Distributed by
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cert:
Cat.no: SRD93810
Running time: 91 minutes
Year: 2005
Pressing: 2006
Region(s): 2, PAL
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English Hard of Hearing
Widescreen: 1.85:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras:
Audio Commentary by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon; Tony Wilson Interview
with Steve Coogan; Deleted Scenes; Premiere Footage; Behind the Scenes
Footage; Scene Extensions.
Director:
Michael Winterbottom
Producer:
Andrew Eaton
Cast:
Tristram Shandy/Walter Shandy/Steve Coogan :Steve Coogan
Toby Shandy/Rob Brydon: Rob Brydon
Dr. Slop/Dylan Moran: Dylan Moran
Elizabeth Shandy/Keeley Hawes: Keeley Hawes
Widow Wadman/Gillian Anderson: Gillian Anderson
Jennie/The Runner: Naomie Harris
Jenny, Steve Coogan's Girlfriend: Kelly Macdonald
Mark: Jeremy Northam
Simon: James Fleet
Joe: Ian Hart
Susannah/Shirley Henderson: Shirley Henderson
Parson: David Walliams
Ingoldsby: Mark Williams
Gary: Kieran O'Brien
Patrick Curator/Parson Yorick: Stephen Fry
Lindsey: Ashley Jensen
Famously based on Laurence Sterne's 'unfilmable' 18th century novel, Tristram Shandy,
this is pretty much a free-form version of the original work, structurally
inventive, incredibly clever-clever and with a cast of colourful and
grotesque characters to die for.
So, a bit like Michael Winterbottom's last mainstream hit, 24 Hour Party
People, then, which focused on the Madchester music scene two decades ago,
rather than an English country estate three centuries earlier.
It's claustrophobic, rambling and uses comic repetition and a stop-start,
non-linear timeline as it sends up itself and its cast. So we get to see
the time of Tristram's conception and birth more than once. And we get to
hear the actors as they prepare for their roles and relax after their scenes.
Confused? You might well be.
Steve Coogan shows off his acting chops by playing three roles:
Tristram, his father Walter, and himself, 'womanizing actor Steve Coogan'.
And the rest of the ensemble also get to play themselves, with Gillian
Anderson and Rob Brydon working pretty well in this
self-referential and occasionally confusing plot device.
Other Winterbottom favourites like Kieran O'Brien (of 9 Songs
fame) and Shirley Henderson turn up, but it's perhaps the lesser known
movie actors, who have excelled on TV - from Extras' Ashley Jensen
and White Teeth's Naomie Harris to Black Books'
Dylan Moran - who grasp their moments in the spotlight wholeheartedly.
All the infighting on and off set, the bitching and flirting, in the
contemporary scenes threaten the whole project as it appears to be getting
nowhere fast. And it's all in quotation marks.
For those who can't get enough of the "movie about the making of the movie"
feel of this DVD, then it's definitely worth watching it with the Coogan and
Brydon commentary switched on. The duo are just as rambling as the film
itself and will add far more to your viewing enjoyment than all the customary
extras here like deleted and extended scenes.
Indeed, your level of satisfaction will rely very heavily on your adoration
of Coogan and your tolerance of Winterbottom and writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce's
'look how clever we've been' adaptation.
A curate's egg of a film, and some will surely find its tongue is too firmly
in its cheek, but overall it has more good points than bad. Just.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
