Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 British mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes. The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Eileen Atkins, Alan Bates, Richard E. Grant, Helen Mirren, Kristin Scott Thomas, Clive Owen, Emily Watson, Charles Dance, Tom Hollander and Laurence Fox. The story follows a party of wealthy Britons and an American, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at Gosford Park, an English country house. A murder occurs after a dinner party, and the film goes on to present the subsequent investigation from the servants' and guests' perspectives.

Development on Gosford Park began in 1999, when Bob Balaban asked Altman if they could develop a film together. Balaban suggested an Agatha Christie-style whodunit and introduced Altman to Julian Fellowes, with whom Balaban had been working on a different project. The film went into production in March 2001, and began filming at Shepperton Studios with a production budget of $19.8 million. Gosford Park premiered on 7 November 2001 at the London Film Festival. It received a limited release across cinemas in the United States in December 2001, before being widely released in January 2002 by USA Films. It was released in February 2002 in the United Kingdom.

Gosford Park (soundtrack)

Gosford Park Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the 2001 film Gosford Park.

Production

The director of Gosford Park, Robert Altman, discussed the direction the film's soundtrack would take with composer, Patrick Doyle, suggesting that the soundtrack should not attempt to direct the audience to any particular part of the film, but to support it nonetheless. Another potential issue in the soundtrack's composition was the integration of Ivor Novello songs with the overall score. Altman noted that both of these aspects were handled well by the composer. Doyle used the film's main character, Mary, as a focal point for his composition, taking influences from her Scottish nationality and incorporating them into the score. He described the collaboration with Altman as "one of the happiest of my career."

Critical response

The film review website SoundtrackNet reviewed the soundtrack positively, despite a lukewarm review for the film at large. The critic, Glenn McClanan, praises Doyle's scoring as "effective and surprisingly well-developed." He goes on to say that the score was intended mainly for two purposes: to give the audience a sense of the film's setting and to impart to the audience a sense of emotion, and that the film is successful in both endeavours.