Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2005)

I just watched this last night and it was really great! If you are a fan of Steve Coogan and/or Rob Brydon and/or director Michael Winterbottom and/or British humour you might like this! So, I was pretty kean on Winterbottom and Coogan's (and Brydon's, if only a small but quite funny role) prior collaboration 24 Hour Party People about the Madchester era of 80s new wave music. Here, they take on the unfilmable novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen, and make a great interpretation of it. What we have here is Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing a version of themselves acting in a film adaptation of an unbelievably complex (if not meandering) novel. The film starts with a simple telling of the story, but then we break off into the film production and then layers and layers are added on until the end of the film is barely the end of the production of the film within the film of the novel. You kind of have to just see it.

Coogan and Brydon.

But it's quite funny. Coogan and Brydon's escalating rivalry is hilarious to watch. After having worked on set a bunch I also enjoy seeing the behind the scenes stuff with all the crew members--including production assistants! I also enjoy this movie because it has a number of references to another film I quite enjoy: Fellini's 8 1/2. Along with the use of Nino Rota's theme for 8 1/2, Winterbottom's film has similar subject matter, and handles it in a similar way as Fellini's masterpiece. Like in 8 1/2, no one really seems to know what the film is going to look like (least of which the director!), and we are often flipping between reality, fantasy, dreams, and the diegetic world of the film without warning.

Brydon and Coogan.

There are some great scenes, especially all the ones featuring Coogan vs. Brydon, like when they compare teeth colours or Pacino impressions, or when Brydon insists Coogan help him identify how big his bald patch is. I especially enjoyed the extensive sequence where Lord Shandy, his brother, and the doctor are all downstairs in the study nonchalantly smoking pipes and pouring over historic battlefield maps, while, not out of ear-shot, Lady Shandy is literally screaming in pain (waiting for said doctor) as she is about to give birth to Tristram, it's quite hilarious (in a later scene the actress remarks about how she's been screaming for the last four days)! Have a look at the quite-funny trailer, as well!