“You’re getting laughs, but it’s not making your teeth look any better.”
What’s it all about? Director Michael Winterbottom’s A COCK AND BULL STORY is a fictional attempt to shoot an adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s unfilmable novel, “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.” A COCK AND BULL STORY stars Steve Coogan as Steve Coogan playing Tristram Shandy and Walter Shandy, and Rob Brydon as Rob Brydon playing Uncle Toby.
A COCK AND BULL STORY is a film about the production of a film that is an adaptation of a novel which is notoriously believed to be unfilmable. The novel itself is on record as being one of the most self-referential works of fiction in history, so, of course, Winterbottom’s film is similarly complex. Being metatextual, however, does not restrict the film from being silly, clever and emotionally-true.
Much of the heart of Winterbottom’s film is derived from the relationship between the fictional Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Steve Coogan’s character is arrogant and self-serving to a fault. He is neglectful of his girlfriend, the mother of his child, and flirts shamelessly with other women. There are moments in A COCK AND BULL STORY when you’d like nothing more than to punch Coogan in his face. Quite a few of these moments have to do with his co-star, Rob Brydon. Their friendship is often one-sided where Brydon — much kinder, giving and self-effacing — is thrown under the bus time and time again by Coogan’s ego. Despite this, however, it is his friendship with Brydon that reins Coogan in and reminds him of what is important. After being a dick to Brydon scene after scene, Coogan eventually gets things right and does well by his friend. I could watch Coogan and Brydon talk to each other for hours — a sentiment I must share with quite a lot of people seeing as THE TRIP, a buddy/road trip programme starring the two actors, was recently produced by the BBC.
Dylan Moran, continuing to be one of my favourite people on Earth, shows up in A COCK AND BULL STORY as Dr. Slop, a poorly-wigged, slightly-mad doctor who only attends Tristram Shandy’s birth because he needs to borrow tobacco. After some prodding, Dr. Slop is convinced to perform the delivery. But he still proceeds to ignore Tristram’s in-labour mother in favour of demonstrating the use of medical equipment on fruits and vegetables. Personally, I would not transfer the responsibility of a can opener onto Dylan Moran — in character or otherwise — let alone allow him to delivery a baby. Hence the comedy this situation provides. Later, in post-production of the film, Gillian Anderson (X-FILES) asks Moran how many drinks he has a day, and Moran mumbles an unsure response. It is the best. This is why Dylan Moran is worse than any kind of teenaged peer pressure when it comes to smoking and drinking.
Notes: Directed by Michael Winterbottom; Produced by Andrew Eaton; Written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, Laurence Sterne; Starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Raymond Waring, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Gillian Anderson, Dylan Moran, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Northam, Ian Hart, James Fleet , Kelly Macdonald; Music by Michael Nyman, Nino Rota; Cinematography by Marcel Zyskind; Editing by Peter Christelis.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this movie. It’s so crazy and it works so well. It actually inspired me to read the book, which I can tell you is even weirder and crazier even than the film.
Have you seen 24 Hour Party People? Because if not, that is definitely the perfect companion to Tristram Shandy.
I actually have 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE queued up and ready to watch. I just have to get in a couple of other films before I can watch it. I’m excited!
I think this is a great film as well. My favorite scene is when David Williams aka Mr. Weasley talked about the accuracy of the battle scene in “Cold Mountain” saying that it’s absolute shite.
There’s a lot of craziness in that film. I need to revisit some of Michael Winterbottom’s films. It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.
Ha — yes. His character was unexpectedly humourous.
Just READING your paragraph on Dylan Moran makes me want to drink and smoke simultaneously. DAMMIT.
I’ve bought so many bottles of wine because of Dylan Moran. And I don’t even like wine.