Avengers and make it work.”

Anticipation.

Hopes are high, but there’s a nagging feeling that after all the hype this could be an unholy mess.

Enjoyment.

A shiny, caged beast of a film that delivers on its every promise.

In Retrospect.

Struggling to find any truly iconic moments, the film doesn’t linger long in the mind and will surely be much diminished on the small screen.

061

Di recte d by Bob cat G ol d t h wa i t Starring Joel Mu r ray, Ta ra L y n n e Ba r r Rele ase d Ap r il 6 “Jesus Frank, you look like fuck pie.” As we meet Frank, a lonely, recently unemployed man soaked in discontent for a society gone awry, it’s clear that no more clear a portait of his current state could be painted than the words spoken by his 16-year-old companion, a troubled girl named Roxie. In a country filled with appalling reality television, fear-mongering telepundits and a nation whose prime directive is to be as hopelessly mean to each other as possible, Frank has had enough.

Unable to connect with an oblivious ex-wife and his spoiled rotten 7-year old daughter, and saddled with the news that his migraine headache affliction may, in fact, be a massive brain tumor, Frank sets out to do something noble — shoot a reality TV princess. That’s where he meets Roxie, an onlooker to the murder of a girl who represents all the seething awful that bad upper middle class parenting can create. A troubled young girl who would become the Bonnie to his Clyde, an inspiration for a killing spree that spans all levels of America’s rotten culture. From religious nutjobs to the devotees of an American Idol-esque competition show, no one will escape the wrath of a desperate man and his frighteningly over-zealous sidekick.

062 The Trainspotting Issue

To steal from the film’s director during his post-SXSW screening Q&A, Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Bless America is a violent film about kindness. Because unlike other, lesser films to which this one will undoubtedly be compared — the likes of Kevin Smith’s Red State or (gasp) Uwe Boll’s Rampage – the violence is easily overshadowed by the simple, elemental philosophy behind Frank’s spree: he only kills those who deserve to die. “Why do you have to be so mean?” he asks the Glenn Beck-like character at the end of his gun at one point. Because that’s what it comes down to in the end. With this film, Goldthwait is clearly making a political statement. At times it’s as simple and subdued as caricature of any number of recognizable figures, all of whom are understandably loathed. At others it’s a sledgehammer monologue delivered to perfection by his expertly curated cast. And whether it’s found by its audience to be heavy-handed or not, it’s clear that it comes from a genuine place of frustration for the writer/director. It’s his manifesto condensed and punched up for cinematic effect. And he doesn’t seem to care that you agree, just that you can’t take your eyes away from the screen.

favor is the chemistry found in its lead duo, Joel Murray and Tara Lynne Barr. Murray plays Frank straight as an arrow. In his opening monologue, we’re introduced to his droll worldview, as personified by the hyper-annoying neighbors on the other side of his paper-thin walls. He’s a tragic figure, but even Murray’s expressionless moments are full of life and energy that move us toward those inevitable, shocking moments of violence. Like any great tragic figure, the lights are on behind Frank’s dead, weathered eyes. The fire rages beneath a stoic disposition.

Aiding in the searing of audience to screen effect that works so well in God Bless America‘s

good.

In press throughout this film’s tour from its premiere at Toronto last year to this re-cut premiere at SXSW, Goldthwait has at times referenced Peter Finch’s speech at the end of Network as an inspiration.

Anticipation. festival buzz.

Enjoyment. funny.

Garnered much

The killing scens are

In Retrospect.

Too light for its own

Di recte d by Jame s Came ro n Starring L eon ard o Di Cap r i o, K a t e Wi n s l e t Rele ase d Ap r il 6

W

e were, of course, all waiting for it to sink. Or at least list alarmingly. We had our snappily punning headlines and our cleverly worded “(Mad)man overboard!” captions. “James Cameron has spent $200 million on a movie and it’s a dog. He’s finally had it!” we chortled. It was all going to be a great deal of fun.

Only there’s a slight problem. James Cameron has gone and delivered a spectacular, moving, utterly engrossing three-and-a-bit hour epic (stick that on your poster) of the kind they have putatively ceased making “any more”. Bugger. There go all the albatross gags, then.

DiCaprio is Jack, a “poor boy” who wins himself a ticket home on the maiden voyage of the world’s most famous - and soon to be infamous - ocean liner. Winslet is Rose, a “rich girl” cosseted by the strictures of post-Edwardian society and miserably engaged to beastly aristo Cal (Zane). In a fit of the vapours, she tries to fling herself from the prow into Davy Jones’ Locker, Jack wrestles her from the seaweedy clutches of the deep, their soulful eyes meet and... well, anyone vaguely acquainted with the obstacles routinely thrown up before young couples in period costume who are

064 The Trainspotting Issue

that much “in love” will be unsurprised to learn that a number of insurmountable obstacles (the kind that take a couple of reels to be surmounted) get lobbed in their way. Oh, and the boat sinks.

On paper, this should be a nauseatingly dreadful, utterly manipulative, saccharine-dusted gob of tedious pap. On the big screen - and if you’ve got any sense you’ll catch it on the biggest screen you can find - it manages effortlessly to overcome the corny predictable plot, period cliche and “you know the ending” ending, seducing with honest, old-fashioned storytelling bolted to special effects sequences that take the breath away. Like one of its obvious influences Gone With The Wind, the most impressive FX sequences are not the obvious boat upturning sequences but the digitally created moments you don’t notice aren’t real. The steam emerging from people’s mouths being one example, and the shots of the boat itself charging through the Atlantic, never drawing attention to the fact that only half of it exists in a mainframe in Burbank.

DiCaprio and Winslet are horribly attractive as the youngsters caught first in the nasty snobbism of the hierarchical world around them and then in the nasty terror of the boat sinking. Which is when the romance turns to action, and for the last

hour and a bit we are treated to Cameron flexing his action muscles.Walls of brine crash down corridors, those holding only third class tickets are locked below decks and drown in their hundreds, and in the final moments the ship upends delivering an incredible shot of our heroes hurtling face first into the sea still clinging to the ship while hapless passengers who have chosen to jump plunge by.

Here Cameron proves, as he hinted at in The Abyss, that while you can count the action directors to rival him on the fingers of one finger (John Woo), he is also perfectly capable of delivering big screen emotion. Titanic is not subtle by any stretch of the imagination but it will leave even the most cynical, heartless swine with a lump in the throat.

Anticipation. different.

This offers something

Enjoyment.

Titanic the way we know it for longer than three hours.

In Retrospect.

The biggest non-3D movie of all time is now available in the format.

L Di recte d by Ad am Sh an k man Starring Tom Cr u i s e Rele ase d Ju n e 15

ike his hit film Hairspray. Adam Shankman’s latest is a musical snapshot of a time when everyone’s hair was perfect even when their world was a mess. Shot in Miami, where a shabby downtown area has been gussied up into LA’s Sunset Strip circa 1987, it’s an Across The Universe-style love story peppered with songs from the period, in a mash-up of poodle rock and high-pitched power balladry that was a staple of the time.

And it’s a starry affair, with Russell Brand as a leery rock fan, Catherine Zeta-Jones as the prim politician’s wife who wants to scrub the Strip clean and Tom Cruise as rawk superstar Stacee Jaxx, who threatents to steal the show with a powerhouse live performance of Def Leppard’s Pour Sugar On Me. Yes, Tom Cruise: action hero and global superstar, whose singing voice the director had never, ever heard. Cruise jumped at Shankman’s whimsical suggestion that he play Jaxx and instantly retired to his LA bolthole with Axl Rose’s vocal coach. “I listened to his first voice session”, says the director, “and it was a revelation. That dude has a huge, huge, powerful, amazing, high voice - so I knew it was gonna work for the period”.

I think of myself as being able to do more than what everybody thinks of me as. I know what, yes, I’m doing a musical again, but I’m making a musical for straight people. Which was my big strech, my big challenge.” He laughs. “I want to see guys dragging their girfriends to a musical. That would be fucking awesome.”

The film will feature the music of Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, and Twisted Sister.

Anticipation.

Two young people chasing their dreams in a big city.

Enjoyment.

Tom Cruise singing.

Wasn’t this a major leap of faith? Shankman thinks not. “Nobody is just the sum total of what they’re famous for,” he says. “ Just because I have Tom Cruise in this movie doesn’t mean I have to have him jumping off buildings...

In Retrospect.

market for this film. Chloe Grace Moretz plays the movie’s central jail-bait character, Luli, who flees her dirt-poor Nebraska home with two drunken parents following her 13th birthday party. She thoughtfully packs her birthday present, a Smith & Wesson .45.

turns up frequently too. A lot happens yet there really isn’t much plot. What plot there is hangs entirely on the budding sexuality of this extremely underage girl and everyone’s reaction to her allure. To her credit, Moretz, who is only 14, gives an entirely credible performance as a tenacious, overripe young girl trying out her seductive powers on the worst sort of adults. The script Portes wrote with the director retains a bit of this narration but apparently not enough.

Burlesque.

Could be as cheesy as

Di recte d by Der i ck Mar t i n i Starring Blake L i ve ly Rele ase d May 11 Hick is probably what would happen if you took the worst country song imaginable and turned it into a movie. You get white-trash character tooling around back roads in the middle of nowhere, snorting drugs, hustling pool, beating up the winner, robbing a convenience store, raping an underage girl and winding up with a couple of bodies thanks to a gun that “isn’t loaded.” None of this is connected to any sort of reality. These characters are snatched from novels and screenplays — James M. Cain comes to mind — and turned into caricatures.

Consequently, it’s hard to develop any emotional connection to the strange odyssey of a 13-year-old runaway, carrying not enough clothes for a sleepover.

Despite drop-in performances by names actors such as Alec Baldwin and Juliette Lewis, Hick from director Derek Martini (Lymelife) looks like one of those films that turns up at festivals and then quietly disappears. Any theatrical distributor would face the problem of figuring out what exactly is the 066 The Trainspotting Issue

The characters she meets on the road come more with labels than real personalities. First there’s the Psychopathic Cowboy (Eddie Redmaynein a performance that’s all over the place and nowhere at the same time). Then comes the Grifter (Blake Lively, who lives up to that name). Soon though, the labels get confusing. A sugar-daddy developer (Ray McKinnon) acts more a gangster with a hair-trigger temper. A young chap (Rory Culkin) that characters call the Rich Kid is found playing card games at a Motel 6, not the place, generally speaking, you find rich kids. Luli’s journey goes in circles so that no matter how often she ditches the Cowboy, she keeps running into him. Meanwhile, the Grifter

Anticipation. serious movie.

