4. Plot
Two actors, as their make up is applied, talk about the
size of their parts. Then into the film: Laurence
Sterne's unfilmable novel, Tristram Shandy, a fictive
autobiography wherein the narrator, interrupted
constantly, takes the entire story to be born. The film
tracks between "Shandy" and behind the scenes. Size
matters: parts, egos, shoes, noses. The lead's
girlfriend, with their infant son, is up from London for
the night, wanting sex; interruptions are constant.
Scenes are shot, re-shot, and discarded. The purpose
of the project is elusive. Fathers and sons; men and
women; cocks and bulls. Life is amorphous, too full and
too rich to be captured in one narrative.
6. Actors
Starring..
Steve Rob Keeley
Coogan Brydon Hawes
7. Facts
Directed by Michael Winterbottom.
Small budget of only 2.8 million.
Genre: Comedy
2 award wins, 1 for Michael Winterbottom (Best
foreign film)
Filmed in the midlands, UK.
Produced by BBC Films.
Certification in the UK: 15
8. Quotes
“Messy and a bit too post-modern and smart-arsed for some I'm
sure but for me it was just a great deal of fun and a lot of
laughs” – User quote.
“This is not just a movie-within-a-movie, but a movie-within-a-
movie-within-a-movie, something that sounds unbearably arch
but that is swift, funny and surprisingly unpretentious.” – A. O.
Scott
“The trouble with describing a story this complex and digressive is
that it's hard to keep it from sounding complicated and hard-
to-follow. But for a movie about movies, it's surprisingly
humanistic, cheerful and true to life.” – Carina Chocano
