DIRECTORS’ CUP 2011 VOTING, ROUND 3, MATCH 3: F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story)
Now I have to root for Edwin in the other match. Murnau can’t possibly lose a 3 way tie.
@ Jirin – (about the fact that The Trip carries over a lot of the same stuff) Seeing how he did it in Tristam and seeing how it works in The Trip is why I really like The Trip. He uses the comedy and the same jokes as a way to have a much more meaningful relationship between the two actors and in Tristam, there’s so much stuff that is often irrelevant to the film within a film, that much of the comedy falls flat and leaves the relationships meaningless. At least, that’s how it seems to me anyway.
Re: The Trip
I agree with Jirin that The Trip is disappointing, but I don’t hold it against Tristram Shandy. The Trip is an interesting misfire, since it was edited down to a feature film from a (much more satisfying) six-episode TV series, and the final result is an example of how editing can make something seem aimless and incohesive. In Tristram Shandy, on the other hand, the riffing is tighter, and any aimlessness in the plot is made into a statement.
Oh I can’t imagine seeing The Trip as the edited film version. It just seems like it’d be an incoherent series of Michael Caine impressions.
@ Tommy
You have no idea how right you are. :-)
The Last Laugh 1 – Tristam Shandy 0
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) – 1 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) – 0
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) – 1 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) – 0
“potentially the biggest blowout of the cup?”
Potentially the biggest blowout of BOTH DCs, haha.
However, I find it charming that most of the ratings here about Last Laugh and the general negativity towards the last 20 minutes seem to turn into positive elements in a match like this, probably because Tristram Shandy was chosen for Winterbottom. I doubt though that there’d be a different voting turnout with Jude or Butterfly’s Kiss instead of Shandy.
Mismatch.
Winterbottom is a hack imo, so this is an easy one for me:
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) – 1 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) – 0
Weird combo… but def F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) – 1 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) – 0
@Cinesthesia, Tommy
I agree with that, but my larger criticism of Tristam Shandy is more the way it beats you over the head with the concept.
Yeah, it does get a bit excessive.
. . . although, so does the novel that inspired it.
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) —1 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) —0
Calling Winterbottom a hack is just being disrespectful, but he is outmatched in this one.
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh): 1 —vs— Michael Winterbottom (Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story): 0
The Last Laugh – 1 vs. Tristram Shandy – 0
The Last Laugh 1 — Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story 0
I love how the lot of these votes have Tristram Shandy misspelled.
Hazard of copy/paste
“but my larger criticism of Tristram Shandy is more the way it beats you over the head with the concept.”
and the award for DUMBEST thing ever said on the forum…
(believe me, I’m pissed to be runner-up)
“Hazard of copy/paste”
ditto. i just copied the op. damn it.
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) 0 vs Michael Winterbottom (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) 1
The Last Laugh is visually very beautiful, but I can’t say that I find the story interesting. And I am both annoyed and pleased by the ending.
I don’t really like Michael Winterbottom, but Tristram Shandy is one of the funniest film I’ve ever seen. And I must say that I always find it fascinating when actors play themselves in a film.
The film is so full of wonderful little moments… I’ll never forget the “womb with a view.”
The Last Laugh (Murnau) – 0 // Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (Winterbottom) – 1
I consider being self-aware to be a very great thing. Tristram Shandy is a film about a film (and it’s also the film that it’s about…) that can’t capture even a little bit of a book that can’t capture even a little bit of life; it’s a dissertation on chaos in a dissertation on chaos; it’s a study of an arrogant actor yearning to be a lead stuck in the production of a film in which his main character is not yet born when it ends; it’s a pastiche of the filmmaking process, of the star system, of the whole conventional model of narrative; it’s post-modernism before modernism. Alternatively, it’s just a flick that tries to be genuinely funny and has a battle scene and a love story. It can’t do justice to the book, of course not. So it’ll do the next best thing – comment extensively on how little justice it can do to the book. It seems to beat any criticism that could be levelled at it to the punch. I think it’s some sort of masterpiece.
I sort of regret voting for 24 Hour Party People, but I think I’ll remain content with this choice.
F.W. Murnau (The Last Laugh) 1 – Michael Winterbottom (Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story) 0
The Last Laugh 1 A Cock and Bull Story 0
VOTING IS CLOSED
Who won? ;)
33 – 4
greg x
The Last Laugh 1 – Tristam Shandy 0