Enjoyment.

but worth a shot.

It’s Blake playing in a

It’s not like Gossip Girl,

In Retrospect.

Worth keeping your expectations low.

Di recte d by L ar r y Ch arl e s Starring Sach a B a ron Coh e n Rele ase d May 18

W

ith Saddam Hussein five years dead and Colonel Gaddafi dispatched with lead, it seems dictatorship isn’t as hip as it used to be. Then there’s the Arab Spring, meaning no self-respecting, rege-fuelled autocrat can rest easy in bed. But here comes Sacha Baron Cohen to put the bling into regime-crumbling, as His Excellency Admiral General Aladeen, Supreme Leader, All Triumphant General And Chief Ophthamlogist of The People’s Republic of Wadiya. Ever attuned to current events, General Aladeen reacted to the recent death of his “dear friend”, North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-II, with compassion: “Our thoughts go out to his wife and 813 children. ‘K-Jo’ was a great leader, good friend and average doubles badminton partner. He died as he lived, in three-inch lifts. An extraordinary man, he did so much to spread compassion, wisdom and uranium throughout the world.”

Fascist dictators seem a bit of an easy target for a satirist as sharp as Cohen, but Trey Parker

and Matt Stone proved WMDs and despots could provide big laughs in both South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police, and Cohen is just as talented.

Baron Cohen’s fourth film will “tell the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed”, according to Paramount Pictures, which will distribute the film.

The Dictator also shows a clip of Hillary Clinton condemning the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

Throughout the trailer the 2002 song Mundian To Bach Ke also known as “Beware of the Boys” by Dj/Producer Panjabi MC featuring Jay-Z played a central role as The Dictator theme music. A special version of the trailer was later made for a Super Bowl XLVI commercial advert spot.[5] Baron Cohen will play the role of Admiral General Aladeen, a dictator from the fictional country called the Republic of Wadiya.

A Di recte d by Nico l e K a s s e l l Starring Kate Hu d s on Rele ase d May 4

s unorthodox pitches go, they don’t come much more eyebrow-raising than this: romcom queen Kate Hudson stars alongside arthouse king Gael Garcia Bernal in a “life-affirming” dramedy with The Woodsman director Nicole Kassell behind the camera. Plus Whoopi Goldberg as God. But what’s most unexpected about this mishmash of elements is how well it all ultimately hangs together.

Marley (Hudson) is a free-spirited thirtysomething, single by choice, successful at work, and living life to the full. When she’s diagnosed with terminal cancer, her boundless joie de vivre shows no signs of yielding, but the news does lure her into a romance with her doctor (Bernal), forcing her to finally open up to love in the face of imminent death.

Nothing about it should work, from the vaguely nauseating promise of a journey of selfdiscovery (think Eat, Pray, Love with an expiry date), to Hudson’s motor-mouthed, unerringly sunny heroine.

Props to scribe Gren Wells, then, who’s careful to undercut Marley throughout – in one on-thebutton moment Bernal exclaims: “I’ve never met anyone who talks so much, and says so little.”

Bottom line, since the five-year engagement doesn’t appear to be one of Judd Apatow’s edgier productions, there’s a gap for an R-rated risque comedy. The Dictator could fill it.

Anticipation.

The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

Enjoyment.

Here comes Baron Cohen to put the bling into regime-crumbling.

In Retrospect.

There is a gap for an R-rated risque comedy. The Dictator could fill it.

It’s been easy to forget of late, but Hudson’s got chops. Here, she gracefully walks a razor’s-edge between farce and tragedy as Marley’s condition worsens, crucially never allowing her to be a martyr.

There’s an elusive quality to Bernal’s boundless charisma that lends his Dr Goldstein a shade of insta-intrigue, while Kathy Bates and Rosemarie DeWitt round out the high-calibre cast as overbearing mum and preggers best friend respectively.

While the marriage of fluffy comedy and terminal illness was always going to be an uncomfortable one, this is an understated, genuinely poignant weepie bolstered by a top-drawer cast.

Anticipation.

It’s been a while.

Welcome back Kate.

Enjoyment.

Hudson and Bernal have never been so compelling.

In Retrospect. tail of romance.

An unexpected

067

Directe d by Joh n Ma dd e n Starring Ju d i Dench , Bi l l Ni g hy, Dev Pat e l , M a gg i e S m i t h Re leas e d May 4

I

f you have seen the poster for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, with its sunny, soft-focus portraits of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy and Tom Wilkinson, you’re probably not expecting the year’s most challenging film. But, to begin with, it looks as if John Madden’s comedy-drama – loosely based on a Deborah Moggach novel – might have a sharper edge than that poster would suggest.

In a series of pithy, pointed scenes, it introduces seven pensioners (Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie and Ronald Pickup are the others), all of them appalled by the paucity of options open to them in Britain.

Alienated, short of funds, and patronised both by their children and by the operators on their internet helplines, they fly off to a palatial retirement home in Jaipur, the only place where their paltry savings will keep them in the manner to which they’re accustomed. But once they arrive, they find that despite the efforts of the optimistic young manager, Dev Patel, the building is in a worse condition than they are. It’s hardly a Ken Loach scenario, but the film’s opening act has at least as much to say about post-financial-crash retirement as The Full Monty had to say about post-industrial unemployment – which is quite a lot.

After that opening act, though, Marigold Hotel moves closer to the gentle, Sunday evening 068 The Trainspotting Issue

sitcom promised by the poster: it’s Benidorm for the Saga set. Dench’s voice-over keeps rhapsodising about how new and different everything is in India, but what we’re shown are the usual images of colourful squalor, and streets teeming with children, cars and cattle. The plotlines aren’t too radical, either.

Each of the characters has their own issue to contend with – Wilkinson’s secret past, Smith’s bitter racism, Nighy and Wilton’s fraying marriage – and the only question is the order in which they’ll be resolved. Sure enough, the ex-pats all learn to love themselves, each other, and spicy food, and the pace gets slower and slower until the interminable traffic jam in the closing minutes seems to symbolise the film itself.

That’s not to say that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel doesn’t deserve a visit. All the way through, it has sparkling one-liners delivered by some of our most distinguished actors, and it’s undoubtedly positive in its representation of the over-sixties. It’s just a tad ironic that a film in praise of new horizons should settle into such a well-worn groove.

Freida Pinto, Dev Patel’s girlfriend both in Slumdog Millionaire and in real life, appears in Black Gold, even though she’s an Indian actress and her character is an Arabian princess. And that’s not the only bit of casting that will raise eyebrows, and

titters, in the stalls. Antonio Banderas and a spray-tanned Mark Strong star as rival Arab potentates; Pinto is supposed to be Banderas’s daughter; and Riz Ahmed, a Pakistani-English actor, is meant to be Strong’s son. It’s amazing that nobody files a paternity suit. Tahar Rahim, the French-Algerian star of A Prophet, is the nearest thing the film has to a bona fide Arab prince.

You’re left feeling that Black Gold could have been more incisive on the ways in which the Arab world, and indeed the whole world, has been reshaped by the oil industry. But were you to stumble on Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film on television on a bank holiday afternoon, it would keep you watching till dinner time.

Anticipation.

Old characters taking the center of the stage.

Enjoyment. yes it is funny.

For a certain age, over 50s

In Retrospect.

It’s sweet-natured, good-hearted and decent.

Select Filmography Peter Berg

You’re gonna need a much bigger boat!

Hancock (2008) The Kingdom (2007) Friday Night Lights (2004) The Rundown (2003) Very Bad Things (1998)

I nte rv iew by Davi d J e n k i n s

W

hen Marvel’s shareholders were first informed of the identity of the man entrusted with bringing The Avengers - the fledgling studio’s most ambitious project to date, with a reported budget of $300 million - to the big screen, they might have been forgiven for thinking that some marbles may have been misplaced somewhere along the way.

Since Marvel Studios had gained control of its very lucrative kingdom, crammed to the rafters with iconic comic-book characters just itching to be unleashed on the big screen, it had pursued a policy of recruiting solid, straight-down-themiddle pros to helm its movies: Jon Favreau, Louis Leterrier, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston.

Safe hands, all, who wouldn’t endanger the company’s crown jewels with leftfield creative urges, mad budget overruns, or plans to swap Captain America for a handful of magic beans.

But this guy, The Avengers guy, was far from a safe pair of hands. First of all, he had a background in - shudder - TV, where he’d created shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Dollhouse.

Secondly, The Avengers would be just his second movie as director. The first camse seven years ago, and that was the sci-fi Western Serenity, which grossed just $39 million. Worldwide. He had cool horror pic The Cabin In The Woods in the bank, but that was a co-writing/producing credit caught up in the same MGM meltdown that so severely delayed the new Bond and Hobbit movies.

So it would have been all too easy to imagine Marvel’s mighty moneymen scratching their heads and wondering why The Avengers was to be directed by someone who, at first glance, wouldn’t know a tentpole from a in the ground.

But to say that would be to not know a thing about Joss Whedon. For the 47 year-old New Yorker has been deeply involved in the blockbuster scene for the last decade in his capacity as one of the best screenwritters, and script doctors, in the biz. In fact, you might have quoted a Whedon line or two without even knowing it. Toy Story, Speed, X-Men, and Captain America: The First Avenger 070 The Trainspotting Issue

have all benefitted to some degree from a Whedon stint on Final Draft - and those are just ones we know about. “I came up in the age of the summer blockbuster,” he admits. “I saw Star Wars ten times. I’m that guy. I wanted ro make summer blockbusters.”

There was just one small problem with that ambition. Nobody else wanted him to.

Recently, Whedon (“It was really my wife”) was giving his office a spring clean, and happened upon a pile of his old scripts. A large pile. “I have ten movies that I wrote that were never made,” he sighs. It’s a list that includes titles like Suspension, a Die-Hard-inspired action script set on a bridge, and Afterlife, a sci-fi thriller about a dying man whose brain is placed inside the body of a serial killer. Those who’ve read the latter say it’s one of the best unmade scripts kicking around Hollywood.

“The day after I sold Afterlife,” says Whedon, “they attached Jean-Claude Van Damme.” LWL can’t help cackling down the receiver all the way to LA, where Whedon is diving his time between promotional duties on The Cabin In The Woods and post-production on The Avengers. He takes it with good grace. “Inbetween the crying, I laughed like that too.”

