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	Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story
	Michael Winterbottom Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, David Walliams, Jeremy Northam, Benedict Wong, Naomie Harris, Kelly Macdonald, Elizabeth Berrington, Mark Williams, Kieran O'Brien, Roger Allam, James Fleet, Ian Hart, Ronni Ancona, Stephen Fry, Gillian Anderson, Ashley Jensen 2005		So Laurence Sterne's 18th century opus The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a novel that's ill-suited to a screen adaptation. So it's a willfully self-referential, continuity-challenged work that purports to be about a man's life, even as it digresses, regresses and treats its ostensible subject as an afterthought. So, of course, Michael Winterbottom — director of such unconventional fare as "24 Hour Party People" "In This World" and "9 Songs" — has the cheek to try and lens this baby. Amazingly, he succeeds in making a delightfully convoluted film-within-a-film that says more about the movie industry and show biz than all the making-of documentaries in the DVD section of your mega-store. To anchor his interpretation, Winterbottom reunites with British comedian/actor Steve Coogan, star of "24 Hour Party People" and well known in England for his performances as self-absorbed, desperately arrogant TV host Alan Partridge. Here, Coogan plays a self-absorbed, desperately arrogant British comedian/actor named Steve Coogan who is playing Tristram Shandy in a problematic version of the book. As Coogan frets and struts his way through the shoot, he is ego unbound, whether jockeying for dominance over a rival actor (Rob Brydon), dodging the press, blanching at the late addition of a famed American actress (Gillian Anderson as herself) to the cast, or being entranced by a sexy production assistant (Naomie Harris) rather than tending to his loyal girlfriend (Kelly Macdonald) and their infant son. The script, co-written by Winterbottom and Frank Cottrell Boyce, is literate and subtle, scathing and funny; and the production is blessed by an abundance of first-rate UK players including Shirley Henderson, Jeremy Northam, Ian Hart and Stephen Fry.


	Friday, April 19, 2024





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