MOVIES
Gosford Park (2001), Seven, 12.30am (Sunday)
On the basis of now five seasons of Downton Abbey, it would seem as if writer-creator Julian Fellowes can do no wrong, especially when he is dealing with his favourite of all topics: life in a grand country house nearly a century ago. Fellowes began his witty exploration of life upstairs and down nine years before Downton with Gosford Park, a lavish murder mystery filmed at Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, with some of Britain’s finest actors, including Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Jeremy Northam, Charles Dance, Derek Jacobi and Helen Mirren. It is the kind of ensemble cast one expects from a Murder on the Orient Express remake from the 1970s, only better. Which is just as well, as this convoluted whodunit is much in the Agatha Christie style but never quite up to the mark.
There is a jaggedness to the pastiche. Gosford Park was directed by the late Robert Altman, who had an unusual approach to film technique that many found innovative. To cover complex scenes, he sometimes relied on multiple cameras endlessly tracking sideways and back for no discernible reason, the resultant footage then disorientatingly cut together. The dinner scenes feel as if they were shot by servants after imbibing a little too freely. In addition, Altman’s sense of how people behave in a country home has a lot more to do with his American political views than it does to a knowledge of British life and culture – or Fellowes’ script. The caricaturing is of the wealthy, the empathy saved for downstairs. Downton plays much fairer.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-guide/saturday-february-28-20150220-3qltu.html
I find it very interesting how people seem to have definite opinions about Altman's style--they either love it or hate it. Same goes for the Julian Fellowes Downton vs Gosford debate.
Personally, I disagree with this review about both Altman's style in GP and which Fellowes project is superior. I enjoy DA, but I think GP is miles above it--as far as the writing goes at least.
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'”
-- C.S. Lewis
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