It’s a story that’s indicative of the way Whedon’s Hollywood career has gone, for the most part. His first script, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, got made, “but after that, everything was a series of mostly sad experiences, either selling something that ended up not getting made, or working on something that doesn’t get made well, or having my credit taken away. It’s a very soul-crushing kind of job.”

Experinces that stomped on Whendon’s spirit included that litany of unproduceed screenplays, a script doctor stint on X-Men, where only a couple of his lines remain in the finished film, and Alien Resurrection, on which his bold sci-fi ideas were crunched by committee.

Ah, TV, the place where Whedon really made his reputation as a slinger of sharp, snappy dialogue, with a penchant for leftfield plot twists and fully

realised, quirky, recognisably human characters (“I tend to write every character as though they were the lead,” he says. “I really try to get into the head of everybody, even if I plan to kill ‘em!”). He started off with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which redressed the damage done by the risible film, but even thoufh his every move was praised and followed by his diehard fans (the Whedonites), his bad luck followed him onto the small screen. He may have vowed never to write movies for Fox, but that didn’t apply to TV, and the studio quickly put paid to Firefly, the progenitor of Serenity, which was cancelled after nine episodes and, more recently, Dollhouse, which limped through two seasons.

“I idiotically decided I would create another Fox show,” he sighs of Dollhouse. “Why I thought that would be a match, I still don’t understand. But looking back, it has some of my favourite stuff.”

Despite the pain, it was TV that gave Whedon a chance to fulfill his true ambition. He may have been a writer born, with an unpublished novelist for a mother and a screenwriter father and grandfather, but that wasn’t his sole calling.

“I never intended to find a director who understood my work,” says Whedon. “ I wanted to be the director who understood my work. I wanted to work for the studios, but every time I said I wanted to direct something, people would look at me like I’d said I want to murder a baby. It was really tough - eventually, I started Buffy as a show, partially just so I could hire myself!”

Whedon is a guy making up for lost time.

His post-Much Ado film, a supernatural thriller called In Your Eyes, is already in the works, along with an internet series.

“I sort of feel like blockbusters’ time has almost passed in this age of movies,” he says. “I think that they’ve become the language, to the detriment of all other films, that it’s very rare that you can just do an original work that’s compelling and that’s the thing everyone has to see.” He laughs, aware that his day probably involves discussion about Avengers minutiae, from Hulk skin tones to Thor’s jockstrap. “I’m just glad I got to make one.”

Di recte d by Pete r Be rg Starring Alexan de r Ska rs g å rd , Broo k ly n De cke r, R i h a n n a Rele ase d May 18

E

asy targets abound in Peter Berg’s floating hunk of honking mature cheddar, Battleship. These range from the figurative to the literal. There’s the pungent air of jingoistic military muscle flexing, a script that reads like the result of a bet to see just how straightfacedly banal its writers would dare to take it and the ear-drum bothering sound assaults that resemble nothing less than Lou Reed’s ‘Metal Machine Music’. Played backwards.

And of course, with it being ‘adapted’ from the popular Hasbro strategy game with which it shares its no-nonsense title, there’s a small fleet of hostile, flea-like extraterrestrial gunships which our plucky, clean-cut defenders of the peace get to take pot shots at.

The story is B-movie simple. Aliens arrive in spaceships. There are Navel military exercises occurring off the coast of Hawaii. The Navy need to blow the aliens to pieces before they contact their home planet for reinforcements. Fin. One of the advantages of this is that there’s very little exposition required, allowing the chronic one-liners room to breathe. Originally, the aliens were going to turn out to be good guys who were searching for fuel, though that idea seems to have been cut at the

eleventh hour and explains why these purportedly evil aliens refuse to actually kill any humans. Why these intergalactic spaceships which have flown lightyears to reach Earth are suddenly waterbound is less easy to comprehend.

So to put it lightly, Battleship has more rough edges than a sandpaper Rubik’s Cube, and maybe we’re giving it more credit than it’s due, but it’s also at times so wilfully – surreally! – distasteful, unhinged and bombastic that you can’t help but suspect that director Peter Berg contracted a case of the Verhoevens while making it.

The sweeping, eroticised shots of military hardware – culminating in a ridiculously overthe-top profile of every battleship in the film – and Taylor Kitsch’s charming, belligerent tough guy, Alex Hopper, can’t help but evoke Starship Troopers and give the faint impression that Berg may be lightly mocking his subjects.

There’s even a whimsical sub-plot involving a Navel officer with two prosthetic legs whose trainer (Alex’s girlfriend, played by curvy non-actor, Brooklyn Decker) takes him hiking on the very peak that our alien visitors are attempting to take.

Yes, even if you have lost your legs, you still have the potential to duff up space aliens.

For many (non-male) viewers, the draw of Battleship will be the debut screen performance of electropop goddess, Rihanna. Thankfully, she’s not really given enough rope with which to hang herself, her role reduced to standing in the background with a big gun and tats, some misc ass kicking and the occasional mumbled quip. Like most of the side characters, they’re in the mix purely for padding and relief.

None of them have stories or issues that need resolving.

They’re merely there to flank Kitsch in case he needs someone to bounce off of.

So yes, Battleship virtually begs you despise it, every frame haplessly offering more grist for your critical mill. There’s no way this film was intended to be taken at face value. Surely?

Anticipation.

If you had big hope for Battleship, then frankly you’re an idiot.

Enjoyment.

Strangely, subversively, thrillingly awful. But also short and simple.

In Retrospect.You wouldn’t ever

need to go there again. But maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye?

071

Dire cted by Sean An d e rs St a rring Ad am Sa n d l e r Rele ase d Ju n e 15

Donny (Adam Sandler) was the “lucky” 13year-old in 1984 who hooked up with his hot teacher... The movie picks up in present day, with Donny broke and owing $40k to the IRS and facing pending imprisonment. Once famous and wealthy after his story was made into a movie, Todd (Andy Samberg), the love child of Donny and “Hot Teacher,” has done everything he can to hide from his father.

When the son’s mother is locked up behind bars, Sandler is forced to raise his son all by himself. Let’s just say he won’t win any Father of the Year awards anytime soon.

Many years later, when Donny’s son is all grown up and is about to get married, Donny wants to reconnect with him. All those years of bad parenting will come back to haunt him. Sandler’s adult son is played by Adam Samberg.

As a last resort for cash, Donny agrees with a reality TV show reunion with Donny, Todd and “Hot Teacher” (who is still in prison for having sex with a minor). This agreement is made without Todd’s knowledge, but Donny finds that a relationship with his son is more important than staying out of jail.

There are too many hilarious scenes to mention... And I would rather leave the suspense, but let’s just say - Adam Sandler and Vanilla Ice run a train on Todd’s boss’s mother and remember

Lunell who played the hooker in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)? Well, this time, she is a stripper at a club with a 24-hour omelet bar!

The movie will most likely have a few scenes cut, that’s the point of a research screener, but the deleted scenes will definitely be worth a watch.

That’s My Boy (or whatever they will end up calling it) is well worth an opening weekend theater ticket. The movie is the most funny movie I have seen in a theater since The Hangover (2009).

Anticipation.

Sandler plays a dad whose no-good ways vanish when he connects with his kid.

Enjoyment.

It’s an Adam Sandler movie so you pretty much know how it ends.

In Retrospect. back Adam.

Is good to have you

Dire cted by Pawe l Pawl i kows ki St a rring Eth an Hawke Rele ase d Ju n e 15

A

ll amnesiac thrillers get off to an intriguing start then tend to fall away when their heroes and heroines start to recover their memories. The first half-hour of the Danish ID:A is consistently gripping, as its beautiful heroine awakes in a French river with a scar, a gun, a bag containing €2m and no identity. Her search to discover her past takes her to Denmark, Holland and back to France, and includes some agreeable suspense, a great deal of violence, some rather vague leftwing politics and some narrative holes.

A is worth a visit, as is The Woman in the Fifth, Pawel Pawlikowski’s first film since My Summer of Love seven years ago and his first thriller. Not exactly an amnesia film but pretty close, it’s based on a novel by Douglas Kennedy, the American writer resident in London, whose novel The Big Picture was filmed in France two years ago as L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie starring Romain Duris.

072 The Trainspotting Issue

Ethan Hawke plays Tom Ricks, an emotionally and sartorially frayed American university teacher and author of one novel, who goes to Paris in an attempt to patch up his failed marriage to a French woman and see his six-year-old daughter.

He wakes up in the suburbs on a bus, his suitcase and wallet stolen, and finds a room at a seedy hotel.

Thereafter nothing is as it seems. A sinister Arab confiscates his passport and gives him a curious nighttime surveillance job. He gets involved with a menacing black neighbour, a young Polish waitress, a seductive AngloRomanian femme fatale (Kristin Scott Thomas) who works as a translator, and there’s a peculiarly sordid murder. This is the nightmare territory of Cornell Woolrich, David Goodis and other American pulp authors much loved by Série noire readers, and Pawlikowski takes us on an edgy voyage au bout de la nuit.

This is Pawlikowski’s first feature film since the brilliant My Summer of Love (2004).

He’s not back to his best but there’s much to enjoy and claims that the climax is confusing are wide of the mark. The mystery being explored - it turns out - is why a loving parent might choose to take their own life. The Woman in the Fifth offers a riddle in the dark and the simple answer is haunting.

Anticipation.

Oddly languid thriller that lamentably fails to hit its stride.

Enjoyment.

Pawel takes his time racking up tension.

In Retrospect.

Ambiguous final act that clumsily undermines the suspense.

Di recte d by Bar r y Son n e n fe l d Starring Will Sm i t h , Tommy L e e Jon e s , Jo s h B r o l i n Rele ase d May 25

S

witch on your neutralyzer. Flash your retinas, and forget about what you think you thought you knew. Because Men in Black III is taking the alien-busters on a journey to the freakiest place of all: the 60’s.

The decadein-the-making sequel will see Agent J(Will Smith) time-jump to 1969, back when his partner K (Tommy Lee Jones) was a junior agent - possibly callled ‘k’ - in a bid to save his life. The hazards? A terrifying intergalactic assasin (Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement), and the very real chance of being hugged by a sweaty hippy.

“He had to come up with a new element that was very, very fresh”, says producer Walter Parkes.

