A Cock and Bull Story
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story | |
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 Tristram Shandy film poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Winterbottom |
| Produced by | Andrew Eaton |
| Written by | Laurence Sterne (novel), Frank Cottrell Boyce (as Martin Hardy) |
| Starring | Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon |
| Music by | Michael Nyman |
| Cinematography | Marcel Zyskind |
| Distributed by | Redbus (UK) Picturehouse (USA) |
| Release date(s) | January 20, 2006 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Cock and Bull Story (released in the United States and Australia as Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) is a 2006 British comedy directed by Michael Winterbottom. It is a film-within-a-film, featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing themselves as egotistical actors during the making in a screen adaptation of Laurence Sterne's 18th century novel Tristram Shandy. Gillian Anderson and Keeley Hawes also play themselves in addition to their Tristram Shandy roles.
The film was the last in a long working relationship between Winterbottom and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce. After some dispute, Boyce decided to take his name off the script, instead using the pseudonym 'Martin Hardy'.[citation needed]
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[edit] Plot
A Cock and Bull Story depicts Steve Coogan playing himself as an egotistical actor with low self esteem and a complicated love life. Coogan is playing the titular role in an adaptation of Tristram Shandy being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby, and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's, calling himself the "co-lead".
The film incorporates several sequences from the film-within-the-film of Tristram Shandy; these are limited to the story of Tristram's conception, birth and christening; Uncle Toby's experiences at the Battle of Namur; Tristram's sudden and accidental circumcision at the age of three; and the concluding scene of the novel, in which Yorick says "It is a story about a Cock and a Bull - and the best of its kind that ever I heard!"
[edit] Exhibition
A Cock and Bull Story was released on both Region 1 and Region 2 DVD in July 2006.
[edit] Cast
- Steve Coogan – Tristram Shandy/Walter Shandy/Steve Coogan
- Rob Brydon – Captain Toby Shandy/Rob Brydon
- Keeley Hawes – Elizabeth Shandy/Keeley Hawes
- Shirley Henderson – Susannah/Shirley Henderson
- Gillian Anderson – Widow Wadman/Gillian Anderson
- Dylan Moran – Dr. Slop/Dylan Moran
- David Walliams – Curate
- Stephen Fry – Parson Yorick/Patrick Curator/Stephen Fry
- Jeremy Northam – Mark (director)
- Ian Hart – Joe (writer)
- James Fleet – Simon (producer)
- Naomie Harris – Jennie
- Kelly Macdonald – Jenny
[edit] Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is notable for featuring numerous excerpts from Nino Rota's score for the Federico Fellini film 8 1/2, itself a self-reflexive work about the making of a film. Other non-diegetic musical references are made to Amarcord, The Draughtsman's Contract, Smiles of a Summer Night and Barry Lyndon.
[edit] External links
- Official site (U.K.)
- Official site (U.S.)
- A Cock and Bull Story at the Internet Movie Database
- Seamus Sweeney Give us a real adaptation of Tristram Shandy rather than another film about film-making: Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story Social Affairs Unit Web Review, February 2006
- Slant Magazine Film Review by Keith Uhlich
- Tristram Shandy : From the book to the film (French), culture-cafe.net, July 11, 2006.
- The Neverending Story: Michael Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy, Slate.com, February 3, 2006.
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