Tristram Shandy

[Otto]

Life goes on - even in the movies

Whether you refer to it by its proper name, "The Life and Opinions of 
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" or prefer using the less cumbersome 
"Tristram Shandy," Laurence Sterne's 18th century novel about the 
difficulties of novel-writing is one of those books that most people 
recognize as a classic and relatively fewer people have read. The book's 
been credited with and blamed for succeeding decades of avant-garde 
literature. As one of the characters in this seemingly implausible movie 
adaptation pithily puts it, Sterne's book was "post-modern before there 
was any modern to be 'post' about."

So how in the name of Thomas Pynchon do you transform such a formidable, 
often bawdy literary artifact into a movie that's watchable, much less 
enjoyable? Well, it would seem from this film (whose subtitle, "A Cock & 
Bull Story" is borrowed from the novel's legendary last line) that 
director Michael Winterbottom and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce have 
nailed down the essence of Sterne's story about storytelling: Sometimes 
life gets in the way of whatever story you're telling. So why not make 
the distractions part of the story you're telling?
(...)
http://tinyurl.com/8f24u

BY GENE SEYMOUR
January 27, 2006
http://www.newsday.com/


	

	
		
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