“Because, let’s be honest, the second movie was not as good as the first. But time-travel lets us tell a huge story and have fun with iconic figures. Andy Warhol, who is played hysterically by Bill Hader”.

Of rumours that Castro, Jimi Hendrix and Yoko Ono will also show up, Parkes says, “Wait and see.

Just remember there’s a board in Men in Black HQ keeping an eye on all the resident aliens...”

The time-travel element may mean that this shot, featuring J and K facing off against unknown 074 The Trainspotting Issue

threat, may be the one of the few times that Smith and Jones are on screen together. However, filling the void is Josh Brolin, doing an uncanny Lee Jones impression as the younger K. “It took Tommy a moment to realise there was another actor playing his role some of the time”, recalls Parkes. “But his presence is felt throughout. This is not meant to be a serious, deep-dish movie, but it does have emotional resonance.”

Two major questions remain. What’s the deal with the horse painted to look like a zebra that was glimpsed on set during the shoot? “I cannot tell you anything about that, “Parkes stone walls. It would be a big spoiler.” And is Will Smith working on a new MIB song?” I honestly don’t know. The first one he did on his own and surprised us. So I would bet that he is and I’d bet either his son or his daughter is on it too.” Plus, we can only hope, a horse-zebra on backing vocals.

Will Smith absent from a summer tentpole since 2008’s Hancock, there’s a pent-up desire to see him back in blockbusting mode, and there’s never been a character who so plays to his strengths as does Agent J. Strong release date in the US: Memorial Day weekend.

The film is the third entry in the Men in Black film series which is based on the Malibu / Marvel comic book series The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham.

A video game based on the film has been announced being developed by Activision.

Anticipation.

Hollywood is about to find out if big Will is still its most reliably bankable star.

Enjoyment.

Funny. Acrid.

And great scenes.

In Retrospect.

Worth the wait. Don’t stay away for so long next time though, Barry.

Di recte d by Timu r Be kmamb e t ov Starring Benjam i n Wa l ke r Rele ase d Ju n e 22

T

here are alter egos, then there’s depicting the 16th President of the United States as a part-time battler of the undead. Meet... Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Born of serial genre masher-upper Seth GrahameSmith’s dark and twisted mind, it tells the tale of honest Abe being especially ‘honest’ with a number of bloodthirsty vampires, ramming his truths home via his trusty axe.

On directing duties is Wanted’s Timur Bekmambetov, and from the looks of the trailer below, it’s just as full of slow-motion special effects as you’d expect.

Playing our man Abe is relative newcomer Benjamin Walker, and alongside him stand his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), his vampire-huting mentor Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper) and Rufus Sewell as the big bad vampire.

So what do you reckon? As preposterous as

you’d hoped? Is this Johnny Cash cover acceptable in any way? Do spinning shots of men putting on top hats get you going? Or is it just the chance of seeing everyone’s favourite Republican - okay, some people’s favourite Republican - slashing vampires’ throats that you’re looking forward to?

Some fun presidential facts: when he was inaugurated, George Washington only had one tooth. Theodore Roosevelt had a photographic memory. And Abraham Lincoln was secretly a sworm enemy of vampires, dedicated to wiping them out. Okay, the first two are true, but neither of them would form a decent basis for a big old blockbuster.

Unlike the third, totally made-up fact, which inspired Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel and now Timur Bekmambetow’s upcoming action horror, in which relative newcomer Benjamin Walker plays honest Abe, before and during his Presidency, as he wages his own Civil War against bloodsucking vamps.

In this picture, he’s seen facing off against a

A Di recte d by Maiwe n n L e Be s c o Starring Nicolas D u v a u ch e l l e Rele ase d May 18

Parisian Child Protection Unit gets the gritty group-portrait treatment in “Polisse,” the third feature from mono-monikered actresshelmer Maiwenn. Crimes against minors, often vice-related, are the harrowing day-to-day reality of this motley group of cops, who face their work with a necessary dose of humor and the morethan-occasional breakdown. Though rough edges are very much part of pic’s fabric and charm, the current two-hour-plus edit is too choppy, with many sequences feeling rushed or underdeveloped. Nonetheless, this police ensembler has enough highlights to arrest savvy arthouse patrons worldwide.

Maiwenn demonstrated a flair for mixing comedy, drama, autobiographical elements and a documentary-like approach in her sophomore helming effort, “All About Actresses.” But her latest has more in common, thematically speaking, with her autobiographical directorial debut, “Forgive Me,” a crude, at times painfully honest film about a pregnant daughter’s relationship with her abusive father. The helmer’s third and by far most ambitious and complex pic, “Polisse” looks at a large group of colleagues who work for the Child Protection Unit in northern Paris. Early reels immediately throw auds into the thick of things, and characters only slowly emerge as Maiwenn

spinning sucker with what looks like a staff, but otherwise when it comes to dispatching demonic brethren, he has a different weapon choice. “He is a superhero.” says Bekmambetov, returning to the vampire well for the first time since Day Watch.

“So it gets his own unique weapon as any superhero does. And because he was a woodsman when he was very young, it is very logical and organic of him to use an axe.

Anticipation.

Based on a mashup novel with the same name.

Enjoyment.

Should be fun.

Men wearing top hats.

In Retrospect.

Tim Burton takes part in the production.

follows different cases, heated discussions over lunch and after-work gossip sessions.

The details of the vice-related cases, many of them shocking even for seasoned vets like the ones portrayed here, are not as important as the effect they have on the cops, who try to continue living their own lives as best they can while doing a job that confronts them with bottom-of-the-barrel humanity on a daily basis.

Handheld video aesthetic again imbues a nonfiction feel that augments the urgency and rawness that propel the entire film. Downbeat but unsentimental score by Stephen Warbeck is used only sparingly.

Anticipation. emotional jolts.

A powerhouse of

Enjoyment.

Packed with raw energy and visceral performances.

In Retrospect. Maiwenn trying to get out of the French borders.

075

Di recte d by Tim Bu r t o n Starring Joh n ny Dep p , Mi ch e l l e Pfe i f fe r, H e l e n a B o n h a m C a r t e r, E v a Gr e e n Rele ase d May 11

I

t’s been a little while since we saw a new pic from Dark Shadows, director Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Gothic soap opera, the most recent image being Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas Collins that arrived last month. To help fill the void, Shock Till You Drop has found a new still from European site Luces Camara Y Blog that features Depp staring down Eva Green’s character of Angelique Brouchard, the witch that cursed Barnabas into being a vampire.

Dark Shadows was adapted by Seth GrahameSmith, who knows something about looking at the horror genre with a sense of humor after writing the best-selling mash-up novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer (and writing the screenplay for the latter).

In a conversation with BadAss Digest, GrahameSmith said the tone of the movie is “soap operatic” — which makes sense considering the source material — that has a “an absurdist element to it.”

The tone of the movie is soap operatic. It’s heightened. Everything is heightened and grand.

Johnny is just dug in and big. [Starts hamming it up] “Didn’t you see? How... could you? My god, woman!” There’s an absurdist element to it. It’s 076 The Trainspotting Issue

very funny. I don’t think people are expecting it to be as funny as it is. While Grahame-Smith admits that Dark Shadows won’t be a gory exercise, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some surprises in it.

“It’s PG-13, so there’s not gore, there are no hardcore scares, but there’s some crazy Barnabas vampire s**t in this movie that will surprise people in terms of its ferocity,” said the writer.

Dark Shadows could have been made for Tim Burton. It’s kitsch (based on supernatural soap opera), it’s Gothic (the lead is a vampire), it’s retro (‘70s- set) and it has roles into which Burton regulars slot perfectly (Johnny Depp as a vampire, Helena Bonham Carter as a boozy psychiatrist and Michelle Pfeiffer as the matriarch). Whack in some stop-motion and extravagant topiary and you’ve got the lot.

“I can’t imagine anyone but Tim making this”, says producer Richard Zanuck. “It doesn’t fit any one genre exactly but it fits everything that Tim loves.” Burton is just about the safest bet in Hollywood right now, bar maybe Christopher Nolan and Michael Bay, and his power is evident on the Pinewood lot when LWL visits. An entire Maine fishing village has been constructed, just one of many enormous sets built for the movie at undisclosed but clearly

vast cost. “I don’t think every director could ask for sets of this scale”, says production designer Rick Heinrichs. “But Tim’s proven himself worth the investment.” Even in this busy blockbuster season, it’s a sound bet that he will again.

Besides Depp and Green, the cast of Dark Shadows includes Michelle Pfeiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman, Bella Heathcoate as Victoria Winters, Chloë Moretz as Carolyn Stoddard, Jonny Lee Miller as Roger Collins, Gulliver McGrath as David Collins, Jackie Earle Hayley as Willie Loomis, and Thomas McDonell as young Barnabas.

Anticipation.

Depp and Burton are back for a potent commercial combination.

Enjoyment.

Jonny Depp as a vampire and Helena Bonham Carter as a boozy psychiartrist.

In Retrospect. big surprise?

Is it the summer’s

Di recte d by Tanya We x l e r Starring Magg ie G y l l e n h aa l , H u g h Dan c y Rele ase d May 18

T

anya Wexler’s “Hysteria” feels much like what would result if one took the conceptual gist of Sara Ruhl’s sublimely witty play “In the Next Room,” put it through committee-driven script development, and aimed for the kind of boisterous costume crowdpleaser that congratulates its audience for enjoying such refined entertainment even as it panders. This fictive comedy about the real-life use of vibrators to treat Victorian ladies’ “hysterical” disorders will attract enough positive notices from the usual suspects to support ads suggesting critical consensus. But the overcalculated pic could earn a quick ancillary exit just as easily as sleeper success.

The winking tone is set by the coy announcement “This story is based on true events. Really.” Fledging physician Mortimer Granville (Hugh Dancy) is introduced being fired from his latest 1880s London post for once again insisting on progressive medical ideas (like hospital hygiene) at time when leeches and bleeding are still accepted treatments.

Desperate for a job, he lands at the door of Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce), who is doing a booming business among genteel ladies afflicted with “hysteria” -- a blanket term for practically any female complaint, especially psychological.

Dalrymple’s method consists of having them 078 The Trainspotting Issue

lay down on a table, bare legs parted behind a discreet puppet-theater curtain, and manually massaging their privates to release “nervous tension.” It is stressed this procedure is strictly therapeutic, not sexual, but then these patients probably have no idea what an orgasm is. They just know they really, really like their treatment.

