Opinion

Gosford Park

Dir: Robert Altman
Starring: Maggie Smith, Alan Bates, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Charles Dance (and many others).

Tea at four. Dinner at eight. Murder at midnight.

It's 1932, and a house party at Gosford Park is in full swing. The extended household (residents and their servants, guests and theirs) have begun to establish their status-conscious relationships, and a number of bitter enmities have already begun to surface. And this is equally true below stairs and above. In this era where social status is about to be replaced by other determinants of power (like celebrity), and many of the certainties of the class system will be destroyed by war, an uncomfortable mixing is already in evidence - matinee idols and Hollywood producers mix with countesses and barons, and the resultant uncertainty underlines many of the interactions on display. In the midst of this volatile environment, matters are hardly helped by the discovery of the lord of the manor, murdered.

When the idea of a Robert Altman-directed English period drama was first mooted, many eyebrows were raised in surprise, mine among them. My general admiration for the man's work, certain recent outings notwithstanding, is no secret, but I was a little uncertain how this venture into yet another genre would work. I shouldn't have worried. Gosford Park is Altman's most entirely successful film since at least Short Cuts, and possibly The Player.

In part, this is down to the amazing cast he has assembled. I didn't count, but there must be at least ten names 'above the title', and they represent the tip of an acting iceberg that makes every other film shot in the UK in the last year look undercast by comparison. The likes of Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Alan Bates, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Geraldine Somerville, Jeremy Northam, Michael Gambon, Stephen Fry are all used to excellent effect, with possibly only Fry's police inspector striking a slightly wrong note. The attention to detail in their performances is exceptional too, with each displaying an acute awareness of their place in the pecking order (both masters and servants having a tightly-structured system of precedence), and each modifying their tone and delivery minutely according to who they are dealing with.

Trying to draw parallels with other Altman work is difficult, and possibly meaningless, but in the breadth of its scope and simultaneous attention to detail, this is Short Cuts shifted in time and space. The significant difference of course is that where the intersection of the stories in that film hinged on coincidence and tangential connections, here everyone is under the same roof, so the possibility (and even likelihood) of intersection is that much greater. As becomes apparent relatively quickly, even the theoretically-impenetrable barrier between upstairs and downstairs can prove no real obstacle, creating continual possibilities for intrigue.

Providing sterling support to Altman in this film are two of his team in particular: screenwriter Julian Fellowes (far more prolific as a TV actor; his only previous writing credit is on a TV version of Little Lord Fauntleroy in 1994) demonstrates an ear for dialogue, character and nuance that I suspect many more experienced writers would kill for, and creates what, to my untutored eye, looks like an utterly faithful representation of the myriad little rituals and details of one of these country house parties. Likewise, cinematographer Andrew Dunn (whose mixed resumé includes The Madness of King George) has captured the visual detail of all this, as well as created a sense of a roving spectator drifting almost aimlessly among the many participants and their individual dramas.

And so to Altman himself, who pulls it all together. When at his best, as here, there's a sense of technical wizardry in his work - that tracking shot at the outset of The Player, the effortlessness of Short Cuts' interweaving stories, the general insanity of M.A.S.H, or the apparent accuracy and honesty of Nashville. There's also a thread of humanity that runs through all these, and Gosford Park has that in spades. Altman is a maestro when it comes to drawing the best from a range of performers and technicians, and Gosford Park shows him at the peak of his powers.

Highly Recommended

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