‘Tristram Shandy’ Is Crazy, Ribald, Postmodern—and Unique
by Ky N. Nguyen
Laurence Sterne’s 18th-century mock work-in-progress autobiography—“The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman”—has long been regarded as unfilmable. Over the course of nine convoluted, slapstick volumes, the title character recalls his eccentric life stories by going back in time, rambling here and there as he pleases. Ingeniously, British director Michael Winterbottom achieves the miracle of adapting the much-loved British classic—by making a film within a film about the book about writing a book.
The neurotic cast and crew also describe the novel as unfilmable: “postmodern before there was any modern to be post about.” Obviously, the nine volumes need trimming, so subplots come and go overnight. Still, there’s room to add some modern cultural references and inside jokes. Jeremy Northam acts as Winterbottom’s alter ego, the Director. The actors play themselves, plus the characters that the
y’re playing. They jockey for position, a sport led by rivals Steve Coogan (playing Tristram Shandy and his father, Walter) and Rob Brydon (playing Uncle Toby).
Mid-production, “X Files” star Gillian Anderson is written into the script and flown from America to the English countryside, where she captures the attention of the set. She gamely keeps up with the Brits, but let’s see what ends up on the cutting room floor. Confused? That pretty much sums up the state of the characters making the film within a film.
Is “Tristram Shandy” your cup of tea? Well, if you like that crazy, ribald sort of British humor, then yes it is. Regarded as vulgar by many upon original publication, the film still has a fair quotient of bawdy jokes. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t really say how well it’s translated to the silver screen, but the flavor we taste is definitely something unique, if maybe a bit odd for the mainstream. Then again, that was the prediction back in the day before the book became a bestseller in Britain and the United States.
Winterbottom continues to prove himself as one of the most versatile filmmakers today. His widely eclectic body of work includes “9 Songs,” “Code 46,” “24 Hour Party People,” “The Claim,” “Welcome to Sarajevo” and “Jude.” Next up is “The Road to Guantánamo”—a docudrama hybrid about the “Tipton Three,” British Muslims held in Guantánamo Bay for two years before being released without charges.
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
(English; 94 min.; scope)
Opens Friday, Feb. 17 including the Avalon Theatre
It premiered at AFI Silver’s EU Film Showcase.
4 stars (out of 5).
‘Fateless’: Long Time Coming
Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai, István Szabó’s longtime collaborator (“Mephisto”), finally got around to directing a movie himself after working more than 30 years in Europe and Hollywood. His patience has paid off with “Fateless,” which landed him a partnership with Nobel Literature Laureate Imre Kertész, who adapts his own book (technically “Fatelessness”) to the screen. At Kertész’s insistence, the storyline is strictly linear: a haunting, semi-autobiographical version of his own boyhood experience in Auschwitz.
Gyorgy (Marcell Nagy), a happy, secularized 14-year-old Hungarian-Jewish boy from Budapest, is swept up by fate into Buchewald. The policeman who rounds up the boys plays with them. Lovely snowflakes fall on their heads on the way to the concentration camp. We see what Gyorgy witnesses, which from his perspective can be both ordinary and surreal. Gyorgy’s viewpoint isn’t supposed to be objective—and that’s where this Holocaust movie differs from the rest.
The distinctive images are intentionally placed without context, but the viewer already knows what lies off-screen from the cinematic history of Holocaust movies. The negative juxtaposition is a bold gambit, especially when propelled by a strong score by Ennio Morricone. Even when the horrors are vividly illustrated, they’re seen as dreamlike abstractions.
Furthermore, Koltai chose the actors playing the 144 named characters, including Gyorgy, largely for their faces, which are obviously rather memorable. As expected from Koltai, the film looks great, a credit to his chosen director of photography, Gyula Pados (“Kontroll”). To some, it might even look a bit too good, considering the grim subject matter.
After being liberated, Gyorgy declines an American GI’s (Daniel Craig’s notable cameo) invitation to study in America. Back in Budapest, as an embarrassing reminder of the past, the skeletal youth doesn’t fit in. He yearns for “the happiness of the camps,” a camaraderie that he misses. He worries that he’ll forget it, and he fears for his own future happiness, still struggling to understand what is not understandable.
Fateless (Sorstalanság)
(Hungarian and German; 134 min.; scope)
Opens Fri., Feb. 3
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
It premiered as the closing night film at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
4 stars (out of 5).
‘The Conformist’: Back Again
Italian auteur Bernardo Bertolucci was at the top of his game when he made “The Conformist” (1970), a tale of a man who just wants to fit in. It’s decidedly non-linear, so the viewer has to expend some effort to pay attention to the plot line. Fully worth the trip, the visual ride basks in the exquisite light and shadows of Vittorio Storaro, one of the world’s best directors of photography—also at his peak.
Storaro supervised the restoration of the print that played at The Biograph in 1995, including the previously excised “Dance of the Blind” scene. Here’s another rare chance to see the classic on the big screen, with fully realized colors and compositions that illustrate the magic that’s possible on celluloid. The film demonstrates that the best of cinema is much more than just plot. Audiences can get that with radio.
When Mussolini gains power in 1938 Italy, upper-class professor Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) decides to become a Fascist to further his career. Joining the secret police, Clerici is assigned to contact one of his old professors, Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), now an anti-Fascist leader in Paris. Cleric makes that trip his honeymoon, bringing his lovely, shallow bride (Stefania Sandrelli). Ordered to assassinate Quadri, Clerici doesn’t know what to do—a situation further confused by the advances of Quadri’s wife (Dominique Sanda) toward both Clerici and his wife.
The Conformist (Il Conformist)
(Italian and French; 115 min.)
Opens Friday, Feb. 24
Landmark’s E Street Cinema
5 stars (out of 5).
Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.
Repertory Notes
AFI Silver Theatre
“Fellini & Masina”—featuring Italian auteur Federico Fellini’s collaborations with his actress wife, Giulietta Masina—runs through Feb. 14. “David Cronenberg: A Complete Retrospective”—featuring the Canadian filmmaker—wraps up Feb. 22. “Otto Preminger: A Centennial Celebration”—featuring the Austrian-born director—continues through Feb. 23.
(301) 495-6700, www.afi.com/Silver
Goethe-Institut
On Feb. 1, “Sleeper” screens, concluding “New Films from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.” Complementing the festival, “A Deeper Look” series showcases additional works by four of the directors on Monday nights (except Feb. 20).
(202) 289-1200, www.goethe.de/washington
Freer Gallery of Art
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Charles Lang Freer’s gift to the nation, D.W. Griffith’s “Broken Blossoms” screens on Feb. 17. The audience-drawing Iranian Film Festival continues through Feb. 26. Alireza Raisian’s “Deserted Station” (Feb. 3 and 5) is based on a story by Iranian filmmaking patriarch Abbas Kiarostami. Ali Mosaffa’s “Portrait of a Lady Far Away” (Feb. 24 and 26) is compared to Andrei Tarkovsky.
(202) 357-2700, www.asia.si.edu/events/films.asp
National Gallery of Art
In conjunction with the exhibit “Cezanne in Provence,” the “Provence et Marseilles” series (Feb. 4-19) features a variety of films set in the region from 1921 to 1970: including Marcel Pagnol’s pastoral elegies (Feb. 4-5), Jean Epstein’s experimentalism (Feb. 18), and Maurice Tourneur’s underworld melodrama (Feb. 12). On Feb. 11, note Jean Renoir’s “Toni” (1934)—itself inspired by a police file. “Renoir loved to point out that ‘Toni’ was the first unrealistic film. But what is really more striking about ‘Toni’ is its dreamlike quality ... its primordial tragedy in which the sun takes the place of fate,” wrote François Truffaut.
(202) 842-6799, www.nga.gov/programs/film.htm
— Ky N. Nguyen
