trainspotting etc.

[Paul Murphy]

Hey,
A while back there was some talk about the film _Trainspotting_ (notably,
the scene of the protagonist going head-first into a toilet) -- saw it last
night at the Canadian premiere (yippee), and highly recommend it. Brash,
exuberant, scatological, appalling. The toilet sequence is rather
Pynchonian, though our hero Renton goes direct from viscera-encrusted bowl
into amniotic ocean (accompanied by the spacious textures of Eno's
"Apollo"), bypassing sewer completely. The film is heavily in debt to the
Scorcesean paradigm -- plenty of tough language, a nutter-character not
unlike the stock Joe Pesci role, booming-soundtrack-as-commentary,
flash-cuts, freeze-frames, distorto-lenses etc., plus there's a dollop of
Kubrickean _Clockwork Orange_ surrealism. Fun a'plenty (tho' NC17-phobic
America dictates that the director's cut has been trimmed for the NAmerican
public). Expect middle-brow moralists States-wide to quasi-earnestly debate
"the glamorization of drug abuse" summer-long.

The V. reading judders to a start tomorrow, right? Anyone leading it (since
Chris is away?) Or let's just hurl questions and observations at one
another randomly and without provocation.

Cheers,
Paul