The NY Daily News 10/28/01 -

GOSFORD PARK

Director: Robert Altman -- Cast: Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Emily Watson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Jeremy Northam, Ryan Philippe, Charles Dance, Alan Bates, Stephen Fry, Derek Jacobi, Richard E. Grant.
Opens: Dec. 26

Robert Altman has tackled every sort of movie convention in his long, often rancorous career, but nothing quite like this. It's what the British call "country-house drama," typically an upstairs-downstairs whodunit at a rural mansion where class-consciousness and the clashing lifestyles of servants and their masters are more important than who is killing whom.

The early word is that the 76-year-old Altman, who calls his latest film a cross between Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game" and the Agatha Christie novel "Ten Little Indians," is on his game in the same way he was with his great ensemble films - "M*A*S*H," "Nashville" and "Short Cuts." Certainly, he's convened another stellar cast.

The movie, from a script by actor-turned-writer Julian Fellowes, is mostly written from the point of view of the servants, whose number include housekeeper Elsie (Emily Watson), butler Jennings (Alan Bates), valet Parks (Clive Owen) and lady's maid Mary (Kelly Macdonald), who is the main protagonist. The blue bloods are played by the likes of Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas and Maggie Smith.

As usual, Altman is doing it his way, and admits his way may be incompatible with contemporary audiences.

"I don't know if an ensemble piece like this can still be successful," he told a set visitor earlier this year. "Especially today, when everything is right here in their face, and films tell you everything twice."

Thanks, Erica