Filth was written by Irvine Welsh the writter of Trainspotting. It is typical of Welsh; Filth is an accurate title. Additionally, there is lots of fast paced dialogue; remarkable then that there is just one actor, who never leaves the stage for 1 hour 20minutes. During that time he does many different accents, regurgitated pies (it was gross) and much more; it is a crazy Welsh plot.
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# Filth
Inspired by 34 Before 34 | Is That You Darling
http://isthatyoudarling.co.uk/tag/34-before-34/
A couple I have already done and some I have booked already! Scoring a Turkey I have never done; can it be done before November?
1. Dye hair blue
Did in December.
2. Read a Stephen King book
This was a new year resolution. I have bought Insomnia.
3. Do a park run
Need to practice.
4. Go to Amsterdam
Booked.
5. Climb Arther’s seat in Edinburgh
6. See 2 more gold post boxes
Saw one in Hull need to seek another.
7. Go in a hot air ballon
8. See Bob Dylan
Booked.
9. See Greenday
Booked
10. Score a Turkey at bowling.
11. Watch love actually again
🙂 Looking Coward to
12. Watch love actually sequlae
Looking forward to.
13. Watch 8 films at the cinema
Seen:
La La Land
Manchester by Sea
Lion
50 shades
Trainspotting 2
3 more to watch! Last year only about 3 in whole year.
14. Watch Bridge of spies
15. Watch Cara Emerald
Booked
16. Do a ramblers 15mile walk
17. Get 100 total likes on blog
Got 50 so far.
18. Try a spin class
19. Publish prompts for whole of lent about homelessness.
20. Try a yoga class
22. Go to ten belly dancing classes.
Been to three so far.
23. Go to the new gelato on west st.
24. Go to the light cinema when it opens.
25. Go to the lakes.
26. Get shed for garden
27. Once have shed tidy cellar
28. Buy football ground jigsaw to do with colleagues
29. Go to one of Shef’s Oct festivals: comedy, beer or off shelf
30. Go to Peddlers market
31. Pass ski lesson 2.
32. Swim outside
33. Go on folk train
34. Go wine tasting
35. Go climbing
Choose bring old enough, to see history repeating itself. Female prime minster like; when you were a child. Spice girls, in 90s and now giving birth. More sinister the perceived threat of exclusion of sections of population like in the Holocaust.
Choose your time to be angry and engaged in politics; Brexit, Trump’s travel ban, attending demos outside town and city hall. Like those when you were growing up were angry about Thatcher, poll tax and other topics you were oblivious to at the time.
Choose brain being overloaded with usernames and passwords. Choose forgotten password option.
Choose instead of overhearing conversations at school about what cool kids are doing, seeing what ‘friends’ are up to without you from their Facebook posts; travel, nights out, weddings and children.
Choose being addicted to your phone. All so safe, alone at home, with only your phone. Choose nearly constantly, holding your phone to check e-mails, whatsapp, Facebook, step count, word games, turning heating up on Hive app.
Choose feeling superior because at least you don’t use your phone on toilet.
According to an interview I heard Trainspotting 2. was intended to be watchable by both those who had watched the original Trainspotting and those who had not. It would be interesting to hear what someone who had never seen the original thought of Trainspotting 2; whether it was understandable, whether it inspired them to see the original. What follows should not spoil either Trainspotting 1 or 2.
I had not watched the original untill 2 weeks ago, being too young to really be aware of the original at the time. I liked the second one better, it had more pace. I watched the first on my sofa, so that may have led to me losing interest towards the end; maybe I would have engaged with the film and characters if I had watched in the cinema. The first was slow and rather incorrherent and to me thin plot being more about general atmosphere ; perhapas meant to echo being in a drug induced haze. In the second the characters are not quite so drug obsessed and the plot is more coherent, the cast matured to varying degrees albeit no one living the suburban scorned by the original choose life monologue.
The updated monologue features in the trailer as images from the film flash up. Perhaps it would have been effective to bookend the film with the original and updated monologue. At the start the orignal monologue with scenes from the orignal film, to recap or acquaint with the orignal film. Then keep the audience in the cinema as the credits went up with the updated version mixed with scenes from the film as a summary, as it is in the trailer. Alas for better or worse this is not how it is in the film. In the film although delivered powerfully by MacGregegor it is not necessarily smoothly incorporated into the sequence of the film.
Choose life.
Choose facebook, twitter, instragram and hope that someone somewhere cares.
Choose looking up old flames, wishing you had done it all differently and choose history repeat itself.
Choose your future.
Choose reality tv, slut shaming, revenge porn.
Choose a zero hour contract, a two hour journey to work. And choose the same for your kids only worse. And smoother the pain with an unknown dose of an unknown drug made in somebodies kitchen.
And then take a deep breath. Your an addict so be addicted. Just be addicted to something else.
Choose the one you love.
Choose your future.
Choose life.
It does feel retrospective with talk of looking up old flames, I have read that some have thought it did not seem like an appropriate speech for the character because the character would not have been using social media but, then the point of the monologue is not to reflect their lives. The characters would be very much aware of the themes in the monologue; revenge porn, zero hour contracts etc.. The film does show them using mobiles, accurately reflecting modern life. Perhapas the addiction referred, to at the end is the addiction to phones and social media, taking pictures and communicating with ones you love albeit it can be isolating ‘hope that someone cares’.
Could anyone have written the monologue better? I have seen a website challenging people to have to better as part of a completion that closed a couple of days ago.
https://www.creativereview.co.uk/what-would-you-choose/
It seems Trainspotting for those who watched it at the time contains iconic cultural references. Politician Hannah Bardell had recently gave a speech tapping into 2017’s renewed interest in Trainspotting.
For me, I do find the new monologue thought provoking, the line ‘see history repeating’ I feel is very relevant at the moment. I’m pleased to albeit late to have an understanding of the Trainspotting phenomen. I enjoyed the music in both, which reminds me of my 90s!
My 2017 monologue, now I’m in Trainspotting spirit.
I was familiar with the opening lyrics of Iggy Pops chose life; I had probably first heard it about 20years ago so, I have had that long to hear it. But in 2017, this was my first time watching Trainspotting. At the time of release it would have gone over my head; aside from anything else I would not have know what a suppository was or I probably had not heard of or read Cosmopolition.
I can not remember hearing Perfect Day untill a year after Trainspotting. The context in the film was, so different from the charity single in 1997 that I was not sure whether it was about being out of it on heroin. I had to google it. Apparently Lou Read did have an addiction to heroin. But,reassuringly not ruining my image of the song it was written in 1972 after Read spent a day with Bettye Kronstad his then fiancée who later became his wife in Centeral Park. I also learnt Lou Read’s version was produced by Davie Bowie and Mick Robson (no relation to Mark) and that Susan Boyle covered in 2010.
Even though it was 20 years old, it could have been produced now about the 90s, albeit a 90s I did not know. I was a losing interest at about 80 minutes, but luckily it is only 90minutes long. I appreciated getting an alternative view of the world at the time of my teenage years and I’m prepared to see the sequels hoping it features 90s music!
Wonderwall 