What to Watch: Gosford Park (2001)
The iconic Robert Altman upstairs-downstairs murder mystery.
Why this movie: There’s plenty of upstairs-downstairs drama in this cleverly plotted murder mystery set at a country estate in the 1930s. Written by Julian Fellowes well before Downton Abbey, it explores many of the same themes—the rigidity of class expectations amongst all classes and the iniquities that can cause—but with much more of a bite than its sentimental, rose-tinted successor. Directed by the incomparable Robert Altman, it’s social satire combined with a country house murder. Miaow!
As the Countess of Trentham, Maggie Smith previews the snarky aristocrat character she made famous in Downton. Kristin Scott Thomas plays the frosty lady of the house, and Michael Gambon, her nouveau-riche husband who keeps the lights on. When he’s killed at his desk, the family, guests, and staff have already begun airing their petty feuds and grievances at drinks, dinner-table conversations, and hunting expeditions.
Gosford Park makes full use of Altman’s signature technique of overlapping dialogue—which involves placing multiple microphones so that characters can speak simultaneously and over each other. The realistic conversational effect rewards rewatching as you constantly pick up some previously unheard nugget of information or barb. (I’ve watched it half-a-dozen times, and I’m still hearing new things.)
What they said: Altman describes his unorthodox directing method: “By the time that a film is cast, we have the script and we have the cast. About 85% of my creative work is finished. If an actor comes to me and says, how should I play this scene? I will never give him a direct answer… Because the minute I say that da da da… they’re taking 360 degrees of possibilities and [have] narrowed it down to six… [The] truth of the matter is, is that what I want to see is something I’ve never seen before. So how can I tell somebody what that is?”
Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Julian Fellowes, Altman, and Bob Balaban. With Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Michael Gambon. 2 hours 11 minutes.
Streaming on Prime, multiple platforms
Radha Vatsal
Radha Vatsal is the Film/TV Columnist for CrimeReads. She is the author of No. 10 Doyers Street and the Kitty Weeks mysteries, and her essays have appeared in the The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She holds a Ph.D. in Film History from Duke University. You can find her on Instagram or email: rvatsal@lithub.com
