TristramShandy Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Scenes We Love: Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Filed under: Comedy », Scenes We Love »
I've never read Laurence Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," and apparently, that's no small feat anyhow. After all, Sterne's protagonist starts out just before his birth and spends his time describing so many tangents of his existence that the book ends by the time his life has barely begun.But I was delighted by the approach with which director Michael Winterbottom and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce adapted the seemingly unfilmable novel -- by making a movie about making the movie, which itself never quite gets around to unfolding. Steve Coogan plays a version of himself who's trying to keep his supporting actor/co-lead down and his girlfriend and newborn happy, in addition to juggling the production and the press and the pressures that come with the shoot as a whole.
It's all so delightfully twisty and sly, and I suspect that it's very much keeping in spirit with Sterne's work. I'm not sure that I could pick one favorite scene (actually, maybe the bit where an exceptionally perky Gillian Anderson gets hired), but YouTube has cut my work out for me. There's only one full scene I can embed here, but it's as much a doozy as most, as Coogan acts like he's coping with a hot chestnut in his trousers, only to then try it with an actual hot chestnut (or did he?).
As for the entire movie -- which also stars Dylan Moran, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Northam, and Naomie Harris -- at least I can promise it'll only run about ninety minutes. Talk about making a long story short....
Watch the video after the jump
Cinematical Seven: Top Seven Movies Within Movies Since 2000
Filed under: Comedy », Fandom », Cinematical Seven », Lists »
It is inevitable -- any form of art will, at some point, turn inwards. Instead of focusing on other forms of life, the form will attempt to reveal itself -- whether exploratory and serious or sarcastic and mocking. In Hollywood, the camera has spun inwards countless times. Sometimes it's earnest, but most often it's a great serving of satire and irony.
There are a ton of great examples of this, from Boogie Nights to Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Strange Brew to The Big Lebowski. If I had 50 slots, I could make this comprehensive, but I only have seven. So you're getting the best mock-filled flicks of this century -- films ranging from the year 2000 all the way to 2008. Check them out after the jump, and weigh in with your picks below.
WARNING: The following videos are NSFW. They contain, among other things, violence and foul language. Watch at your own risk.
Tips for Tuesday: New to DVD on 7/11
Filed under: New on DVD », Home Entertainment »
(Last week was amazingly skimpy, and this one's only marginally more exciting.)Recent Theatricals
Basic Instinct 2 (Sony) -- We used to have only one movie about Sharon Stone's crotch. Now we have two. (director commentary, featurette, ten deleted scenes, alternate ending, "unrated" edition)
Foreign and Arty
Koko: A Talking Gorilla (Criterion) -- One of the finest documentaries you'll ever see about the relationship between man and his "lesser" cousins. (video interview with co-director Barbet Schroeder)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story (HBO) -- All I've heard is that they took an "unfilmable" book and turned it into one weird piece of cinema. Looking forward to it. (filmmaker commentary, deleted & extended scenes, interviews, behind-the-scenes featurette)
Yi Yi (Criterion) -- A three-hour family drama from China. And I hear it's pretty freaking fantastic. (audio commentary, interviews, essay booklet)
Catalog Picks
The Black Swan (Fox) -- One of those old pirate flicks from the '40s that I've always wanted to see. This one's got Tyrone Power and Maureen O'Hara. (audio commentary, restoration comparison)
Grand Prix (Warner) -- Frankenheimer was a guy's guy. And this flick is his 1966 love letter to the sport of car racing. (retrospective documentary, four featurettes)
Direct-to-Video
The Garden (Anchor Bay) -- A low-budget DTV horror movie starring Lance Henriksen. Bizarre, I know. (director commentary, featurette)
Grilled (New Line) -- Ray Romano, Kevin James, Burt Reynolds, Juliette Lewis, Jon Polito, Michael Rapaport, Kim Coates, Sofia Vergara, and Richard Libertini in a comedy about ... meat. (two featurettes, deleted scene)
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
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Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
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