Gosford Park (2001)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Robert Altman (idea) and
Bob Balaban (idea) ...

Release Date:

4 January 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

Tea At Four. Dinner At Eight. Murder At Midnight.

Plot:

Multiple storylined drama set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guest and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England.

Plot Keywords:

Servant | Shooting Party | Money | Murder | Country House

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 27 wins & 49 nominations

Cast

Maggie Smith	...	Constance Trentham
Michael Gambon	...	William McCordle
Kristin Scott Thomas	...	Sylvia McCordle
Camilla Rutherford	...	Isobel McCordle
Charles Dance	...	Lord Raymond Stockbridge
Geraldine Somerville	...	Louisa Stockbridge
Tom Hollander	...	Anthony Meredith
Natasha Wightman	...	Lavinia Meredith
Jeremy Northam	...	Ivor Novello
Bob Balaban	...	Morris Weissman
James Wilby	...	Freddie Nesbitt
Claudie Blakley	...	Mabel Nesbitt
Laurence Fox	...	Rupert Standish
Trent Ford	...	Jeremy Blond
Ryan Phillippe	...	Henry Denton

Also Known As:

Gosford Park (Italy)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and brief sexuality.

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

UK | USA | Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | USA:R (certificate #38606) | USA:TV-MA (TV rating) | Argentina:16 | Brazil:14 | Canada:14A | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:7 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:15 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Hall Barn, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

USA Films

Trivia:

By her own admission, Kristin Scott Thomas was famously difficult on set whilst working on the film. In an interview with a British newspaper in 2005, she said that "when I did Gosford Park (2001) with Robert Altman, apparently I was a complete nightmare. I was very imperious and completely foul and horrible. And I had no idea I was doing it at all. Actually, that's not entirely true; I did wonder why people were giving me sideways looks, and there would be this odd hush whenever I walked into a room. The only explanation I could come up with was that I was half in character the whole time. I was playing this woman who was difficult and so I became difficult. But I did apologize to everyone afterwards."

Goofs:

Continuity: When Mable informs Lady Trentham that she doesn't have a lady's maid, Mr. Nesbit lays his tea cup and saucer on the mantel. When Lady Sylvia joins the group at the table, Freddy again places his cup and saucer on the mantel.

Quotes:

[Many years ago, Sylvia and Louisa cut cards to decide which of them would marry Sir William. Louisa lost]
Constance: Anyone care for a game of bridge after dinner? Louisa, how about you?
Louisa Stockbridge: Oh, I don't think so. I've rather gone off cards. I've never been very lucky with them.
Sir William McCordle: Me too.

Movie Connections:

References A Wedding (1978)

Soundtrack:

Nuts in May

Good Work, as usual...

When Robert Altman makes a new film, it's always a noteworthy event that gets the attention of critics and audiences alike: large productions with huge ensemble casts of major Hollywood movie stars, playing real people with full, fleshed out characters, each with their own subplots that intertwine only subtly, until the end when it all finally makes sense. In Gosford Park, Altman makes only two changes to this formula: Hollywood stars are replaced by Top British talent that may be unfamiliar to most American audiences, and a straightforward murder mystery supplants his traditionally complicated plot line. It is in these changes, however, where Altman charms his audiences in a new way. The story takes place in 1932 at a gathering of aristocrats and their servants for a hunting country weekend at the estate of Sir William McCordle. Some time after all the guests are settled in and whose affairs begin to intertwine, one of them is bumped off. While all the characters are well fleshed out, it's Mary, played by Kelly Macdonald, who is the focus of the drama. She's the maid of Maggie Smith's Countess Constance of Trentham, and is being groomed to follow a path to become head servant. After the murder takes place, emotions unfold and secrets from the past are revealed that help the characters - and the audience - solve the mystery. The drama is even more punctuated when Mary's innocence and naiveté is lost as she pieces together the deeper scandal, involving servant-master sexual relations and bastard children.

One of the best aspects of film is how it illustrates that fine line dividing the master-servant social structures, and how often that line is crossed, reminding us that life is just a game of costumes and masks, and we're all the same underneath. While the story was reminiscent of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, where it's the mystery that captivates the audience, Altman goes beyond the mystery with Gosford Park by using the murder as a vehicle to draw attention to the human condition and class hierarchy.

On the downside, but to no surprise to fans of Altman's work, the movie is often hard to follow. His style of filmmaking involves entanglements of characters and subplots that don't appear to have much to do with one another at first blush, and Gosford Park takes this to the next level. Here, the murder takes place at the climax of this confusion, leaving you rather disoriented in the middle of the 2-hour-plus drama. Fortunately, the tone loosens up when a comedy-dim police inspector basically gets nowhere in his investigation, but the pieces start coming together through the other characters. The good news is that it all seems to come together in the end in a way that didn't require grasping every detail of every scene.

Despite its intricacies and confusing moments, there is so much more to Gosford Park that makes it interesting and enchanting. While it is clearly a sophisticated piece of film work with impeccable acting, directing and design, don't stress about not keeping up with it all the time. Sit back and take it in, and you'll feel satisfied in the end.