Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (17 July 2006)
directed by Michael Winterbottom
starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Raymond Waring, Paul Kenyon, Mary Healey, Dylan Moran, Naomie Harris, Kelly Macdonald, Gillian Anderson
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MPAA rating: Studio: Revolution Films, Newmarket Films, BBC Films, Scion Films, Baby Cow Productions, Home Box Office Script: Frank Cottrell Boyce Based on the book by: Laurence Sterne Music: Edward Nogria Running time: 94 minutes Tags: boots; circumcision; Comedy; meta films; novel adaptation; teeth Tactical strength: [7/10]
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for language and sexual content
Unless you majored in English Literature, you probably haven't read Laurence Sterne's Eighteenth Century novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Even if you did study English in college, you probably only had to read excerpts from Tristram Shandy and not the entire 700 pages. (My instructor only had us read the first three books.) As actor Steve Coogan describes in the film, Sterne produced the first postmodern novel, and remarkably, he wrote it long before modernism even existed. The novel never stays on topic, meanders from subject to subject, and comments about its own construction. Many have called Tristram Shandy the unfilmable novel, and the film acknowledges that fact and the fact that almost no one has read the entire novel.
Instead of trying to film the story line(s) from the novel, the film takes a documentary approach of the making of the film Tristram Shandy. We see several of the scenes as they would appear in the final release, but most scenes show the sets and the production crew. About half of the film follows Steve Coogan around as he deals with the various events during filming. For example, the film opens with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon in makeup discussing their roles in the film. Steve plays Tristram and Tristram's father Walter. Rob plays Tristram's uncle Captain Toby. The actors argue about whether Rob's role qualifies as a co-lead or a supporting role. Interleaved in the same conversation, Steve argues that Rob's shoes make Rob taller than Steve and Steve's character should not appear dominated by Rob's. We follow the actors to the set, where they film a scene from the novel.
From the film, We only get a glimpse of Tristram's life, but we get a good picture of Steve Coogan's character as himself. He portrays himself as needing constant ego boosts, and he has a personal assistant Jennie (Naomie Harris) to fetch his coffee and tell him how brilliantly he performed in the last scene. Steve's girlfriend Jenny (Kelly Macdonald) also visits the set, and Steve keeps trying to make time for her amid watching dailies, script meetings, press interviews, and even some actual shooting. These constant distractions from a single story line mimic Sterne's narrative where Tristram gets continually distracted from one story arc by the necessity to provide the back story for that arc, but then the back story needs its own back story, etc.
Sterne's novel makes extended commentaries on the works of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century writers and philosophers, especially Rebelais, Cervantes, Montaigne, and Locke. In this area of philosophical and literary introspection Winterbottom's film lacks the novel's depth and appeal. Instead of dealing with Locke's views of empiricism and how we come to view ourselves, we see the principle actors maneuvering ego boosts for themselves. The film touches on some of the book's ideas and even gives one interpretation of Sterne's importance in the literary tradition, but fails to engage the mind to the same extent as the novel.
Watching Tristram Shandy, you get an idea of the novel's plot, but more importantly, you get a feeling for Sterne's style in the novel. The film's self-referential presentation, the constant shifting from one subject to another, the refusal to resolve just about any issue or story arc produces the same effect in the viewer as the novel does on its readers.
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