What: What a good time to revisit
Gosford Park, one of director Robert Altman's last films. It has the insane cast, social commentary, and is-it-even-a-murder pivot of the delightful
Knives Out.
But the setting is about 90 years earlier.
About that cast ... Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Ryan Phillippe, Richard E. Grant, Alan Bates, Sophie Thompson, Charles Dance, Jeremy Northam, Stephen Fry, Derek Jacobi, Emily Watson ... the list goes on.
Representative quote: "Aw, it's a pity, really. I thought it was a good idea to have someone in the house who is actually sorry he's dead." -- Constance, Countess of Trentham*
Connections to previous Wreckage: Watch both Dame Eileen Atkins and Dame Maggie Smith chatting it up in
Nothing Like a Dame / Tea with the Dames (
Rec. #778,
Rec. #860). And, if at all possible, do check out
The Half (
Rec. #178), which is glorious.
* Played by Dame Maggie Smith and the prototype for her later role in
Downton Abbey, which was originally envisioned as a
Gosford Park spinoff. You can tell that writer Julian Fellowes saw the potential universe expansion for Smith's arch bon mots. One gets the sense that she probably
actually watched Gosford Park, though.