Mortimer proves a quick study (though he develops hand cramps from so much friggery), even being encouraged to woo his mentor’s favored daughter, Emily (Felicity Jones), who has a thornier sibling, suffragette Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who irks Papa no end by helping the lower classes at a charity settlement house. Ahead-of-her-time “feisty” with a vengeance, she’s like Mary Poppins juggling copies of “Das Kapital” and “The Female Eunuch.”

Naturally, idealistic but convention-bound Mortimer is going to realize he wants to be this spitfire’s domestic partner rather than Emily’s dully respectable husband. But not before a lot of predictable contrivances, including a trial scene that allows the two leads to speechify points the film has already made glaringly obvious. Most of the comedy comes from Mortimer and wealthy layabout pal Edmund’s (Rupert Everett) semi-

accidental invention of the vibrator -- which saves Mortimer’s hand further stress and works hitherto undreamt wonders for Dalrymple’s clientele. In contrast with the subtle humor playwright Ruhl eked from erotic awakening under moralistically blindered circumstances, “Hysteria” offers broad laffs via stereotypes and slapstick. Dancy manages a few sly moments, and Everett is as ever a scenestealer, if barely recognizable under a beard and altered features, and with a raspy voice. But the estimable Pryce and Jones are wasted, along with many other fine thesps, while Gyllenhaal works too gratingly hard in an already strained role.

Anticipation.

Lovelly period furnishings, but drier than a Prohibition wedding.

Enjoyment.

There are one or two moments that raise interesting questions.

In Retrospect. Almost hysterically inadequate.

Di recte d by Rid l ey Sc o t t Starring Noom i R ap a c e , Mi ch a e l Fa s s b e n d e r Rele ase d Ju n e 8

W

ith its insinuations of ungodly body horror, slurps of acid, crew mutation and general interplanetary clamminess, the first trailer for Ridley Scott’s not-Alien-prequel Alien prequel encouraged us that revulsion is as much on the menu as grand sci-fi. Just as ti was 33 years ago. Scott and his studio have thus far danced around the issue of exactly how hard-hitting the completed film will be, and while a 12A or thereabouts will appall dyed-in-the-wool Alien devotees (i.e. us), it would maximise the potential audience: Alien vs. Profit, then. Speaking at Comic-Con last year, Scott hinted he had been reading two cutsal dark and really dark. “I have a responsibility to my studio,” he said of his relationship with 20th Century Fox, “but I always make sure we have both options.

You’re crazy not to. Tom (Rothman-head of Fox) and I will both look at it and decide the best way of going. I’ve fundamentally covered our ass. But there will still be naked push-ups.”

Months later, amid an intense post-production, no word has emerged on rating, but the director is confident he has matched his classic for sheer terror.

No easy thing is an era soaked in the productionline pop-gore of Saw or Hostel.

080 The Trainspotting Issue

“It’s hard to frighten people”, agrees Scott.“I think it is easier to make people laugh. I know Ricky Gervais will tell me to go fuck myself, but actually it is harder to scare. People are numb to it now. You’ve got to get dramatically cleverer.”

And that’s not just about cutting-edge 3D and CG; some approaches haven’t changed at all since those Alien days. “I’ve literally applied everything I know tot try to make this a good ride,” laughs Scott, “but mostly a guy hanging from the celling really fucking works...”

Conceived as a prequel to Scott’s 1979 science fiction horror film Alien, rewrites of Spaihts’ script

by Lindelof developed a separate story that precedes the events of Alien, but which is not directly connected to the films in the Alien franchise. According to Scott, though the film shares “strands of Alien’s DNA, so to speak”, Prometheus will explore its own mythology and universe. Principal photography began in March 2011, with filming taking place in England, Iceland, and Spain. Prometheus is scheduled for release between May 30 and June 8, 2012 in various territories through 20th Century Fox.

In the late 21st Century, the crew of the Prometheus explore the advanced civilization of an extraterrestrial race as part of a mission to uncover the origins of humanity.

Instead of creating an official website, the marketing team of Prometheus launched the film’s official page on Facebook on July 19, 2011.

This social media marketing tool has been used variously since in promoting events, news, and developments. A Twitter page for the film was also created.

Anticipation.

Scott returning to the Alien universe, but without a cynical brandname cash-in.

Enjoyment.

Feel like your part of the battle, trying to save the future of the human race.

In Retrospect. They created that

environment that totally scares the crap out of you.

Di recte d by Nadi n e L a b a k i Starring Nad in e L a b a k i Rele ase d May 11

A

wkwardly hybridizing somber politicized drama with regional humor in the style of Waking Ned Devine and Calendar Girls, Where Do We Go Now? is an ungainly follow-up to director Nadine Labaki’s 2007 Caramel. In a remote Lebanese village surrounded by mines and reachable only via a barbed wire-lined rocky bridge across a deep chasm (one of innumerable images of environmental bifurcation to mirror the area’s social schisms), Christian and Muslim men are prevented from killing each other only through the sneaky efforts of their fellow females. Tired of mourning and afraid that any minor event will trigger an eruption of hostility similar to that in the countryside’s surrounding areas, the women—led by a fetching café owner, Amal (Labaki), and the mayor’s tough-minded wife, Yvonne (Yvonne Maalouf)—work overtime to avoid catastrophe, disabling a communal TV to prevent the men from watching news reports that might inflame their fury, and breaking up squabbles over missing shoes and goats running amok in the mosque that threaten to result in senseless murder.

When such efforts aren’t enough, however, the women turn to more drastic measures—namely, hiring a group of blond Russian strippers to visit the village (under the false pretense of having been stranded by a broken-down bus) and provide libidinous distraction from thoughts of vengeful violence.

Such a cornball twist fits uneasily into the rest of Where Do We Go Now?, which for the most part operates in a more grim register, and ultimately has the effect of turning the proceedings tonally jagged and wobbly. That dissonance is also generated by an early, lyrical sequence in which Christian Amal and Muslim Rabih (Julian Farhat) steal surreptitious glances at each other across the café while imagining themselves singing and dancing together, an expressionistic moment that— like a later sing-along sequence in which the women prepare hashish-laced food and drink for the men—feels uncomfortably shoehorned into a tale that otherwise treats social-religious tensions with downbeat gravity. Labaki’s conception of men as rampaging hotheaded animals is no

A Di recte d by Ian F i t z g i b b o n Starring Andy Se r k i s Rele ase d May 4

082 The Trainspotting Issue

dolescence is often portrayed as a matter of life and death, but that’s pretty much the case in helmer Ian FitzGibbon’s coming-of-agewith-cancer romance “Death of a Superhero.” Pic sidesteps cloying sentimentality and heavy-handedness with the help of a solid cast, led by Thomas Brodie-Sangster as a budding graphic novelist whose days may be numbered, but whose imagination fills the screen with macabre cartoons fueled by anger, frustration and an artistic soul. Mix of live-action and animation could attract a youth audience, but the pic’s general appeal will lie in its honesty and touching performances.

Adapted by screenwriter Andrew McCarten from his own novel, the film relocates the story from New Zealand to Dublin (owing to the involvement of Grand Pictures and the Irish Film Board) and has the virtues of a strong cast. But its chief onscreen innovation is the way it swings between toon and live-action characters, a daredevil trapeze act that keeps it from succumbing to mawkishness and helps to distract from an otherwise fairly rudimentary narrative.

Donald (Brodie-Sangster), lank, pale and bald from chemo, imagines cartoon eruptions that feature his muscular, mute alter ego as well as his arch enemy, the Glove, a villain with syringes for fingers Brodie-Sangster has a challenging

less broad than her depiction of females as logical, coolheaded, and more or less uniformly united compatriots, though the film convincingly captures the volatile perils of attempting to maintain peace in an environment so wracked by death and hatred that any misconception or accident imperils it.

What it can’t do, however, is locate a consistent tone that might emotionally ground its melodrama, with the material eventually relegated to an uneven portrait of sectarian rage—and the selfless sacrifices required to stifle it—that never achieves either the seriousness or playfulness that it alternately seeks.

Anticipation. credentials.

Ensemble cast, solid

Enjoyment.

Doesn’t move the world but holds your attention.

In Retrospect. Immaculate style, questionable substance.

role on his hands in that Donald is not an object of pity; he’s funny and keeps things in perspective, except when his fuming anger gets the better of him, prompting the misbehavior that keeps his parents on tenterhooks. Death of a Superhero” doesn’t sugarcoat anything neither cancer nor the awkward, unpleasant ways people deal with it. In doing this, FitzGibbon has achieved something special; even a late scene, in which Donald’s friends arrange for a prostitute to ensure that Donald doesn’t die a virgin, is handled well. Much of the credit for this goes to Jessica Schwarz, playing one of the more sensitive hookers in recent cinema.

Anticipation.

A dying 15-year-old boy draws stories of an invisible superhero.

Enjoyment.

Not that much, it’s just about death and comic books.

In Retrospect.

Deeply moving story about about a kid that has cancer.

Di recte d by Ad r i an G r u n b e rg Starring Mel Gib s o n Rele ase d May 11

R

D i re ct e d b y D e n n i s L e e S t a rri n g M i ch a e l S h e e n R e l e a s e d M ay

emember Mel Gibson? Well he remembers and misses you. The past few years haven’t been all that kind to the guy, both personally and professionally, but to be fair it’s mostly his own fault. A lot has happened to Mel Gibson since he shot How I Spent My Summer Vacation in 2010. We won’t rake over those coals again, except to say that it’s given this thriller, in which Gibson’s crook, Driver (making him the third actor to play a character with that name in the last 18 months), is imprisoned in Mexico, something of an unphill struggle in the States, where it’s been renamed Get The Gringo and will be rekeased on DirecTV. Here, though, it might get more of a fair shake. Gibson co-wrote and produced, giving his former first assistant director, Adrian Grunberg, the reins proper, and it looks like a sweaty, violent mix of Peckinpah and Payback.

