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Gosford Park

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Gosford Park
Original film poster
Directed byRobert Altman
Written byJulian Fellowes
Produced byRobert Altman
Bob Balaban
David Levy
StarringKelly Macdonald
Emily Watson
Maggie Smith
Helen Mirren
Clive Owen
Ryan Phillippe
Jeremy Northam
CinematographyAndrew Dunn
Music byPatrick Doyle
Distributed byUSA Films
Release dates
7 November 2001 (LFF)
26 December 2001 (limited)
4 January 2002
1 February 2001
Running time
137 minutes
Country UK
LanguageEnglish
Budget$19,800,000[1]
Box office$87,754,044[1]

Gosford Park is an Academy Award-winning 2001 film directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and producer Bob Balaban. It features an ensemble cast including Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Camilla Rutherford, Tom Hollander, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, and Richard E. Grant.

The film is set in 1932 at an English country house. A party of wealthy Britons and Americans accompanied by their servants gather at the home of Sir William McCordle for shooting weekend. A murder occurs in the middle of the night, the film presenting the murder from the servants' perspective. But rather than a simple mystery to be solved, the film uses the whodunit format to create a drama showcasing the tensions of the British class system. Many intertwining subplots detail the complex relationships among the characters, both above stairs (the wealthy guests) and below (the servants).

Plot

In the rainy November of 1932, the snobbish Constance, Countess of Trentham (Dame Maggie Smith) and her timid Scottish maid Mary Maceachran (Kelly Macdonald) travel by car from the Countess's estate to Gosford Park, her niece Lady Sylvia McCordle's estate, for a weekend hunting party. On the way there, they encounter the matinée idol Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam) and his friend, Hollywood producer Morris Weissman (Bob Balaban), who are also on their way to Gosford Park. The guests are greeted by Sir William McCordle (Sir Michael Gambon), Lady Sylvia McCordle (Kristin Scott Thomas), and their daughter Isobel (Camilla Rutherford). Besides Aunt Constance, Ivor and Morris, the guests include Sylvia's sisters Louisa (Geraldine Somerville) and Lavinia; their respective husbands, Lord Stockbridge (Charles Dance) and Commander Meredith (Tom Hollander); The Honourable Freddy Nesbitt (James Wilby) and his "common" wife Mabel (Claudie Blakley); Isobel's suitor Lord Rupert Standish (Laurence Fox); and his friend Mr. Jeremy Blond (Trent Ford). The upstairs guests also bring along their own servants; every lady has a lady's maid and every gentleman a valet. Most notably, Lord Stockbridge's valet is Robert Parks (Clive Owen), Lady Trentham's maid is Mary, and Morris Weissman's valet is Henry Denton (Ryan Phillippe). Noticeably without servants are the impoverished Freddy and Mabel Nesbitt. In secret, Freddy is blackmailing Isobel with some past secret of hers.

Downstairs, Robert and Mary are attracted to each other, and he tells her he will surprise her. At dinner, Henry Denton asks how many of the servants' parents were also in service. Most raise their hands, a notable exception being Robert, who says when pressured that he grew up in an orphanage. Henry acts suspiciously: his Scottish accent is off and he is very nosy.

The next day the upstairs men go hunting for pheasants while the ladies have brunch and make fun of Mabel. During the hunt, Sir William's ear is almost blown off by a stray shot. During the dinner service the second night, Elsie impulsively speaks out of turn to Lady Sylvia about her unfair treatment of Sir William. This behaviour reveals Elsie's relationship with Sir William and is also grounds for immediate dismissal, a fact which she is well aware of. Elsie tries to regain her composure and leaves the dining room quickly. Sir William angrily goes to the library, where Mrs. Wilson serves him a cup of coffee. However, he knocks it out of her hand and asks for whisky. Later on, we see a pair of legs walk out to put on muddy shoes, slip a missing knife out of a fire bucket, go to the study, and stab Sir William in the chest. Louisa discovers the body. Jennings calls the police who send an incompetent inspector (Stephen Fry) who puts everyone under house arrest. The inspector's competent assistant notices that there is little blood coming from the stab wound, suggesting that Sir William was already dead when he was stabbed.

