|
|
| Thursday, February 9, 2006 10:44 AM |
| Reviews! |
 by Fëanor |
- Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story - Poppy and I got to see a sort of preview screening of this movie Monday night thanks to the Philadelphia Film Society (the movie is actually already in limited release, but isn't officially playing yet on any screen around here). I really enjoyed it (although poppy less so, as she was expecting something else), and I recommend it if you can manage to track it down. Be aware, however, that it's not really a traditional movie, per se. It's the story of the making of a fictional film adaptation of the actual novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Esq. The book, as I understand it (I've never read it myself), consists of Tristram trying to tell you the story of his life, but never managing to even get past his birth because he's constantly getting distracted and heading off on digressions of various sorts. The movie is done in this same flippant, postmodern spirit, with much wandering and asides and hilarity. It flips back and forth from showing us bits of the film within the film and showing us the madness of the behind-the-scenes making of the film.
British comic actor Steve Coogan is the star and main character of both films (the real one and the fake one), playing himself, as well as Tristram Shandy and Tristram's father Walter. It seems like whenever I see Coogan he's playing himself as a stuck-up bastard, or playing a narrator who speaks to the camera but who's also a character in the story. Here he gets to do it all at once, and does it all quite smashingly. Coogan's rival, friend, and comedic opponent in the film is Rob Brydon, who plays himself and Toby Shandy (Tristram's uncle). Brydon also acquits himself quite well, and Coogan and he do a great job bouncing jokes off of each other, especially in the seemingly improvisational sequences during the opening and ending credits of the film. Other stars in the movie, all of whom do a fine job, are Jeremy Northam as the director, Ian Hart as the screenwriter, Shirley Henderson as herself and the maid Susannah, Gillian Anderson as herself and Widow Wadman (love interest for Toby Shandy), and the great Stephen Fry in two small, tertiary roles.
Like I said, it's quite entertaining, and you should check it out when you can if it sounds like it's up your alley.
- Thirteen minutes of Lady Vengeance - This is the free podcast from the iTunes Music Store that I mentioned yesterday. I watched it on the train going home last night. Luckily there wasn't anything visually objectionable in it, so I didn't have to hide the screen from the people sitting behind me (although that didn't stop me from sort of angling it away from them a bit, just in case). No that there isn't plenty of disturbing stuff going on here. This is a Park Chan-wook film, after all.
I'm not clear, even after having watched them, on whether these 13 minutes are consecutive in the final film. If they are, then the film is far more complex and confusing than Park's previous work has been. I mean, I think I picked up the gist of what was going on, but...man. Anyway, I'm leaning toward the idea that these 13 minutes have been culled from the length of the film and edited together in such a way as to give you a sense of what the movie is about without giving away too much. It's hard to tell from this jumble of scenes whether Lady Vengeance is going to be a great film, but it's certainly whetted my appetite.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