Promising. Adam Woodward

NEW YORK — Prodigious mental gifts prove no substitute for an intact family in Jesus Henry Christ, writer/director Dennis Lee’s amusing but scattered and unconvincing comedy about a kid genius in search of the father he never knew. A generally strong (if poorly used) cast and cartoonish vibe may connect with some moviegoers, but theatrical prospects are limited even without taking the film’s unnecessarily provocative title into account. Teen actor Jason Spevack gives an intelligent, uncutesy performance as Henry, the prodigy in question — who remembers everything he sees and started using complete sentences when he was nine months old. (CGI-enhanced scenes of his baby talk are no more believable than E*Trade’s baby brokers and significantly less funny.) Alex Capes

Di recte d by Ch r i s F i s h e r Starring Samuel L . J a ck s o n , L u ke W i l s o n Rele ase d May 4

D i re ct e d b y A n n e R e n t o n S t a rri n g K a t h l e e n T u r n e r Released June 26

W

K

hen John Fleton, a depressed suburban family man and recently fired realtor, offers to help a stranger, Richie, with his car, John is sucked into a surreal, nightmarish murder spree that forces him to question everything about his life, his mode of behavior, and the very nature of evil...

When John answers a knock at his front door, he thinks nothing of giving the man outside a hand starting his car. Richie’s car has stalled and he needs help. John’s charitable impulses lead him to offer to guide Richie to a nearby petrol station, but he has a bad feeling about this strange man. What starts as a simple trip to the petrol station turns into an extraordinary journey into darkness. Before the day is over, John will witness Richie commit violent crime after violent crime, and yet John can’t seem to disentangle himself from the dangerous lunatic. Richie, meanwhile, is desperate to explain the qualities that he believes the two men have in common and the friendship they could share.

Cleaver Patterson

084 The Trainspotting Issue

athleen Turner has one of her best screen roles in years in The Perfect Family, the new comedy/drama that recently world premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Playing a devout Catholic and suburban mom whose must reconcile her religious beliefs with her own family’s less than perfect behavior, the actress delivers a complex, sympathetic portrayal that--unlike so many cinematic depictions of religious faith--never condescends. Unfortunately, this debut feature by Anne Renton doesn’t quite find the proper tone to convey its heartfelt message.

But for all its good intentions, The Perfect Family displays a Lifetime television movie-style tidiness that is ultimately all too predictable. It’s hard not to wish that it had taken a few more chances and explored its certainly relevant themes a little more deeply.

Andy Tweddle

Di recte d by Kirk Jon e s Starring Camero n D i a z , J e n i fe r L o p e z Rele ase d May 18

T

he film, based on a screen adaptation of the bestselling book by Heidi Murkoff, follows a group of expectant parents whose lives are all somehow intertwined, no matter how different they all may seem. One of the most promising story lines is the baby-crazy author Wendy (Banks) who gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body. All of the characters – except Jennifer Lopez’s, who is adopting – are shown in various stages of pregnancy. A quote from the character is also included, and ranges from the sweets (“I can’t wait to meet my baby.”) to the funny (“If I knew I’d have a rack like this, I would have gotten knocked up years ago.” and the desperate (“I’m calling bull$#!%. Pregnancy sucks.”)

Matt Bochenski

D i re ct e d b y Jo n H u r w i t z S t a rri n g J a s o n B i gg s , S e a n n W i l l i a m S c o t t Released April 6 As the boys get back together, they find that their high school worries about getting laid and partying have been replaced with adult worries about fidelity, parenthood and careers – which doesn’t stop them from once again falling into the kind of gross-out hijinks they experienced back in the good old days. What starts out as a chance re-gathering soon devolves into an epic weekend of pranks, mishaps, sexy shenanigans - and of course, a few Pieflavored lessons on life, love, and growing older. American Reunion accomplishes what other belated sequels failed to do: capture the spirit of the original, while simultaneously updating the story to offer something fresh.

Paul Bradshaw

Di recte d by Ed u ard o Sa n ch e z Starring Alexan dra H ol d e n Rele ase d May 18

D i re ct e d b y E r i c To l e d a n o S t a rri n g F ra n c o i s C l u ze t R e l e a s e d M ay 2 5

T

I

he film grabs you from the start by opening with a scene of Molly (Lodge) recording herself holding a knife to her throat. She desperately wants to kill herself, and struggles to pull the blade before breaking down and saying, “He won’t let me…” We then go back to a much saner time in Molly’s life, and watch her marriage to Tim (Johnny Lewis). The newlyweds decide to move into Molly’s childhood home even though the house brings back countless painful memories for Molly, but she’s determined to overcome her trauma by starting a new family. However, Tim’s job as a trucker keeps him on the road, and she’s left alone to face her inner demons, and quite possibly, a real demon. Molly becomes increasingly paranoid, begins to hear noises, and her mind starts to unravel with violent and disturbing consequences.

Adam Woodward

ntouchables is the story of a quadriplegic (François Cluzet) who takes on a black ex-convict (Omar Sy) from the banlieues as his aide. Based on a real quadriplegic’s memoir, Le Deuxième Souffle (The Second Wind), the two become fast friends, each helping the other in different ways. Cluzet is firstrate as always, and less clenched than usual, playing the disabled Philippe.

Philippe hires Driss, woefully inadequate in conventional terms, because he recognizes a fellow “untouchable.” He also senses that Driss will lead him out of his gilded wheelchair and into a more lively existence. While France’s first-rate health system may provide adequate care for the disabled, integrating handicapped persons into mainstream life is something else. The government charges a penalty to companies that don’t hire the handicapped but most simply pay the penalty, or hire persons who are technically entitled to the handicapped label without being really disabled. David Jenkins 085

DANGEROUS CHEMICALS

#BACK

SECTION

087

#

VIDEO 1 #HOME Pick of the Month

La Commare Secca (1962) Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci

Starring Marisa Solinas, Allen Midgette, Giancarlo De Rosa Available May 2 he had not seen “Rashomon” at the time (which is somewhat hard to believe, since he had hung out at the Cinématheque, as he relates in the commentary track to “The Dreamers,” but not all that relevant, as I’ll discuss below).

To watch the movie as Bertolucci’s start is aided by watching the interview first. (He is fluent in English and not at all bombastic in talking about his past work.) As a whodunit, the movie is not particularly good. The answer to the whodunit question is obvious by the midpoint.

Moreover, the suspects are not all particularly interesting. The most repellant one—a very lazy, henpecked pimp called Pipito—is the most interesting, the adolescent would-be lotharios the least.

The primary interest for “La commare secca” (1961) is that it was Bernardo Bertolucci’s first movie, made when he was a second-year university student. In a 17-minute 2004 interview for the Criterion DVD, he explains that he had been an assistant on Pier Paolo Pasolini’s first movie, “Accatone.” Cinecittà backed Pasolini to make a follow-up film. Pasolini had written the story about lies and murder that was to be “La commare secca.” Pasolini had Bertolucci and Sergio Citti (who worked on many Pasolini movies, sometimes credited as a writer, sometimes as an assistant director) write a screenplay based on his story.

By the time they were done, Pasolini was preoccupied 088 The Trainspotting Issue

with making “Mamma Roma” (and managing its volcanic star, Anna Magnani) and Pasolini’s suggestion that Bertolucci direct the movie was accepted, despite Bertolucci’s youthfulness. He recalls that everyone except some of the actors was older than he was.

In the interview, he also explains that he sought to give the movie his own look with continuous camera movement (in contrast to the static setups of “Accatone”), but that the milieu and characters were so much those associated with Pasolini (as a writer before becoming a film-maker) that no one at the time noticed (and saw Pasolini as the auteur of “La commare secca”). Bertolucci also says that

The movie begins with some artsy shots of litter blowing along the banks of the Tiber. The camera discovers a corpse that is trapping some newspaper pages. The rest of the movie consists of police interrogations of males who had been in the (part of) Parco Paolino where the dead prostitute was loitering with intent the night on which she was killed. Each suspect tells what he had been doing that day and night. Unlike Kurosawa’s masterpiece “Rashomon” the flashbacks are not the divergent versions of the same event told by multiple narrators. Instead, the flashbacks show what really happened (mostly before the teller went to near to where the prostitue was).

Rather than differing from the accounts of the others, the flashbacks differ from what the stories the suspects tell. The movie is not about the difficulty of sorting out what really happened.

The flashbacks show that, even while undermining

#Mamma Roma (1962) Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini

Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani), a down-at-heel prostitute, is reunited with her 16-year-old son Ettore. She craves a better life for them both, but he’s already beginning to slide off the rails. Magnani is an icon of neo-realism. She has a face like a Roman coin and wears her emotions unashamedly, while Pasolini - who worked for both Rossellini and Felini - exhibits a free-wheeling cinematic style with some truly breathtaking long takes.

what the boys and men tell the police. Believe what you see, not what you hear is the recommended (especially in Italy) practice implicitly endorsed by the objective camera—even if it glides artistically around and sometimes looks at events from arty angles.

I don’t see any need to catalog the lies and spoil the pleasures of contrasting the particulars of what the males say they were doing with what they had been doing (thieving and pimping and hitting on women in the street rather than looking for work, etc.). In the flashbacks, it is the females who know what they want and effectively go about getting what they want as the males posture and flounder. I see this as an early instance of something of a leitmotif in Bertolucci films.

The Criterion DVD is another marvel of sending old pictures and sound into the new technology looking and sounding their best.

The Bertolucci interview is very good at establishing the context and style in which the film was made.

This fantasy avatar romance got plenty of attention on its release before disappearing from sight - maybe due to distributor jitters.

Gordon (Peter Fenton), a chain-smoking asthmatic with a taste for heroin, meets Cynthia (Sacha Horler), a sex and substance addict who proudly exposes skin botched and raw from eczema.

And ode to addled youths in aimless love, this is coercive gutter poetry.

#Schizo (1976) Directed by Pete Walker

It takes cojones to make a British slasher film called Schizo when some bloke made a little-known horror called Psycho back in the 1960. But Pete Walker has cojones - he even includes a shower scene. This is a classic so-bad-it’s-good horror film, replete with a disbelieving psychiatrist, a jilted ex-lover stalker and some truly Raimiesque moments of comedy.

#MAY

The title puzzled me. Literally, it means “the dry godmother.” That made no sense to me, but I had houseguests from Rome to ask about it. I thereby learned that “La commare secca” is a Roman metaphor for death, so that “grim reaper” is a good English metaphoric equivalent.

Directed by John Curran

Ones to Watch

The milieu of lowlifes is one about which Pasolini knew more and cared for more than Bertolucci. Bertolucci used nonactors (a common but far from universal neorealist practice) and “La commare seca” has a documentary look/ feel that is very much in the neorealist tradition (except for the camera moving as much as in a Max Ophuls movie). The pacing is slow, like later Bertolucci movies rather than like most police procedural ones. It’s definitely not a “thriller.” And, unlike most police dramas (movie and tv), it does not show the policemen at all. It shows the suspects squirming and lying and contrasts their accounts with the reality of what they did. (I think that most of them are lying to themselves to some degree, not just presenting more respectable images of their behavior and character to the police.)

