ADAPTING TRISTRAM SHANDY by Adria Young Submitted in ...

71 Shunga is the Japanese term for erotic art, and vividly illustrates detailed sexual acts
and functions, and especially features the qualities of both male and female genitals.
Because it takes up the entire panel, the image of Walter’s penis penetrating Elizabeth’s
vaginal cavity is, at first, hard to recognize because of the acute focus. Once it is
recognized, however, it is quite visually explicit and as true to life as erotic comics get.
72 See Chapter 1.
73 Sterne was dying of consumption while he wrote Tristram Shandy, and actually took a
trip to Europe (as the men do in the novel) in an attempt to improve his condition. This
same trip forms the basis for A Sentimental Journey (1768).
74 At least that’s all I see, anyway.
75 In an account of the pre-screening of A Cock and Bull Story at Shandy Hall on 17 June
2005, set up by Winterbottom in conjunction with the Laurence Sterne Trust, James Gow
remarks that the film “is no conventional adaptation” (Gow 10).
76 While not a reliable source, since its author is uncited, the Wikipedia entry on the film
claims that it is often “mislabled” as a “mockumentary” since conventions of even
documentary are not present in the film. I will show why, along with its place on
Wikipedia, this claim is unsubstantiated. There are certainly “mockumentary” elements in
the film.
77 The sci-fi and fantasy genres have done particularly well in the last decade; the Harry
Potter phenomenon, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the works of C.S. Lewis, and the
Twilight series are all recent examples of text-to-screen adaptations. Some adaptation
styles extract the plot and modernize the story; Cruel Intentions (1999) takes up Les
Liaisons dangereuses (1782), and several versions of Gulliver's Travels exist (starring
Ted Danson, or Jack Black).
78 Even though Marie Antoinette isn't necessarily a literary adaptation, it still “revels” in
the eighteenth century.
79 Branagh's adaptation of Hamlet, for instance, presents the text entire, for a complete
run-time. For the most part, Branagh loosely adapts the contexts of Shakespeare's plays;
Much Ado about Nothing, for instance, is set in an Italian winery, paying tribute
Shakespeare's original sources for the plot. But, the text is generally kept intact. There
may also be considerable stylistic differences between a novel adaptation and a play
adaptation.
80 Bolter and Grusin understand “authentic” experience to be the recognition of the
media.
81 Hutcheon writes that we use the same word for both the process and the product
(Hutcheon 8).
82
In an interview with Richard Porton, Winterbottom says that, “we started … with the
idea that filmmaking was analogous to Sterne’s preoccupation with writing and
playfulness” (Porton 29).
83
See Chapter 1.
84
This is the same sentiment that Winterbottom expresses in the DVD Commentary
about the film.
85
There are, of course, exceptions. A number of reviews do praise the film's ingenuity or
postmodern renderings, but such reviews are often from Film Festival or literary crowds
(Gow 15-17). General viewers and audiences be damned.
94