I gather that a reading of Laurence Sterne's 18th-century novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" might
enhance one's perception of the film version, which is called "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story." However, not having read the book, and feeling confident that most viewers have not read it either, I offer this assurance: The movie is a self-referential, keenly absurd comedy with several layers of humor. Reading the novel might help you get at some of the deeper layers, but the top few are accessible to anyone. The novel itself is rendered more or less unfilmable by its wandering, stream-of-consciousness narration and near absence of plot. The main character starts out telling us about his conception and birth, then gets so distracted by tangents and afterthoughts that by the time the novel ends, he's just barely been born. The movie meanders in the same way. Just as the novel is partly about the author's attempts to write the novel, the movie is about some people's attempts to make the movie. Comparisons to "Adaptation" are highly appropriate.
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