Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4484 in VHS
• Released on: 2002-09-23
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 137 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Gosford Park finds director Robert Altman in sumptuously fine form. From the opening shots, as the camera peers through the trees at an opulent English country estate, Altman exploits the 1930s period setting and whodunit formula of the film expertly. Aristocrats gather together for a weekend shooting party with their dutiful servants in tow, and the upstairs/downstairs division of the classes is perfectly tailored to Altman's method (Nashville, Short Cuts) of overlapping bits of dialogue and numerous subplots in order to betray underlying motives and the sins that propel them. Greed, vengeance, snobbery and lust stir comic unrest as the near dizzying effects of the plot twists are allayed by perhaps Altman's strongest ensemble to date.

Maggie Smith is marvellous as Constance, a dependent Countess with a quip for every occasion; Michael Gambon, as the ill-fated host, Sir William McCordle, is one of the most palpably salacious characters ever on screen; Kristin Scott Thomas is perfectly cold, yet sexy, as Lady Sylvia, Sir William's wife; and Helen Mirren, Emily Watson and Clive Owen are equally memorable as key characters from the bustling servants' quarters below. Gosford Park manages to be fabulously entertaining while exposing human shortcomings, compromises and endless need for confession. --Fionn Meade

On the DVD: Gosford Park, presented 2.35:1--Anamorphic Widescreen transfer, is awash with the muted colours and sepia tones which permeate the film, the sound is excellent as the actors were individually miked, so you don’t loose any of the dialogue giving away subtle plot developments. Extras are chunky, with deleted scenes, trailers a couple of documentaries. Most notable are the two commentaries which go a long way to unravelling some of the twistier plot devices and a Q&A session with the Altman and his crew filmed in New York. --Kristen Bowditch

Synopsis
The action takes place in an old country house in England in the 1930s where friends have been invited for a shooting weekend by the man of the house - William McCordle. He is benefactor to many of his friends and relatives but it seems now that everyone wants a piece of William and his money...

From the Back Cover
It is November, 1932. Gosford Park is the magnificent country estate to which Sir William McCordle and his wife, Lady Sylvia, gather relations and friends for a weekend shooting party. The have invited an eclectic group. As the guests assemble in the gilded drawing room above, their personal maids and valets swell the ranks of the house servants in the teeming kitchens and corridors below-stairs. But all is not as it seems: neither amongst the bejewelled guests lunching and dining at their enormous leisure, nor in the attic bedrooms and stark work stations where the servants labour for the comfort of their employers. Part comedy of manners and part mystery, the film is finally a moving portrait of events that bridge generations, class, sex, tragic personal history – and culminate in a murder. Or is it two murders?

Customer Reviews

Misunderstood, judging from many of the reviews here
You WILL be disappointed if you're expecting a fast-moving plot (OK, any obvious plot) or lots of action. Or if you want to be spoonfed entertainment. But if you appreciate social commentary, scenery, history and faultless acting and don't mind divining the real story for yourself by piecing together bits of what seem more like backstory at first glance, you will enjoy this film. I agree it's often hard to hear what's being said; whether that's a by-product of the deliberately loose way Altman filmed it or a dodgy DVD I don't know, but I found I needed to watch/listen carefully several times through before I really heard and understood everything and began to appreciate the characters and the subtle humour. And I think it's worth doing so. But it is indeed hopeless as the sort of entertainment to watch with friends over a few drinks; it requires concentration and lacks the obvious story, action, suspense and neat ending that make for easy viewing.

I am shocked by others poor reviews!
This movie is the quintessential English murder mystery plot, set in a very realistic and well presented period drama style. Although the plot was not brilliantly oringinal, bar the unusual twist on "the butler/maid did it", it is superbly carried out by some of the best actors ever to grace the screens. Even the young Ryan Phillipe (of Cruel Intentions fame), who infact plays a larger role than Stephen Fry, is spectacular.

There are one hundred and one different little plot twists that keep you thinking throughout the movie, and missing just the tiniest snippet can muddle you up. Luckily the movie is involving enough to keep you pinned to your seat.

The portrayal of the Upper/Middle/Lower class boundaries is exemplary and the awkwardness causes you to laugh, especially with the entrance of the middle class inspector; that quite obviously doesn't fit in either Above or Below stairs.

If you are to buy one DVD this month you should make it gosford park, you will watch it again and again and each time discover a little something new.

There is not a bone of snobbery in me: classy entertainment
Dame Maggie Smith - one just can not match her performance!! Any movie with her is just divine. And this movie is no exception from this rule!!!


However her fellow cast is equally formidable and it offer a convincing and impressive performance: Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Emily Watson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clive Owen and Steven Frey portrait their characters just perfectly. It is just a joy seeing them acting. It proves that good dialogs, witty and subtle revealing, can make a really good movie. Constant US-American action is not needed. This is theatre-movie at its best, properly not for a mass-market, but that are often, very often the best of movies.

The cast promised it and the movie keeps that promise: classy entertainment (of course, with not a single bone of snobbery - see the movie and you find out what I mean!)