Trainspotting Analysis

The clip begins with a long shot which establishes the setting as a club, the lighting also helps us understand the setting. The clothes of Renton establish his character and the time that this film is set in, his clothes are scruffy and they look old as though they're hand-me-downs. Renton appears disheveled and just generally out of place in the club. The clip then cuts from Renton to the two men sitting apart form the rest of the club having their own discussion, with a slow zoom. The lighting around the two men is blue, for me this could mirror their conversation showing they're out in the cold with their girlfriends. The writing on the wall is an intertextual reference to A Clockwork Orange with the theme of drugs.

 

The clip then cuts to their girlfriends in the bathroom, it features an over-the-shoulder mid-shot of them looking in the mirror and talking, the use of the mirror emphasises their facial expressions and their conversation which is also what the two guys sitting on their own are talking about. Later in the clip the camera focuses on Renton and when he finally decides to join the rest of the people on the dance floor. The camera switches from a close-up of Renton's face to a two-shot of the women dancing and the disgust on their faces as Renton approaches them, the camera then changes back to a close-up of Renton's face which shows his indifference to the rejection, this called a shot-reverse-shot.

The lighting in the club alternates between green and red this is symbolic of people's emotions within the club. The green represents Renton's jealousy of the couples on the dance floor and his recovering from sickness and addiction of heroin. Also, the red compliments his narrating as he is talking about sex and the colour red is associated with lust and love. Later on in the clip you see Diane standing alone in white light, this could represent her divorced presence from the everyone else in the club. The white light may also have angelic connotations to Renton, she could represent Renton's saviour from the rest of the drunken, drugged mess of people on the dance floor.

 

As Diane leaves the club she puts on a red coat, suggesting that her attitude has changed and her character is less innocent than she appears to be in the club when she is standing in the white light. Towards the end of this part of the scene the camera cuts to a two shot of both Diane and Renton facing each other while she delivers her speech to him. In the background of this shot we see the colours red and blue. These colours between them both may be representative of the feelings they have towards each other. The blue representing the icy reaction Diane seems to have towards Renton's proposition towards her, while the red represents the sexual tension between the two.