From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Film poster
Directed by	Michael Winterbottom
Produced by	Andrew Eaton
Written by	Frank Cottrell Boyce (as Martin Hardy) Laurence Sterne(novel)
Starring	Steve Coogan Rob Brydon
Music by	Michael Nyman Nino Rota
Cinematography	Marcel Zyskind
Distributed by	Redbus Film Distribution
Release date(s)	20 January 2006 (2006-01-20)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

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 film 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. Since the book is about a man attempting but failing to write his autobiography, the film takes the form of being about failing to make the film.

Plot

A Cock and Bull Story depicts Steve Coogan playing himself as an arrogant 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!"

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
• Mark Williams – Ingoldsby
• Tony Wilson – TV interviewer (as Anthony H. Wilson)

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. Michael Nyman, composer of The Draughtsman's Contract provides a new arrangement of the Handel Sarabande featured in the latter film, while the pre-existing tracks of The Draughtsman's Contract (the original soundtrack recordings—the score has been rerecorded numerous times) serve as a temp track to film of the Sterne material.

Home release

A Cock and Bull Story was released on both Region 1 and Region 2 DVD in July 2006.

External links

• A Cock and Bull Story at the Internet Movie Database
• A Cock and Bull Story at Allmovie