That night Elsie tells Mary how she did not love Sir William but did not mind him. She also tells Mary what Sir William used to tell her: "Carpe diem, seize the day." Taking this advice, Mary runs to Robert Parks's room, saying she knows he did not kill Sir William because he would have to hate him in order to kill him. Robert replies, "Can't a man hate his own father?" He broke into the orphanage files and learned that his mother was one of Sir William's factory workers, who died shortly after childbirth. Sir William was the man who dropped him off at the orphanage. Mary tells him that he did not kill William because he was already dead from poison when Robert stabbed him. Robert grabs Mary and they kiss intensely, however Mary quickly runs back to her room after the kiss. Upstairs, Isobel gives Freddy a cheque to appease him, but Mabel forces him to show it to her and he rips it up.

The next day everyone is allowed to leave. In front of Mary, Lady Sylvia and the Countess discuss why Mrs. Croft and Mrs. Wilson are such bitter enemies: Mrs. Croft used to be a cook in one of William's factories and Mrs. Wilson was a lowly factory worker. Now that Mrs. Wilson is the head housekeeper, Mrs. Croft is jealous. The Countess asks if there is a Mr. Wilson. Lady Sylvia believes Mrs. Wilson must have been married because she used to be called Parks. Mr. Blond tells Rupert not to marry Isobel because she will not inherit Sir William's money until Lady Sylvia dies. After everyone else but Louisa and the Countess is gone, Mary confronts Mrs. Wilson and asks how Mrs. Wilson knew Robert was her son. Mrs. Wilson avoids the question but admits that she saw the picture of herself on his nightstand. She had been William's factory worker and had given up the baby in order to keep the job. William dumped many of his own illegitimate children into orphanages while telling the mothers that he had placed them as adopted children with good families. She poisoned Sir William because she anticipated that Robert would wish to kill his father. Mary asks Mrs. Wilson if she will tell Robert Parks she is his mother. Mrs. Wilson responds: "What purpose would that possibly serve?" What's important is that she has now made him untouchable: he can never be punished for the crime. When Mary perseveres, asking about her life, she retorts: "Didn't you hear me? I am the perfect servant. I have no life." After Mary leaves, Mrs. Wilson gives in to her grief, and Mrs. Croft, who is actually Mrs. Wilson's sister, consoles her, saying that at least her son is alive, while Mrs. Croft quit her factory job but her son died of scarlet fever anyway.

Cast and characters

Upstairs

File:Sir Michael Gambon.jpg
A 2007 picture of Michael Gambon, the actor who played Sir William McCordle

Downstairs

Emily Watson, shown here at the 2007 BAFTAs, played Elsie

Outsiders

  • Stephen Fry as Inspector Thompson, a policeman
  • Ron Webster as Constable Dexter, Thompson's assistant

Themes

The film is a study of the British class system during the 1930s; Stephen Fry, Inspector Thompson in the film, says that it shows the upper class's dependency on a servant class.[2] A number of secondary themes are also explored. For example, the film takes a subtle look at sexual mores during the 1930s and also touches on gay issues, such as the implied relationship between Henry and Weissman. As it is set in 1932, between World Wars I and II, the impact of the First World War is also explored in the film's screenplay.[3] It also mentions the decline of the British Empire and the peerage system. Writing for PopMatters, Cynthia Fuchs described surface appearances, rather than complex interpersonal relationships, as a theme of the film.[4]

Salon.com critic Steven Johnson notes a revival of the manor house mystery style, popularized by the writings of Agatha Christie, in the screenplay for Gosford Park. He called it a blend between this literary style and that of the 19th century novel.[5] Bob Balaban, an actor and producer for Gosford Park, says that the idea of creating a murder mystery told by the servants in the manor was an interesting one for him and Altman.[2]

