The New Classics: Gosford Park
Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 2:22PM Hey everyone. Michael Cusumano here. If you've got to be trapped inside, why not be trapped inside with thirty or so of the greatest British actors ever? 18-year-old mystery spoilers ahead!
Scene: The Murder of Willam McCordle
I don’t think you can count yourself as having seen a Robert Altman film unless you’ve seen it three times, minimum. All great films expand on rewatch, but Altman movies transform, accumulating power as additional dimensions come into focus. In no film is this more apparent than his late-period masterwork, Gosford Park...
Presented with that most plot-centric of genres, the Drawing Room Murder Mystery, he proves an able game master. Aided by Julian Fellowes’ sterling screenplay, he doles out the required servings of suspects, red herrings, and long buried secrets. But in Altman’s hands the genre trappings are just the outside layer of the puzzle box. Gosford Park is a tragedy wrapped in a satire inside a mystery.
Take Gosford Park’s centerpiece sequence: The murder of William McCordle.
On initial viewing, viewers are lucky to get their full bearings before Gambon takes a knife to the chest. The cast is large and the exposition is sparse, even by Altman standards. We are plunged into the fray, left to sort out the hierarchy of three dozen guests and servants. On top of which you have the challenge of the mystery. Are important clues zipping past while you are trying to sort out, say, the difference between a butler and a valet? (It wasn’t so clear in a pre-Downton world.)
During the murder, Altman and Fellowes do the necessary buisness of placing several suspects off-stage at the crucial moment, even if they don’t go to great pains to disguise Helen Mirren’s Mrs Wilson as the likeliest culprit. There’s no mistaking the moment when Mirren lingers on the photo at the bedside of Clive Owen’s mysterious valet. To a degree, the filmmakers were able to give her story the weight it needed because viewers would inherently distrust what they were presented for fear of falling for a misdirect, hiding her in plain sight.
On a second viewing, without our guard up against plot trickery, we relax and appreciate the elegance of the film’s construction. The double murder is clever enough to be satisfying without straining credulity the way Hercule Poirot-type plot machinations often do. The cavalcade of suspects is not simply there to camouflage the guilty party, but are thematically on point, variations on the upper-class’s willingness to casually destroy anyone perceived as beneath them, women especially. Everywhere you look in Gosford Park women are being used and discarded.
The scene is scored by celebrity dinner guest Ivor Novello’s performance and the downstairs staff sneaking to catch a snippet of his singing is one of the sweetest grace notes Altman ever put to film. At the same time, the repeated entreaties from the guests for Norvello to perform are a not-so-subtle way of reminding him that as an entertainer who works for a living, he's not really one of them. He's a novelty for the swells.
(It’s saying a lot that Maggie Smith’s withering asides are merely icing on top of this virtuoso sequence. They alone would be justification enough for a different film to exist.)
The third viewing is the magic viewing. The idea that this was ever a game of whodunnit melts away. We realize that the real gut punch isn’t the killer’s identity (The maid did it! To protect her long-lost son!) but that it was easy for the maid to do it because she worked for years in close proximity to this toxic spill of a human being. McCordle could have been spared his fate if he bothered to cover his tracks or if he sent away Mirren because he couldn’t bear to look her in the eye, but no. It simply never occurred to him he would be called to account for his sins. Not only did McCordle feel no guilt for impregnating (raping?) one of his young employees and tossing their baby in an orphanage without a backward glance, the man was so utterly shameless that he kept her close at hand to witness him repeat the cycle with younger women. It’s as if Judge Turpin knew exactly who Sweeney Todd was and continued to employ him as a barber for decades.
In the end, Gosford Park upends the usual destination of the genre. The prevailing mood at the resolution isn’t one of justice served but of futility. “What possible purpose would it serve” is the repeated refrain. The years of pain can’t be undone, and the fact that a killer got the bastard a little time ahead of an inevitable stroke or a heart attack is cold comfort. We may know who done it, but we also know how little it changes.
