"Two Stars"
MOTW: Tristram Shandy : A Cock and Bull Story
How do you make a film of an unfilmable novel? It's been tried before, in various different ways.
The novel The Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was written by Laurence Sterne in 1760, with revisions and additions over the next ten years. It's been celebrated as way ahead of its time in a post-modern way, and is highly philosophical, witty, and odd. (Wikipedia Link) Of course, I didn't know any of this before seeing the film, I looked it up on the 'net afterwards.
So, for a story in which Tristram Shandy recounts his life in a very stream-of-consciousness type of way, jumping all over the place chronologically, telling of his family history - his father Walter and uncle Toby and what happened to them, how could this be translated to the screen? It becomes apparent after about 10 minutes into the film that it can't be... so instead, director Michael Winterbottom has gone a completely different way.
Steve Coogan plays Tristram Shandy, (also narrating the story), and his father Walter Shandy... and Steve Coogan. Rob Brydon plays Uncle Toby... and Rob Brydon. Yes, at about the 10 minute mark, the action stops being inside the Tristram Shandy story and moves to being about the film crew making the film. Mixing some of the fiction of the Tristram Shandy story with fictional portrayals of the actors playing themselves (and other somewhat recognisable actors playing various parts of the film crew), we follow Steve Coogan around trying to cope with being Tristram Shandy, Walter Shandy, a new father with his girlfriend Jenny and the baby visiting the set, having to match egos with Rob Brydon (who insists he is a co-lead, not a supporting role) chopping and changing of the script as they go (it's a long book, it couldn't possibly fit into a normal movie length), some great cameos by Dylan Moran, Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson, and quite a lot of witty banter between the 'real' actors and the on-screen characters. It's not quite as surreal as you may think, but there is the common themes echoing between Steve's life and Walter Shandy's life, which makes for a reasonable cornerstone to the plot. But most importantly of all, there's some absolutely hilarious dialogue and situations, usually mainly from Rob Brydon trying to upstage Steve Coogan. I wonder how much of that was scripted, or if the writers/director just said to the two of them "Go for it!"
A great bit is where we get a voice over saying "If you want to see the full extended version of this scene, plus others we had to shorten or cut out, please buy the DVD set when it's released". Talk about unsubtle advertising!
The trailer for this film made us laugh a lot which is why we saw the entire movie... and it was well worth it.
Odd, but justly deserved so. If you can't film an unfilmable novel, make a film about the impossibility of filming the unfilmable novel, and make it funny.
9/10
How do you make a film of an unfilmable novel? It's been tried before, in various different ways.
The novel The Life And Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman was written by Laurence Sterne in 1760, with revisions and additions over the next ten years. It's been celebrated as way ahead of its time in a post-modern way, and is highly philosophical, witty, and odd. (Wikipedia Link) Of course, I didn't know any of this before seeing the film, I looked it up on the 'net afterwards.
So, for a story in which Tristram Shandy recounts his life in a very stream-of-consciousness type of way, jumping all over the place chronologically, telling of his family history - his father Walter and uncle Toby and what happened to them, how could this be translated to the screen? It becomes apparent after about 10 minutes into the film that it can't be... so instead, director Michael Winterbottom has gone a completely different way.
Steve Coogan plays Tristram Shandy, (also narrating the story), and his father Walter Shandy... and Steve Coogan. Rob Brydon plays Uncle Toby... and Rob Brydon. Yes, at about the 10 minute mark, the action stops being inside the Tristram Shandy story and moves to being about the film crew making the film. Mixing some of the fiction of the Tristram Shandy story with fictional portrayals of the actors playing themselves (and other somewhat recognisable actors playing various parts of the film crew), we follow Steve Coogan around trying to cope with being Tristram Shandy, Walter Shandy, a new father with his girlfriend Jenny and the baby visiting the set, having to match egos with Rob Brydon (who insists he is a co-lead, not a supporting role) chopping and changing of the script as they go (it's a long book, it couldn't possibly fit into a normal movie length), some great cameos by Dylan Moran, Stephen Fry and Gillian Anderson, and quite a lot of witty banter between the 'real' actors and the on-screen characters. It's not quite as surreal as you may think, but there is the common themes echoing between Steve's life and Walter Shandy's life, which makes for a reasonable cornerstone to the plot. But most importantly of all, there's some absolutely hilarious dialogue and situations, usually mainly from Rob Brydon trying to upstage Steve Coogan. I wonder how much of that was scripted, or if the writers/director just said to the two of them "Go for it!"
A great bit is where we get a voice over saying "If you want to see the full extended version of this scene, plus others we had to shorten or cut out, please buy the DVD set when it's released". Talk about unsubtle advertising!
The trailer for this film made us laugh a lot which is why we saw the entire movie... and it was well worth it.
Odd, but justly deserved so. If you can't film an unfilmable novel, make a film about the impossibility of filming the unfilmable novel, and make it funny.
9/10