Perfect Day

‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed, is the soundtrack used when Renton suffers from an over-dose of heroin and is dragged out on to the road by the Mother Superior, waiting for a taxi to take Renton to hospital. The camera angle is seen from Renton’s point of view, appearing as if he is in his own Grave. This signifies his near death experience as when he is injected in hospital, he returns back to reality, and to life. Underworlds ‘Born Slippy’ is played while Renton embarks on his betrayal towards his friends. This provides him with the opportunity to escape. He realises this is what he needs to do and ultimately ‘choose life’. Karl Hyde, writer of ‘Born Slippy’ completed this song after a night of heavy drinking and states this song was in fact, a cry for
The film was created on a £1.5 million budget and was considered highly likely to earn the production cost. It made a huge success with a figure of £12 million in the national market, and $72 million internationally. Hill proposes Trainspotting “combines an interest in social issues (drug-taking, AIDS, poverty) with a determinedly self-conscious aesthetic style reminiscent of the French and British ‘new waves’. In experimenting with cinematic style, however, is also plays with the inherited imagery of England and Scotland” (2002: 172). London is portrayed through tourist imagery, for example, signs of Oxford Street and Picadilly Circus. This sequence also uses cliché images of ‘Britishness’, for example the London buses. These images are edited in such a way that the cuts are angled differently, and are fast paced. London is shown in daylight in comparison to the greyish and bleak Edinburgh. London is shown as a unified city, marked by multi-culturism and also shows subcultures such as the group of bikers. This is in contrast to Edinburgh with its portrayal of cultural homogeneity. London is where Renton ultimately finds his