Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
2005 Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Synopsis
Two actors, as their make up is applied, talk about the size of their parts. Then into the film: Laurence Sterne's unfilmable novel, Tristram Shandy, a fictive autobiography wherein the narrator, interrupted constantly, takes the entire story to be born. The film tracks between "Shandy" and behind the scenes. Size matters: parts, egos, shoes, noses. The lead's girlfriend, with their infant son, is up from London for the night, wanting sex; interruptions are constant. Scenes are shot, re-shot, and discarded. The purpose of the project is elusive. Fathers and sons; men and women; cocks and bulls. Life is amorphous, too full and too rich to be captured in one narrative.
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Coogan? Check. Brydon? Check. Gillian Anderson?!
Michael Winterbottom's delightful perceptive and twisted adaptation of a notoriously unfilmable novel delves into the complex process of filmmaking with surprising depth and humour, Fellini and Fassbinder references aplenty, and delightfully weird cameos that enjoy their on-screen time so much they become supporting characters.
I look forward to seeing this a second time as there is so much rich humour and delightful detail in what is certainly one of Michael Winterbottom's finest films. Also, give me more Coogan and Tony Wilson any day.
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I must say I enjoyed this film a great deal, but not I fear for the reasons that it probably thinks I aught to have. The film presents itself as the successful film version of an "unfilmable" novel, although I suspect the widespread agreement about its "unfilmable" status is due to the efforts of the film's own marketing team. Nevertheless, the filmmakers did manage to capture the spirit of the book in an ingenious, original, and non-literal way, but is that really such a noble occupation on its face? Is our job as filmmakers to transmute each novel to film, even the most unfilmable? Does each apt adaptation bring the medium of film one step closer to total domination over…
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Coogan plays Coogan playing Shandy playing Shandy... and possibly more levels atop that. It's the kind of story that might very easily collapse under the weight of its own complexion, but it's carried off excellently by Michael Winterbottom and an ingenious cast. Deserving to be held in regard alongside Adaptation, it's the kind of novel-to-screen jump that provides hugely incisive comment on the process itself right in the middle of doing it. An excellent turn from Dylan Moran is among the best highlights; I can't recommend this enough.
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Week one of Adapted April Challenge
I think this film relies on you liking Steve Coogan,heavily. It's the story about the making of a film adapted from an apparently unfilmable book. Coogan plays Shandy playing Shandy. It's all very meta. And it's a few years before the wonderful The Trip. His rivalry with Rob Brydon makes the film for me, even though I am not the biggest Steve Coogan fan. Lots of famous people pop up and it's all very enjoyable if a little inconsequential. Not bad start to April
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El germen de The Trip está en las esquinas de esta maravilla metalingüística, la adaptación imposible del clásico de la literatura inglesa. Si Tristram Shandy y Adaptation fueran personas en vez de películas, alguien debería presentarles para que se fueran a vivir juntos. Serían felices para siempre.
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Can you adapt an unfilmable book? Tristram Shandy says yes. This is a smart and incredibly funny mockumentary about adapting books to movies, the filmmaking process, Steve Coogan and cocks, and bulls among other things. It's not always laugh out loud funny, but there's plenty of that as well. It's one of the coolest, funniest pictures I've seen in quite a while and a huge recommendation.
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Meta movie that works best when it veers away from the Shandy adaptation & glories in the bickering egos. A good trial run for the superior The Trip.
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I really enjoyed Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in 2010's The Trip, so I decided to check out another one of their pairings. But even though they play versions of themselves here as they did in The Trip, Steve and Rob aren't together very often. The duo does open and close the film having funny conversations and doing impressions, but the plot revolves mostly around Steve.
The film opens with Steve and Rob getting makeup on and talking about the color of their teeth, "It's what they call, not white." We're then whisked on set and as the film within the film is being shot, Steve talks us through what's happening in the scene and who all the characters are.…
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Excellent! Sexy Jesus is very funny as Tristram Shandy's dad, Tristram Shandy and Steve Coogan. This has inspired me to attempt to start reading the book again (this time an annotated copy that explains what's going on... I never got the "winding the clock" business first time round).
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i didnt understand it
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Very clever, perhaps too self-consciously clever for its own good. It wasn't as funny, nor did it have the pathos of The Trip, which though thematically different covers much of the same ground (similar routines and character arc). You could say The Trip is a distilled, purer version of Coogan and Brydon's onscreen gags and personas. Nonethless, unquestionably original and inventive.
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Week one of Adapted April Challenge
I think this film relies on you liking Steve Coogan,heavily. It's the story about the making of a film adapted from an apparently unfilmable book. Coogan plays Shandy playing Shandy. It's all very meta. And it's a few years before the wonderful The Trip. His rivalry with Rob Brydon makes the film for me, even though I am not the biggest Steve Coogan fan. Lots of famous people pop up and it's all very enjoyable if a little inconsequential. Not bad start to April
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Coogan? Check. Brydon? Check. Gillian Anderson?!
Michael Winterbottom's delightful perceptive and twisted adaptation of a notoriously unfilmable novel delves into the complex process of filmmaking with surprising depth and humour, Fellini and Fassbinder references aplenty, and delightfully weird cameos that enjoy their on-screen time so much they become supporting characters.
I look forward to seeing this a second time as there is so much rich humour and delightful detail in what is certainly one of Michael Winterbottom's finest films. Also, give me more Coogan and Tony Wilson any day.
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"Tristram Shady: A Cock and Bull Story" es una cinta muy audaz ya que se siente como la pelicula que es, su detras de camaras y el propio analisis de su origen literario, todo impulsado por la brillante quimica de Steve Coogan y Rob Brydon (a quienes vimos juntos en la gran serie de "The Trip").
Debo confesar mi ignorancia del libro de "Tristram Shandy" pero se que es una obra densa, la cual nadie cree que pueda ser adaptada al cine (y que al parecer nadie en el set ha leido tampoco). La cinta tiene ese aspecto "meta" al estilo de Charlie Kaufman y cuenta con un gran reparto de actores britanicos. "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" es una obra inteligente y muy divertida. -
A great comedy that feels refreshingly genuine, no thanks to the natural talent and chemistry between Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The movie-within-a-movie element was ingeniously written to show us the layers of the story, characters and actors.
One minute we're behind the scenes, watching Steve and Rob bicker over who has a more important role. The next minute we're being treated to a fantastic interpretation of the 'unfilmable' novel, with the production itself being the films own narrative thread.
Coogan and Brydon's on screen presence alone make this an exceptionally funny and classy comedy.
Kind of preferred the more improvisational style of 'The Trip', but this film certainly didn't disappoint.