#Praise (1998)

#Dobermann (1997) Directed by Jan Kounen

Studio-friendly genre fare like Tell No One is the chief export of French cinema these days. But Kounen’s crass, exciting, irrepressible and supremely violent action movie, which stars cooler-than-thou husband and wife icons of French celebrite Vincent Cassel and Monica Bellucci, recalls a time when France had no issue with excess.

089

#

VIDEO 2 #HOME Pick of the Month

The Omen (1976) Directed by Steve Biodrowski

Starring Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Billie Whitelaw Available June 6 This film of the Antichrist’s appearance on Earth was part of the 1970s trend toward big-budget, studio-produced horror (e.g., JAWS) – a trend that effectively squashed the medium-budget genre efforts from Hammer Films and American International Pictures that had dominated drive-ins and local theatres throughout the 1950s and 1960s. THE OMEN is a slick, polished, and professional thriller that combines an intriguing mystery with periodic eruptions of bloody violence; in fact, it might be considered a breakthrough in terms of mainstreaming graphic gore – general audiences flocked to theatres in droves turning it into a major hit. In retrospect, THE OMEN looks a bit mechanical and soulless. In 1976, the film benefitted from the then-current socialpolitical context, in which the End of the World seemed not only conceivable but likely. Today, there is a vague air of pandering about the storyline, a sense that the filmmakers a peddling a line of snake oil to a gullible public.

The story follows Ambassador Robert Thorn (Peck), who agrees to a suggestion that he surreptitiously adopt a child after his wife (Remick) gives birth a stillborn baby. As little Damien grows up, a series of ghastly incidents haunt the Thorn family (a nanny hangs herself; monkeys in a zoo go wild at the sight of the child, etc). A priest (Troughton) warns Ambassador Thorn that his adoptive child is actually the Antichrist, born not of a woman but a jackal (the word “jackal” is cut off in the editing, but Seltzer’s novelization of his own screenplay states it clearly). Thorn is incredulous even after the priest is skewered by a lightening rod that falls off the top of a church.

090 The Trainspotting Issue

#I’ll never die alone (2008) Directed by Dennis Fallon

Later, a photographer (Warner) reveals that photographs he has taken betray inexplicable marks that foretell the victims of this continuing series of “accidents.” Thorn and the photographer find an expert (McKern) who gives them seven daggers that are supposed to kill the Antichrist. Thorn resists using them, but the photographer (whose accidental snapshot of himself reveals that he’s the next victim) insists he will do it himself — until a plate of glass neatly severs his rolling head in slow-motion. Convinced, Thorn tries to kill Damien, but the police arrive and shoot him, leaving the demonic little child to be adopted by the President… Although THE OMEN seems to be a combination of the story of ROSEMARY’S BABY fused with the more explicit style of THE EXORCIST, the film also owes a passing debt to the “creative death” plot structure established in THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES, DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN, and THEATRE OF BLOOD. In effect, this is a fairly straightforward shocker that relies on a series of bloody jolts to deliver the scares, while using star power and lavish production values to layer a veneer of respectability over the proceedings.

Also impressive is Jerry Goldsmith’s ominous score, which uses choral voices and other techniques associated with Church music, twisting them to create a chilling sense of omnipresent evil.

Two endings were filmed. The original ending featured a child’s casket with Robert and Katherine’s, indicating Damien was also killed, but studio head Alan Ladd, Jr. said that this was a mistake, because the Devil cannot be killed. [citation needed] Ladd gave Donner additional funds to refilm the ending.

Directed by Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah will always be associated with the Wild Bunch and the violent fetishim of the New Hollywood era he helped to found.

But while Cross of Iron, his only war film, has a similar graphic chaos, it shows a sombre regard for the universal experiences of war - of lives flung out of control by events beyond one’s influence.

Following a German platoon involved in the 1943 retreat from the Russian front, it’s an elaborate denouncement of the absurdity of war.

#Don’t Look Now (1973) Directed by Nicolas Roeg

Based on a Daphne du Maurier short story and released in a double bill with Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man, Nic Roeg’s classic suppernatural chiller follows a couple seeking restoration from their grief in off-season Venice.

It’s an Oedipal chronicle of a death foretold, with a terrifying giallo-esque ending.

#JUNE

Director Richard Donner serves up the shocks with professional if impersonal craftsmanship.

All of the deaths are milked for maximum impact, particularly the decapitation of Warner’s photographer, which is not only impressive on a technical level; it’s also a great piece of montage editing, particularly building up to the event itself.

It’s to Donner’s credit that, here as elsewhere, he elicits almost as much fear from the anticipation as from the payoff.

#Cross of Iron (1977)

Ones to Watch

The cast take the story seriously, which helps the audience buy into events that could have seemed simply crude shock tactics in a lesser movie. Peck, in particular, brings his usual dignity to the role of Robert Thorn; after a career of portraying moral rectitude, it’s doubly a shock that he should be the one duped into serving as adoptive father to the Antichrist.

This ultra-earnest, well-intentioned and uniformly dreadful melodrama is about a 12-year-old girl who loses her mother in a car crash before struggling to support her bereaved and grief-striken father. Ominously ‘inspired by true story’, it’s a circus of fade to black dissolves and false-note sentiment.

Peter Boyle’s last screen role, sadly.

#X-Men: First Class(2011) Directed by Matthew Vaughn At a World War II concentration camp in occupied Poland in 1944, scientist Dr. Klaus Schmidt observes young Erik Lensherr bend a metal gate with his mind when the child is separated from his mother. In his office, Schmidt orders Lensherr to move a coin on a desk, killing his mother when he cannot; in grief and anger, Lensherr’s magnetic power manifests, killing two guards and destroying the room.

091

#

3 CULT HERO John Saxon

John Saxon (born August 5, 1936) is an American actor who has worked on over 200 projects during the span of sixty years. Saxon is most known for his work in horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Black Christmas, both of which feature Saxon as a policeman in search of the killer. He is also known for his role as Roper in the 1973 film Enter the Dragon, in which he starred with Bruce Lee and Jim Kelly.

Saxon, an Italian American, was born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Anna (née Protettore) and Antonio Orrico, a dock worker. He attended New Utrecht High School and graduated in 1953 with Stanley Abramson. He then studied acting with famous acting coach Stella Adler and broke into films in the mid-1950s, playing teenage roles. According to Robert Hofler’s 2005 biography, The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson, agent Willson saw Saxon’s picture on the cover of a detective magazine and immediately contacted the boy’s family in Brooklyn. He brought the 16year-old Orrico to Hollywood and renamed him Saxon.

After his first sizable role, as a juvenile delinquent in “Running Wild” (1955), he supported Esther Williams and George Nader in “The Unguarded Moment” (Universal, 1956), her first dramatic role since “The Hoodlum Saint” in 1946. Billing in advertising was “Co-starring the exciting new personality JOHN SAXON.” In his early career, Saxon worked with many notable directors including Vincente Minnelli, Blake Edwards, John Huston, Frank Borzage, and Otto Preminger but, despite this, never developed into a major star. In 1963, Saxon co-starred with Letícia Román in Mario Bava’s Italian giallo film,

092 The Trainspotting Issue

The Girl Who Knew Too Much. In 1966, he starred in Curtis Harrington’s Sci-Fi / Horror classic, Queen of Blood, along with Basil Rathbone and Dennis Hopper. He portrayed Marco Polo in episode 26 of The Time Tunnel (“Attack of the Barbarians”), originally airing March 10, 1967. He went on to appear primarily in supporting roles in feature films, and won a Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nomination for his portrayal of a Mexican bandit in the 1966 film The Appaloosa. He again played a Mexican, this time a revolutionary named Luis Chama, in 1972, supporting Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall in Joe Kidd. He did appear in Bruce Lee’s 1973 Hollywood debut Enter the Dragon. In 1975, he starred in several episodes of the ABC produced mega-hit series The Six Million Dollar Man playing a number of characters, including the role of Major Frederick Sloan. His roles also extended into The Bionic Woman. The actor’s likeness was later used for the Kenner action-figure doll called ‘Maskatron’ which was based on the series. Saxon played Hunt Sears, head of a breakfast cereal conglomerate, opposite Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in the 1979, Oscar-nominated film The Electric Horseman. In 1982, he appeared in the 1982 TV movie Rooster, and appeared on the last week of the game show “Whew!”

His extensive television credits include three years as Dr. Ted Stuart on the series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969-1972) and two years as Tony Cumson on Falcon Crest (1986-1988). Saxon has appeared in many Italian films, mainly in the spaghetti western and police thriller genres. Titles from these genres include One Dollar Too Many (1968) and Napoli violenta (1976). He was also the second incarnation of Dylan Hunt from the Gene Roddenberry shows called Planet Earth and Strange New World. More

recently, Saxon may be best known as a supporting player in horror films, most notably Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974) as the relatively smart leader of a bunch of dumb cops; in Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982) as the writer hero’s shifty agent; in Mitchell (1975) as the murderous union lawyer and prostitute provider Walter Deaney; in Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) as Sador; in Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) where he played a Vietnam veteran tormented because his worthless pal bit him and years later, he is starting to get the urge to do the same; in Prisoners of the Lost Universe and in Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the heroine’s (Nancy Thompson’s) father. He reprised his role in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) as he played himself in a dual role. He starred in Maximum Force (1992) as Captain Fuller.

He was a guest star on Bonanza in 1967 (“The Conquistadores”) and in 1969 (“My Friend, My Enemy”). He also appeared in From Dusk till Dawn (1995). He also played minor roles in the famous TV show The ATeam in the 1980s.

He has also starred in the Bollywood film Shalimar (1978) co-starring opposite Dharmendra. In recent years, he has been seen in a number of independent films and has appeared in several television series, perhaps most notably CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and more recently the hit Showtime series Masters of Horror.

093

ICE AGE 4: THE PLACE CONTINENTAL INSIDE BEYOND LLEWYN DRIFT THE PINES DIRECTED BY Steve Martino ETA 2012 DAVIS DIRECTED BY Ethan Coen, Joel Coen ETA 2013 DIRECTED BY Derek Cianfrance ETA 2013 News

Te c h n i c a l l y t h e e nt r y promises to be the most impressive so far. It has to be, really, with most of it playing out on the high seas.