Production

Actors and screenplay

In Gosford Park, as well as many other Altman films, the director had a list of actors he intended to appear in the film before it was cast formally. The film's casting director was Mary Selway, who was described by the producer David Levy as knowing many British actors.[6]

Julian Fellowes, the film's writer, says the screenplay was "not an homage to Agatha Christie, but a reworking of that genre." Altman did not want to use the script directly for the film, rather as a starting point for the actors,[2] thus Fellowes was credited not only as the film's writer but also as a technical advisor, meaning that he wrote portions of the film as it was being produced. He notes that, when writing a large scene with many actors and characters, not everything that the characters would say during the scene is scripted and instead leaves the actors to improvise other lines.[6]

Filming

Filming was conducted at Syon House for upstairs bedrooms and Wrotham Park for the exteriors, staircase, dining room and drawing room. Sound stages were built to film the scenes of the manor's downstairs area.[7] Shepperton Studios was used for off-location filming.[8]

The film was shot with two cameras, both moving perpetually in opposite directions. The cameras pointed toward no specific area, intended to cause the audience to move their eyes throughout the scene. Altman notes that most of the film's cast had experience in theatre as well as film, meaning that they had acted in situations where the view of the audience is not on one specific actor and each audience member sees a slightly different image of the players on stage.[6] Andrew Dunn, the film's cinematographer, appreciated the co-operative nature of Gosford Park's filming process. He shot the film on Kodak Kodak Vision Expression 500T film stock generally with two Panavision cameras, using lighting ranging from relatively dim candles to bright hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide lamps.[9]

Reception

Template:Infobox movie certificates

The film came into wide release on 18 January 2002 and left theatres on 6 June 2002. According to the film website Box Office Mojo, Gosford Park received a total of $87,754,044 in its combined total gross at the box office.[1] The review aggregator Metacritic listed the film's overall reception at 90 percent, which corresponds with "universal acclaim."[10] Film critic Roger Ebert was enthusiastic about the film, giving it his highest rating of four stars and describing it as "such a joyous and audacious achievement it deserves comparison with his [Robert Altman's] very best movies."[7] Ebert specifically noted a quality of the film that many Altman films share: a focus on character rather than plot.[7] Emanuel Levy, an independent critic, gave Gosford Park an A minus rating. He described one of its themes as "illuminating a society and a way of life on the verge of extinction,"[11] placing the inter-war setting as an integral part of the film's class study. However, he notes that because Altman is an independent observer of the society he portrays in the film, it does not have the biting qualities of his previous social commentaries such as Short Cuts, set in the director's home country of the United States.[11]

Gosford Park's cinematography was a focus of several critics. CNN's Paul Clinton praised Andrew Dunn's camera work, describing it as "lush and rich; the camera glides up and down the stairs of the grand estate, the period look is beautifully crafted."[12] Ed Gonzalez of the Internet publication Slant Magazine writes that "Altman's camera is the star of Gosford Park" and that the film's cinematography is used as an aid to its storytelling.[13]

Awards

Gosford Park won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the British Academy Film Awards in 2002. It also won the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Helen Mirren), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Maggie Smith), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Director, and Best Picture.

Soundtrack

Untitled

Altman discussed the direction the film's soundtrack would take with composer Patrick Doyle, suggesting that the soundtrack should not attempt to direct the audience to any particular part of the film, but to support it nonetheless.[14] Another potential issue in the soundtrack's composition was the integration of Ivor Novello songs with the overall score. Altman noted that both of these aspects were handled well by the composer.[14] Doyle used the film's main character, Mary, as a focal point for his composition, taking influences from her Scottish nationality and incorporating them into the score. He described the collaboration with Altman as "one of the happiest of my career."[14]

The film review website SoundtrackNet reviewed the soundtrack positively, despite a lukewarm review for the film at large. The critic, Glenn McClanan, praises Doyle's scoring as "effective and surprisingly well-developed."[15] He goes on to say that the score was intended mainly for two purposes: to give the audience a sense of the film's setting and to impart to the audience a sense of emotion, and that the film is successful in both endeavours.[15]

