A Cock and Bull Story

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2005, 92 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

The inspiration behind this unorthodox film is the novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, written by the English clergyman Laurence Sterne in the years 1759–1767. The rambling novel is an English literary classic usually considered unfilmable, but Winterbottom has transformed it into a remarkably imaginative spectacle. When Tristram Shandy starts to relate his life story we find ourselves in the 18th century, but in the dramatic moment of the hero’s birth we realise that we are present at the shooting of a film. The wife and six-month-old baby of Steve Coogan, the actor playing Shandy, turn up on set, he is persecuted by a reporter, his agent appears... “In the book so much space is devoted to the actual process of writing that this was the only way to reflect it...,” says the director, whose film is also a tribute to his own favourite director, R. W. Fassbinder.

About the director

Michael Winterbottom (b. 1961, Blackburn, United Kingdom) studied film at Bristol University. In 1994 he founded the company Revolution Films together with the director and producer Andrew Eaton. His first feature film, Go Now (1995), was screened at Karlovy Vary in the Horizons section (1997), and his film version of Thomas Hardy’s novel Jude (1996) was selected for the Karlovy Vary competition in the same year. In 1999 his war drama Welcome to Sarajevo was screened at Karlovy Vary, and among his numerous other films we mention those that have been shown here at the festival: 24 Hour Party People (2001), In This World (2002), Code 46 (2003), and 9 Songs (2004).