A COCK AND BULL STORY

UK, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.
Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Dylan Moran, Keely Hawes, Gillian Anderson, Naomie Harris, Kelly Macdonald, Jeremy Northam, James Fleet, Ian Hart, Shirley Henderson, Benedict Wong, Mark Williams, Kieran O’ Brien, Roger Allen, Ronni Ancona, Stephen Fry, Greg Wise.
Directed by Michael Winterbottom.

It sounds like a foolhardy venture to attempt to film Laurence Sterne’s 1760 inventive, picaresque novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Esq. Not only does the plotline ramble, Tristram himself, the narrator, is not born for most of the time. In pre-post-modern style, the narrative is stream of consciousness with the author playing on all kinds of literary forms, word-play, social satire and philosophising about human nature.

But prolific British director, Michael Winterbottom (who successfully filmed Thomas Hardy with 1996’s Jude) and his frequent writer, Frank Cottrell Boyce – writing together under the name Martin Hardy – have pulled it off. Their basic premises was not to transfer the novel as such to the screen (a fatal approach that has damaged many a screen adaptation of literature) but to find the cinematic equivalents of what Sterne was doing. This means that it is a film about how you might make a film of Tristram Shandy as well as a film about the making of a film of Tristram Shandy. The makers have made it contemporary – which means that in ten years time they could make another go of it with a different cast and different frames of reference and humour.

This time the stars are Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden. Coogan made his name on British television with his Alan Partridge persona (and there is a lot of joking reference to this which will be lost on those not in the know). Bryden is part of the very successful satiric show, Little Britain. There is a lot of humour about star temperament and rivalry, billing and enlarging roles and pressures on wardrobe and make-up to satisfy these unreasonable whims.

Coogan thus plays a fictional version of himself (including Kelly Macdonald as his partner with their baby on set), something of his actual self. He plays Tristram as well as his father, Walter. This means that there is a lot of humour and subtext about identity (as when Tony Wilson (whom Coogan portrayed in Winterbottom’s Twenty Four Hour Party People) interviews, as himself, Coogan, as himself and as the fictional Coogan, for an extra on the DVD edition of the film! Rob Bryden is Uncle Toby in the scenes from the book. Various British actors appear as director (Jeremy Northam), writer (Ian Hart), producer (James Fleet) and commentator (Stephen Fry) who part way through the film explains Sterne’s method for those who do not know Sterne.

When Widow Watman’s part is written out, the producers decide to ring Gillian Anderson in LA to ask her to do the role, with a five-split-screen to show all the people amicably involved in the conference link-up. Gillian Anderson does do the role but it takes place in one of Coogan’s nightmares in a special effects womb before he is born as Tristram.

And so it goes. Audiences need to be mentally alert to stay with the various time levels the film is working in, to appreciate the reflective side of the dialogue, to pick up all the jokey references, especially to movies (like a dismissal of the battle scenes in Cold Mountain). Sometimes there is laugh out loud comedy, especially a scene where Tristram has a hot chestnut down his trousers and Coogan can’t act it to make it funny. Bryden then puts a chestnut down Coogan’s trousers and Coogan is wonderfully funny at acting out what it might be like.

A Cock and Bull story is very much that, but an experiment in literary film-making that is a dare that comes off.

1.The title: as explained, visualised? A story of imagination and invention?

2.The literary status of Tristram Shandy? Laurence Sterne as an author? 18th century literature? Tristram Shandy and its experimental style? What it did as literature and variations on literary form, so this film as a cinematic version of what the novel was trying to achieve? In addition, the story of making the film?

3.The re-creation of the 18th century as well as the early 21st century? Moving in and out of each world? The different styles? The literary allusions? Language and the changes in language and vocabulary? Images of the 21st century for 18th century language? Universal humour? Philosophy, issues – and earthiness?

4.The films of Michael Winterbottom, eclectic, British, social concern? The writing of Frank Cottrell Boyce? The quality of invention?

5.The strong British cast: Steve Coogan, as himself, as Tristram Shandy, as his father? Steve Coogan’s television image, film image, personality? The real Steve Coogan versus the image? Rob Brydon and his television career? The playing on this for different perspectives on character? The allusion to real-life events – but fictionalised, especially Coogan’s marriage and relationships?

6.The rivalry between Coogan and Brydon? The opening, the makeup, the discussion about teeth? The rivalry about shoes and height? Their scenes together? Discussing who was the main star and who was the support? Show business jokes?

7.Tristram Shandy and his autobiography, the voice-over, the narration starting before his birth, the birth, the chapters, the literary forms and styles? The variety?

8.The 18th century and Tristram Shandy talking to the reader? 21st century talking to camera? Uncle Toby, the mother and father? Susanna? The midwife, the staff? The pregnant mother? Tristram Shandy at the window? The joke about the circumcision? The wound – the test and the nightmare? Uncle Toby and the European battle? His infatuation for the Widow Wadman? Dinner with the pastor? The creation of the 18th century style and the visual references?

9.The range of literary references, cinema references, to films and actors, to Hollywood? The British film industry – and so many of the cast and crew? Reviews, media, magazines and gossip? Admiration for Al Pacino?

10.The travel to Hollywood, the agent, Gillian Anderson and the invitation for her to be in the film? The split-screen technique? The east with which Gillian Anderson said yes? Her arrival, the scene? The party, the rushes, her comments? The allusions to The X-Files?

11.Steve Coogan in himself, Alan Partridge as his TV image and people assuming they were one and the same? Vanity? Sex and the columnist? The discussions about shoes, his demands, the staff having to find him better shoes? His relationship with Jenny? Jenny and the baby, care, talking to Rob Brydon? Tony Wilson? Interviewing him – and the jokes about Winterbottom’s twenty-four hour party people and Coogan portraying Wilson? The nightmares?

12.Rob Brydon and TV, the talk, rivalry, jokes and impersonations? His acting the role of Uncle Toby, the wound? The vast model of the battle and his explanations, the site of his accident – and the innuendo with Widow Wadman?

13.The crew, the director, the cast, the battle sequences, the producers and the argument about money, ringing Hollywood, the makeup artists and their talk, criticisms of the cast, costumes? Jenny and the discussions about Fassbinder? The army? The writer and the pressure on him to change? Stephen Fry brought in as an expert to explain the nature of 18th century literature and Laurence Sterne?

14.On location, style, pressures?

15.The humour, verbal and visual, farce, irony? The importance of the hot chestnut joke – as impersonated, as shown as spontaneous by Coogan? The quality of visual humour?

16.The achievement, the final meal, the discussion, Stephen Fry appearing again? An inventive experiment for relating literature and cinema?