Since the 1967 26-episode BBC production of The Forsyte
Saga, I have found myself drawn to Anglophile drawing room drama. In fact
English drama became one of the staples of my Sunday evening with Masterpiece
Theatre. Through 1971-1975’s Upstairs Downstairs, created by Jean Marsh, Eileen
Atkins, John Hawkesworth and John Whitney, with 68-episods introduced much of
America to the lives of those serving and those being served. The more recent fascination with the series
Downton Abbey (co-created by Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame) spurred me to
watch again the 2001 Robert Altman/Julian Fellowes masterpiece, Gosford Park.
Watching the film is like visiting a comfortable old friend’s
country home for a weekend while being entertained with period details and an
Agatha Christie-style story.
Director Robert Altman’s characteristic large ensemble casts, well developed characters, overlapping dialogue and
improvisation are all set in 1932 with superb production values.
The film begins
with the arrival at Gosford Park of Constance, Countess of Trentham (a glorious
Maggie Smith trying out her Countess of Grantham character in fine ironic
fashion) and her lady’s maid, Mary Maceachran (mousey Kelly Macdonald), who becomes one of the bridge characters. On the
road, they encounter actor Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), American film
producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban) and Weissman’s valet, Henry Denton (Ryan
Phillippe). Novello was a real actor from the 1930s, having appeared in Alfred
Hitchcock’s The Lodger. At the house they are welcomed by Sir William McCordle
(Michael Gambon), Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas) and their mousey
daughter Isobel (Camilla Rutherford). Other house guests (or should we say suspects?) include Lady Sylvia’s sisters and their spouses (Geraldine Sommerville, Natasha
Wightman, Charles Dance, and Tom Hollander), Freddie
Nesbitt (James Wilby) and his formerly rich wife (Claudie Blakely) and Isobel’s
suitor, Lord Rupert Standish (Laurence Fox) and his friend Jeremy Blond (Trent
Ford).
Almost all the guests and many of the servants have secrets
of their own, some of which are revealed and relevant to the plot, others just
red herrings to keep us guessing.
The downstairs servants includes Alan Bates,
Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Derek Jacobi.
Before the weekend is done, McCordle is wounded by a stray
bullet, cuts off many of the guests to his money, and then is found dead. A bumbling
and unobservant Inspector Thomas (Stephen Fry) and his trusty Constable Dexter
(Ron Webster) arrive to discover that McCordle had been poisoned AND stabbed.
One of the points of the film is that the servants are
everywhere and see everything. (In fact, in almost every scene there is a
servant.) Just like the silent and obiquitous servants, Altman’s camera moves
constantly. The group scenes were shot with two cameras so that the actors
wouldn’t play to one camera. He felt it made the acting more natural. To help
with the overlapping dialogue, Altman gave each of the actors a microphone so
boom mikes were not used. (I did find turning on the captions helped in sorting
out the dialogue and gave me many lines I would have missed.)
Julian Fellowes’ script is rich in period detail of country
manor life both upstairs and downstairs. The idea that the people’s servants
would be addressed by their employer’s name was interesting. Or having the
Countess writing thank-you notes and leaving tips for each of the servants was
a detail I had not considered.
The film holds up remarkably well, Even knowing the outcome
does not hurt the appreciation of how we learn what we do. It’s a great film,
with first rate acting, first rate script, and first rate directing.
If you are a Downton Abbey fan, see it for Maggie. You won't be disappointed.
Gosford Park (2001) *****
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