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Previous episodes of The New Classics here.
Reader Comments (19)
"Gosford Park " is a true modern classic that works on so many levels a comedy of manners, a social satire, a who done it- great script, perfect cast, and excellent direction
Adorable film. I’m a big fan of Kristin Scott Thomas perf even if back then Mirren, Smith and Watson received more praises
Love it!
My favorite of that year.
Very nice write-up on an outstanding film. There's so much to admire about it.
As to the casting and acting alone, while I like a lot of the "Upstairs" performances (Scott Thomas in particular, but Smith, Phillippe, etc. too) the combination of the script, direction, and acting is just remarkable when it comes to the "Downstairs" characters. Everyone of them is so clearly delineated and filled with such life, even those who seemingly only spoke ~4 times in the whole film.
Great article about a wonderful film... Gosford Park is not just one of Altman's greatest works, it's one of the very best movies of the 21st Century (and such a delight at every rewatch!)
I agree with Stefano
Absolutely wonderful film and a brilliant write-up, thank you Michael.
One of my favourite stories about Altman's process involves a cast dinner a few days into filming Gosford Park where he the cast - this amazing cast - that he liked the work they were all doing with one exception and then left the meal. Leaving them all to wonder who wasn't cutting the mustard.
I’d rather watch Nashville.
BJT: Brilliantly passive aggressive. Likely means more than one cast member wasn't quite there yet, but also pushes even those he wasn't dissatisfied with higher.
I do love the film as it is a quintessential Altman film in presentation and tone as he really got some of the best work out of everyone. Including Ryan Phillippe whom I wasn't fond of but he really got him to play a smarmy asshole just right as it lead I think to what would be a series of standout performances including Flags of Our Fathers which I thought was seriously overlooked in the awards season for as he just knew what to do and what not to do. It wasn't a showy performance but understated enough to make me care about his character.
One of my all time favorites!!
adri doppelgänger:
It’s okay for you to say it’s one of your favourites under your own poster name.
Wonderful film.
A real masterpiece, my #1 film of 2001 (sorry Lord of the rings or Mulholland drive)
It rates as a classic, no doubt. There are certain films that are like a perfect symphony, and this is one of them. Easily one of my favourite films, and every cast member plays their part just right.
When I'm watching it I even find the poor little dog obnoxious. ( I'm relieved when it's taken out of the kitchen.) Glad to see there is so much agreement about this Altman gem.
It just goes to show how unique Altman was that ever since his passing not a single director has stood up and tried to fill the gaping hole he left behind. Scorsese, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Tarkovsky: they all have obvious copycats, sometimes to very pleasing results. But I miss never being able to see a new Altman movie or even one that just TRIES to be an Altman film.
As much fun as Clive Owen, Michael Gambon, Bob Balaban, Richard E. Grant, Alan Bates (I’m especially disappointed in you, Elsie) and Ryan Phillippe are...
I would kill to see a Supporting Actress Smackdown Special focuses solely on Gosford Park -
Helen Mirren
Maggie Smith
Kelly Macdonald
Kristin Scott Thomas
Emily Watson
Eileen Atkins
Claudie Blakley
Sophie Thompson
Camilla Rutherford
Geraldine Somerville
So many options...
Thomas is my 2001 winner, I nominate Smith and Blakley, while Mirren and Watson both make my Top 10...
Finally - Altman was DEFINITELY referring to Stephen Fry! Joking, though his performance is so incongruous and not in the way the film needs...
Dieter -- it seemed like Paul Thomas Anderson origianlly set out to be that. But in one of the most unexpected career arcs I've seen for a director he went from being very obviously fascinated by ensembles like one of his heroes (Altman) to become more and more narrowly focused on one/two characters tops. I've never quite accounted for it and if i ever interview him that's what I want to ask about.
This is truly one of my all time favorites. It's heaven.