Track listing

  1. "Waltz of My Heart" – Ivor Novello
  2. "Mr. Parks" – Patrick Doyle
  3. "Gosford Park" – Patrick Doyle
  4. "Bored to Sobs" – Patrick Doyle
  5. "The Shirt" – Patrick Doyle
  6. "And Her Mother Came Too" – Ivor Novello
  7. "Walking to Shoot" – Patrick Doyle
  8. "No Smoke Without Fire" – Patrick Doyle
  9. "Scherzo in G" – Patrick Doyle
  10. "I Can Give You the Starlight" – Ivor Novello
  11. "What a Duke Should Be" – Ivor Novello
  12. "Inspector Thompson" – Patrick Doyle
  13. "Pull Yourself Together" – Patrick Doyle
  14. "Life Goes On" – Patrick Doyle
  15. "Secrets to Hide" – Patrick Doyle
  16. "Only for a While" – Patrick Doyle
  17. "Rather a Pasting'" – Patrick Doyle
  18. "Love Jam" – Patrick Doyle
  19. "Why Isn't It You?" – Ivor Novello
  20. "The Way It's Meant to Be" – Patrick Doyle
  21. "Carpe Diem" – Patrick Doyle
  22. "Good Luck" – Patrick Doyle
  23. "Your Boy's Alive" – Patrick Doyle
  24. "The Land of Might-Have-Been" – Ivor Novello

DVD release

The region 1 DVD of Gosford Park was released on 25 June 2002, with the region 2 release on 3 December 2002. The critic Ed Gonzalez reviewed the DVD negatively, calling the picture quality "atrocious on the small screen," going on to say that "the image quality of this video transfer is downright lousy from start to finish."[13] However, reviewer Robert Mack generally wrote favourably of the picture quality, noting excellence in the shots' detail and sharpness and the lack of compression artefacts, but describing an unfavourable darkness to scenes filmed within the manor house.[16] Both reviewers commented positively on the film's score and soundtrack. Gonzalez wrote that "Gosford Park sounds amazing for a film so dialogue-dependant"[13] and Mack that "the audio transfer is about as good as it can get on a movie of this style."[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Staff. "Gosford Park". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  2. ^ a b c Miller, Danny (Director); Gill, Kevin (Executive Producer). The Making of Gosford Park (DVD). USA Films. {{cite AV media}}: Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  3. ^ Holden, Stephen (2001-12-26). "Full of Baronial Splendor and Hatefulness". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  4. ^ Fuchs, Cynthia (2002-06-27). "Gosford Park". PopMatters. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  5. ^ Johnson, Steven (2002-01-24). "The ghosts of "Gosford Park"". Salon.com. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  6. ^ a b c Hammond, Pete (Moderator) et al. Cast and Filmmaker's Q&A Session (DVD). USA Films. {{cite AV media}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |authors= (help); Unknown parameter |date2= ignored (help)
  7. ^ a b c Ebert, Roger (2002-01-02). "Gosford Park". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  8. ^ Staff. "Filming locations for Gosford Park (2001)". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  9. ^ "Andrew Dunn BSC tracks mysterious movements at Gosford Park" (PDF). In Camera. Eastman Kodak. 2002. pp. 4–5. Retrieved 2008-04-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. ^ Staff. "Gosford Park (2001): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  11. ^ a b Levy, Emanuel. "Gosford Park". EmanuelLevy.com. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
  12. ^ Clinton, Paul (2002-01-04). "Review: 'Gosford Park' a winning mystery". CNN. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  13. ^ a b c Gonzalez, Ed (2002-05-26). "DVD Review: Gosford Park". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  14. ^ a b c Doyle, Patrick. "Gosford Park". Decca Records. Retrieved 2008-04-26. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b McClanan, Glenn (2003-08-30). "Review". SoundtrackNet. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  16. ^ a b Mack, Robert. "Gosford Park". DVD.net.au. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
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Template:S-awards
Preceded by Alexanda Korda Award for Best British Film
2001 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
2001 		Succeeded by
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