A Cock and Bull Story

This article is about the 2006 film. For the book, see Cock and Bull. For the expression, see Coaching inn#Cock and Bull.

A Cock and Bull Story
Film poster
Directed by	Michael Winterbottom
Produced by	Andrew Eaton
Screenplay by	Frank Cottrell Boyce (as Martin Hardy)
Based on	The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Starring	Steve Coogan Rob Brydon
Music by	Michael Nyman Nino Rota
Cinematography	Marcel Zyskind
Editing by	Peter Christelis
Studio	BBC Films Baby Cow Productions EM Media East Midlands Media Initiative Revolution Films Scion Films
Distributed by	Redbus Film Distribution
Release date(s)	20 January 2006 (2006-01-20)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Box office	$3,931,982

A Cock and Bull Story (marketed in Australia and the United States as Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) is a 2006 British comedy film directed by Michael Winterbottom. It is a film-within-a-film, featuring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing themselves as egotistical actors during the making of a screen adaptation of Laurence Sterne's 18th century metafictional novel Tristram Shandy. Gillian Anderson and Keeley Hawes also play themselves in addition to their Tristram Shandy roles. Since the book is about a man attempting but failing to write his autobiography, the film takes the form of being about failing to make the film.

Plot

A Cock and Bull Story depicts Steve Coogan playing himself as an arrogant actor with low self esteem and a complicated love life. Coogan is playing the eponymous role in an adaptation of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman being filmed at a stately home. He constantly spars with actor Rob Brydon, who is playing Uncle Toby, and believes his role to be of equal importance to Coogan's, calling himself the "co-lead".

The film incorporates several sequences from Tristram Shandy. Not all of these are actually part of the film-within-the-film. The latter are limited to the story of Tristram's conception, birth and christening; Uncle Toby's experiences at the Battle of Namur; and Tristram's sudden and accidental circumcision at the age of three. In addition to these, Uncle Toby's wooing of Widow Wadnam (Gillian Anderson) takes place in a sequence dreamed by Steve Coogan; and, after the cast and crew have viewed the "completed" film, ending with Walter Shandy fainting at the sight of his wife giving birth, the question "How does the book end?" is followed by the concluding scene of the novel, in which Yorick says "It is a story about a Cock and a Bull - and the best of its kind that ever I heard!" (Yorick is not in the actual film-within-the-film; in this scene he is played by Stephen Fry, who appears elsewhere in the film as Patrick, a scholarly talking-head.)

Cast

• Steve Coogan as Tristram Shandy / Walter Shandy / Steve Coogan
• Rob Brydon as Captain Toby Shandy / Rob Brydon
• Raymond Waring as Corporal Trim / Raymond Waring
• Keeley Hawes as Elizabeth Shandy / Keeley Hawes
• Shirley Henderson as Susannah / Shirley Henderson
• Gillian Anderson as Widow Wadman / Gillian Anderson
• Dylan Moran as Dr. Slop / Dylan Moran
• David Walliams as Curate
• Stephen Fry as Parson Yorick / Patrick Curator / Stephen Fry
• Jeremy Northam as Mark (director)
• Ian Hart as Joe (writer)
• James Fleet as Simon (producer)
• Naomie Harris as Jennie
• Kelly Macdonald as Jenny
• Mark Williams as Ingoldsby
• Anthony H. Wilson as TV interviewer

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack is notable for featuring numerous excerpts from Nino Rota's score for the Federico Fellini film 8½, itself a self-reflexive work about the making of a film. Other non-diegetic musical references are made to Amarcord, The Draughtsman's Contract, Smiles of a Summer Night, Fanny and Alexander and Barry Lyndon. Michael Nyman, composer of The Draughtsman's Contract provides a new arrangement of the Handel Sarabande featured in the latter film, while the pre-existing tracks of The Draughtsman's Contract (the original soundtrack recordings—the score has been rerecorded numerous times) serve as a temp track to film of the Sterne material.

Locations

The film was recorded at a number of locations in England:^[1]

• Blickling Hall, Norfolk
• Deene Park, Northamptonshire
• Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk
• Gunthorpe Hall Norfolk
• Heydon Hall, Norfolk
• Kirby Hall, Northamptonshire
• Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire
• Quenby Hall, Leicestershire
• Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire

Reception

The film has received very positive reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 91% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 122 reviews.^[2]

Home release

A Cock and Bull Story was released on both Region 1 and Region 2 DVD in July 2006.

The Trip

The fictionalized versions of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon seen in the film reappear as the central characters in Michael Winterbottom's 2010 BBC series The Trip.^[3]

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423409/locations Filming locations for A Cock and Bull Story:
2. ^ "A Cock and Bull Story, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/tristram_shandy_a_cock_and_bull_story/. Retrieved 2010-06-07. 
3. ^ "Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan: 'We're not the big buddies people think we are'". The Guardian. 2010-10-26. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/oct/26/steve-coogan-rob-brydon. Retrieved 2010-12-07. 

External links

• A Cock and Bull Story at the Internet Movie Database
• A Cock and Bull Story at AllRovi