Praise for Altman’s ‘Park’
Robert Altman’s career has been defined by its peaks and valleys. For every “MASH,†“Nashville,†“The Player†and “Short Cuts,†there has been a “Brewster McCloud,†“Buffalo Bill and the Indians,†“Quintet,†“Ready to Wear†or last year’s “Dr. T & the Women.†Altman, who is just two months shy of his 77th birthday, is a survivor.
After a long lull, Altman has scaled another peak in his 50-year career with his latest film, “Gosford Park,†which opens Wednesday in limited release. With an ensemble cast of British actors--including Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Jeremy Northam and Kristin Scott Thomas--â€Gosford Park†skewers British society in the early 1930s. Just as the upper class is beginning to lose its stiff upper lip, a group of English society’s most elite visits a country home for a weekend party, while downstairs their servants exist in their own rigid society.
Altman also pokes fun at the traditional British murder-mystery genre--the kind of whodunit made famous by writers Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers--by adding a death to the mix. The detective in “Gosford Park†is no Sherlock Holmes or Lord Peter Whimsey, however, but a totally clueless buffoon played by Stephen Fry.
Even before the film’s release, Altman was named best director for “Gosford Park†by the New York Film Critics Circle and was runner-up in the category with the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. He also was nominated last week for a Golden Globe for best director, with the film getting nominations for best motion picture (musical or comedy) and supporting actress (for both Mirren and Smith).
*
Compiled by Times Staff Writers
Only good movies
Get the Indie Focus newsletter, Mark Olsen's weekly guide to the world of cinema.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