“The ocean acts as a character”. There are new characters in abundance, too: perhaps the most significant being the piractal Captain Gutt, a quasi-orang-utan creature voiced by Peter Dinklage.

News

The Coen brothers will follow up True Grit with a look at the 1960s folk scene in Greenwhich Village. Loosely based on the book, The Mayor of MacDougal Street, by fabled New York scenester Dave Van Ronk, it will hopefully take the siblings back to the musical stylings of O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

DJANGO CLOUD UNCHAINED ATLAS DIRECTED BY Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski ETA Winter 2012

News

Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of David Mitchell’s legendary SF novel now has a release date pencilled in for October 2012, and has assembled a top-drawer cast including Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon and Halle Berry. Filming began in September.

DIRECTED BY Quentin Tarantino ETA Winter 2012

Casting

Can Django Unchained do for Kevin Costner what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta? You might just find out at the end of this year, as the 90’s superstar takes a role as an evil henchman alongside Leonardo Dicaprio’s villain in QT’s spaghetti western. Jamie Foxx plays the eponymous slave-turned-bounty hunter bent on revenge..

Casting

Ryan Gosling reunites with his Blue Valentine director for this action drama, also starrinng Bradley Cooper and Rose Byrne. Plot-wise, it sounds remarkably similar to Drive - Gosling plays a motorcycle stunt rider who commits a crime to provide for his wife and child. Keep your fingers crossed for a c racking electro-pop soundtrack.

UNTITLED BLADE RUNNER PROJECT DIRECTED BY Ridley Scott ETA 2014 Not content with revisiting the Alien franchise with Prometheus, Scott is also said to be prepping a sequel to his 1984 sci-fi classic. Rumour has it that Scott Z Burns, the screenwritter of The Bourne Ultimatum, has been tasked with working up a screenplay. Perhaps we too will finally see Cbeams glitter in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate.

Gossip

095

096 The Trainspotting Issue

THE THE AMAZING NYMPHOMANIAC SPIDER-MAN DIRECTED BY Las von Trier ETA 2013 DIRECTED BY Marc Webb ETA July 2012 News

With all the talk of how The Amazing Spider-Man sees Sony’s top franchise rebooting the superhero’s origins, it’s easy to overlook this new movie’s most obvious point of difference:its villain. So slither forward The Lizzard, a Stan Lee creation that is, in my ways, the archetypal Spider-Man bad guy:a brutish, animal-inspired nemesis brought to life when Dr. Curt creates a serum.

RUSH DIRECTED BY Ron Howard ETA 2013 Casting

Now that Ron Howard’s Dark Tower trilogy has been nixed

by Universal, the director will move onto this biopic of legendary 1970s Formula One driver Niki Lauda.

The Peter Morgan-scripted drama stars Chris Hemsworth as Lauda’s rival James Hunt. No doubt there’ll be a part for Michael Sheen in there somewhere.

THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN DIRECTED BY TBC ETA 2013 The producers of Scorsese’s Hugo and Affleck’s The Town have hired legendary Chinatown screenwritter Robert Towne to pen this World War II drama.

From the sounds of things, it won’t be a straight remake of the beloved Laurence Olivier classic, but a different take on the same story.

News

JUST KIDS DIRECTED BY TBA ETA 2013 Patti Smith is collaborating on a big-screen version of her bestselling memoir of her life as a 1970s New York punk with Gladiator scribe John Logan. No word yet on who will play Smith, or her doomed lover, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Gossip

CHILD OF GOD DIRECTED BY James Franco ETA 2014 James Franco hopes to step behind the camera and take on Cormac McCarthy’s early novel, though who knows when he’ll have time in his packed schedule to do it. The 1973 book ain’t exactly kids stuff, telling the story of a violent, necrophilic hobo as he descends into madness.

Gossip

News

Artificial Eye has bought the rights to von Trier’s latest, which, at the very least, promises to present some unique distribution problems. The idiosyncratic director has promised that The Nymphomaniac will feature full-on, hardcore pornography. Rumoured stars Willem Dafoe and Stellan Skarsgard better know what they’re in for.

THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK DIRECTED BY David O Russell ETA 2013 Casting

Russell is well and truly back in the upper echelons of the Hollywood power list, if the cast for his latest is anything to go by. Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles and Animal Kingdom’s Jackie Weaver have all signed on to the adaption of Matthew Quick’s book.

THE GAMBLER DIRECTED BY Martin Scorsese ETA 2014 Marty will reunite with his The Departed alumnus Leonardo DiCaprio and screenwriter William Monahan for this remake of Kavel Reisz’s 1974 movie. DiCaprio will take James Caan’s part. The only one unhappy about this? The original movie’s writer, James Toback, who wrote an angry open letter to Scorsese critisizing him for failing to ask him to take part.

News

THE BOURNE LEGACY DIRECTED BY Tony Gilroy ETA August 2012 News

Just as Bond returns, so does Bourne. Well, sort of. Jeremy

Renner won’t actually play the character made famous by Matt Damon, but another of the brainwashed assassins from the Treadstone programme.

Ed Norton is the villain, and Rachel Weisz the love interest. All things considered, we’re more excited about Bond.

097

LIFE OF PI ROBOPOCALYPSE TOTAL RECALL DIRECTED BY Ang Lee ETA December 2012 DIRECTED BY Steven Spielberg ETA July 2013 DIRECTED BY Len Wiseman ETA August 2012 Fox clearly has a lot of faith in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker Prize-winner, starring Tobey Maguire. The studio has given it a prime release date opposite The Hobbit’s first instalment and Brad Pitt’s World War Z. Roll on Christmas 2012, we say.

If you’re a fan of Minority Report you’ll be pleased to learn that Spielberg is going back to the future with his sci-fi pic set in the aftermath of a robot uprising. If you’re a bigger fan of Spielberg’s historical dramas, then look forward to his Abe Lincoln biopic, starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the Great Emancipator himself.

JUPITER ASCENDING DIRECTED BY Andy Wachowsky ETA 2013

TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE DIRECTED BY Steve McQueen ETA 2013

News

Andy and Lana (nee Larry) Wachowski are set to return to the realm of the science-fiction, despite the critical mauling they got the last time they went there (Speed Racer) and the time before that (The Matrix Revolutions). Warner Bros are keeping a plot details under wraps for now, but the siblings are due a hit, aren’t they?

News

News

Shame isn’t even cool from the oven yet and McQueen and Michael Fassbender have already set forth on their next project - a period piece set in mid-1800s New York about a middle-class black man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south. Brad Pitt is in the producer’s chair and will take a role in front of the camera, too.

This baseball drama would be wholly unremarkable were it not for the news that Clint Eastwood, one of the last remaining Hollywood icons, is coming out of retirement to play the lead. Clint, last seen onscreen in 2008’s Gran Torino, will play an ageing baseball scout who travels across the country with his daughter (Sandra Bullock or possibly Amy Adams). Lorenz is the 81-year-old’s frequent producer and assitant director. Perhaps he owed him a favour?

ENDER’S GAME DIRECTED BY Gavin Hood ETA 2013 Sci-fi nerds will be alternately overjoyed and furious that one of the genre’s classic novels is finally to grace the silver screen. But who will play Ender Wiggin, the teenage prodigy in the art of intergalactic war?

Step forward Asa Butterfield, the otherworldly 14year-old star of Scorsese’s Hugo. In this succesful, expect a Harry Potter-like box office onslaughtthe novel has a total of six sequels.

Casting

098 The Trainspotting Issue

It’s an upcoming American science fiction action film remake of the 1990 film of the same name, which is based on the 1966 short story We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick. Unlike the original 1990 film, the plot of this new version lacks a trip to Mars and contains strong political influences. It is directed by Len Wiseman and written by Mark Bomback, James Vanderbilt and Kurt Wimmer. It was first announced in 2009. Colin Farrell and Jessica Biel will star as the film’s main protagonists.

Bryan Cranston and Kate Beckinsale will star as the film’s main antagonists.

News

LAST STAND TROUBLE DIRECTED BY Kim Jee-Woon ETA 2013 WITH THE News CURVE DIRECTED BY Robert Lorenz ETA 2013 News

News

Mark your diares: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the silver screen will happen in January 2013. He’ll play an elderly cop in a sleepy border town who must prevent a drug kingpin from crossing back to Mexico. Hopefully, we’ll all have forgotten about the whole love child thing by then.

WE FROZE THE FIRST MAN DIRECTED BY Errol Morris ETA Autumn 2012 The veteran documentarian turns his hand to drama, with this 1960s-set tale of birth of cryogenics. Paul Rudd takes the lead, while Stranger than Fiction director Zach Helm is on scripting duties.

News

SATORI DIRECTED BY TBC ETA 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio looks to be putting the serious fare on hold for a while. Not only is he taking the lead villain role in Tarantino’s Django Unchained, but he’s also rumoured to be taking the lead in this Bourne-alike thriller, bassed on Don Winslow’s novel. Leo as a trained assassin hunting in post-World War II Japan?We’re in.

Gossip

MOBY DICK DIRECTED BY Lynne Ramsay ETA 2013 Lynne Ramsay has newfound cache after the success of We Need to Talk About Kevin, so she’s decided to go for broke with a slightly less cerebral idea - a version of Moby Dick set in space. We’re intrigued to see what a Lynne Ramsay sci-fi might look like, and who her Captain Ahab will be. Come to think about it, Tilda Swinton would kill in the role.

News

RED LIGHTS DIRECTED BY Rodrigo Cortes ETA October 2012

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes is hot property after Buried, so it’ll be interesting to see what other tricks he has up his sleeve. The trailer certainly looks creepy, with Robert De Niro as a fraudulent psychologist under investigation by fellow shrink Sigourney Weaver. Cillian Murphy and Martha Macy May Marlene breakout star Elisabeth Olsen round out the cast.

Footage News

SKYFALL DIRECTED BY Sam Mendes ETA November 2012 Hallekujah! Bond 23 finally has a name. And yes, it sounds like skydiving action film from the 1990s, but with pedigree like this it could be called Rush Hour 5 and we’d still watch it. Craig is in the tux, sparring with Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem. And, of course, there’s a new Bond girl for him to fall in love with then treat horribly (played by French actress Berenice Marlohe). Welcome back, James.

News

099