Nine
years before British screenwriter Lord Julian Fellowes created the smash hit
television series Downton Abbey for
ITV Studios concerning Britain’s aristocracy in the early 1900s, he copped an
Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for director Robert Altman’s Agatha Christie
inspired ensemble cast whodunit Gosford
Park. Set in the early 1930s on the
estate of Gosford Park managed by Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) with
his wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas), the two wind up hosting a weekend
shooting party inviting a large group of friends including but not limited to
members of the aristocracy as well as a Hollywood film producer with his valet. The tranquil and carefree get together is
soon turned upside down when Sir William turns up dead and everyone becomes a
suspect ala And Then There Were None or
Murder by Death. In typical Altman fashion, however, the
murder is secondary to Altman’s real interests which zero in on the
interactions, machinations and social hierarchy of the household.
As
with Nashville and Short Cuts, the film sports an eclectic
cast of over thirty characters, cross-cutting freely between their mutual
interlocking stories with a clear separation between the upstairs wealthy
elites and the downstairs servants working the kitchens, laundry and
shoe/cutlery polishing. Sporting key
cast members who would inevitably show up later in Fellowes’ Downton Abbey including but not limited
to Maggie Smith as the Countess of Trentham and Jeremy Swift playing a servant
in both properties, the film boasts Kelly Macdonald, Camilla Rutherford,
Charles Dance, Tom Hollander, Bob Balaban, Ryan Phillippe, Helen Mirren, Clive
Owen, Alan Bates, Emily Watson, Derek Jacobi and Stephen Fry among others. The wide-ranging cast of characters, in the
time honored tradition of its director, aren’t always easy to keep up with as
Altman’s trademark use of overlapping dialogue can become disorienting on the
viewer. The film also sports the
director’s constantly moving camera and frequent use of the telephoto shot seen
in nearly all of his works.
Altman
has always dabbled in ensemble pieces peppered with interlocking story arcs
which weave in and out of each other, but Gosford
Park represents the late American auteur’s first foray outside of his
element by setting the story in a British period piece. Watching Altman’s film, one gets the sense
most of iconography and structure fans of Downton
Abbey are familiar with already had its tracks laid nine years prior. Aside from Altman’s uncompromising audiovisual
storytelling technique and the Agatha Christie inspired murder mystery, much of
what appears onscreen clearly paved the way for what would or would not become
the hit ITV television series. The film
is also consistently darkly humorous with some moments coming across as more
meta than others such as Helen Mirren playing opposite a misogynistic Michael
Gambon once again (see The Cook, the
Thief, His Wife & Her Lover). Gosford Park of course looks and sounds
lovely thanks to Threads and The Madness of King George director of
photography Andrew Dunn and a moody period score by Patrick Doyle, creating
ample room for the viewer to lose themselves in the world of Altman and
Fellowes’ creating.
Upon
release, Gosford Park was nominated
for the Best Picture Academy Award and became both a critical and commercial
success, making it Altman’s most profitable film since his 1970 Best Picture
winner M*A*S*H. The film also took home the Best British Film
Academy Award and Best Costume Design.
As an entry into Altman’s canon, it has only grown better with age and
seeing it in light of Fellowes’ hit TV show illustrates the blueprints drawn up
by both creative visionaries.
Incidentally, Downton Abbey was
originally intended to be a loose sequel/spinoff of Gosford Park but over time evolved into its own television series
set three decades prior. Fans of the
show with the clear cut episodic form unaccustomed to Altman’s film are in for
both a surprise and a challenge as the territory viewers are immersed into seems
familiar but with an often jagged narrative language and structure that is
unmistakably that of a master filmmaker at the peak of his creative powers.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki