Fun
Gosford Park
Dear Ann,
I’ll see your Downton Abbey movie trailer, and raise you one Gosford Park.
Remember 2001’s Gosford Park? It popped up on my Netflix recommendations recently, the perfect excuse to sit down with some garter stitch and re-watch it. The screenplay is by Julian Fellowes, who later wrote Downton Abbey for PBS. The director: Robert Altman. The cast: everybody wonderful, including Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Clive Owen, Richard E. Grant, and Kristin Scott Thomas.
The acerbic, snobby aunt, who should be played by Maggie Smith, is played by Maggie Smith.
I remember it mainly for Helen Mirren, and as a fleeting escape from the aftermath of 9/11. For a good description of the film, set in 1932 at a shooting weekend on an English estate (which does sound familiar), here’s the New York Times review.
Gosford Park is streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the DVD is in libraries and probably on the shelves of many of our readers. It’s time for a re-watch!
Also: somebody gets murdered!
Love,
Kay
Kristen Scott Thomas is so wonderfully nasty in this! I often think of the “boring for Britain” line and laugh out loud.
Yes! And the moment when the sister-in-law (?) says “Lovely dress,” and KST just looks her up and down, nods and smiles, and walks away. So deliciously bitchy!
Love this movie!
I know what I am doing this evening then !!
I adore this movie. I own a dvd which is so worn out from re-watching that it will only play on one rather old dvd player. Good idea for today after F1 racing is done.
One of my all time favorites.
One of favourite movies, and the soundtrack is great, too.
Wonderful, can’t wait to watch (knit) it today. Your other featured programs are right up my alley and I have loved them all. Waiting, waiting, waiting for Endeavor’s new season! P.S. always on the lookout for knitted sweaters in these programs.
It is one of the best. I’ve also discovered Proffesor T on my PBS Passport. The only bad part is subtitles while trying to knit.
This is great! I’ll be watching this afternoon after unloading a moving van. Now I have a recommendation: GOOD OMENS! For those with access to Amazon Prime give it a try, especially if you’re a fan of Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman. I just watched the first episode and I’m loving it. David Tennant and Michael Steen are enjoying their roles as Lucifer and an archangel respectively, who have misplaced the baby Antichrist and are now trying to find him before he starts Armageddon. Very light, funny, but delivering some sharp commentary as well.
I listened to this one on tape, and was laughing out loud in the car! Hope the series is as enjoyable, I might get a prime trial membership to watch it…
Great suggestion. Plus, a more contained story (and a mystery!)
However, I am currently knitting chart-reading lace ….
Another fan of Gosford Park here! I love the glimpse into English aristocratic life in a more glamorous era. There are so many lovely performances in this film.
Such a great movie! Thanks for reminding me!
Perfect! Just what I will need tonight.
I went to help out a friend a few months ago after her husband passed away. Gosford Park was deemed the perfect movie to wind down after a day of hard work. I might need to watch it again soon. And Good Omens, yes!
But you left out Kelly Macdonald!!!! I have followed her career ever since seeing GP. Smartest character in the cast.
One of my all-time favorite movies! Such snobbery! Such intrigue! Such COSTUMES.
It’s one of my collection of what I used to (in my twenties) call my Hangover Movies – engaging and witty, but not manic; no loud explosions/action/battle scenes or fast camera work (i.e. a “talkie”); with a heart, but not SO full of heart that they’d make my weep when I already had a headache; no on-screen tragedy or blatant emotional manipulation (but thoroughly upbeat is not required – mildly – NOT wildly – melancholy is ok); and bonus if they’re visually pretty. Perfect for lying on the couch and watching several in a row. Still a favorite genre!
If anyone needs a list: also includes Lost in Translation, Happy Go Lucky, The Station Agent, The Queen, About a Boy, Stranger than Fiction, Wonder Boys, Home for the Holidays…I suspect some of these I might not love as much now, but I associate them all with Gosford Park so strongly!
I *love* this! So many good titles here – I must revisit 😉
If you haven’t binged on Good Omens on Netflix you are in for a treat. Six episodes based on a book by the same name by Neil Geiman & Terry Prachett It has everything- quirky, funny, philosophical and John Hamm from Mad Men plays the angel Gabriel. Oh, did I mention how much I love MDK’s movie and book recommendations. XXXX