Information thanks to DNA Studio and USA Films

Gosford Park

A USA Films Release

Synopsis

Robert Altman, one of America's most distinctive filmmakers, journeys to England for the first time to create a unique film mosaic with an outstanding ensemble cast.

It is November, 1932. Gosford Park is the magnificent country estate to which Sir William McCordle and his wife, Lady Sylvia, gather relations and friends for a shooting party. They have invited an eclectic group including a countess, a World War I hero, the British matinee idol Ivor Novello and an American film producer who makes Charlie Chan movies. As the guests assemble in the gilded drawing rooms above, their personal maids and valets swell the ranks of the house servants in the teeming kitchens and corridors below-stairs.

But all is not as it seems: neither amongst the bejewelled guests lunching and dining at their considerable leisure, nor in the attic bedrooms and stark work stations where the servants labor for the comfort of their employers. Part comedy of manners and part mystery, the film is finally a moving portrait of events that bridge generations, class, sex, tragic personal history - and culminate in a murder. (Or is it two murders…?)

Ultimately revealing the intricate relations of the above and below-stairs worlds with great clarity, Gosford Park illuminates a society and way of life quickly coming to an end.

USA Films presents in association with Capitol Films and the Film Council a Sandcastle 5 production in association with Chicagofilms and Medusa Film. Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Tom Hollander, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Geraldine Somerville, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sophie Thompson, Emily Watson, James Wilby. Gosford Park. Casting, Mary Selway. Costumes, Jenny Beavan. Music, Patrick Doyle. Editor, Tim Squyres, A.C.E. Production Design, Stephen Altman. Director of Photography, Andrew Dunn, B.S.C. Co-Producers, Jane Frazer, Joshua Astrachan. Executive Producers, Jane Barclay, Sharon Harel, Robert Jones, Hannah Leader. Producers, Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, David Levy. Written by Julian Fellowes. Based upon an idea by Robert Altman and Bob Balaban. Directed by Robert Altman.
Gosford Park

Finding Gosford Park

Robert Altman's forty-year career demonstrates an extraordinary creative range. His carefully selected ensemble casts, his collaborative working process, and his signature use of multiple story lines have resulted in numerous classic films. Now, this American original has "crossed the pond" to make Gosford Park.

Producer Bob Balaban remembers, "About two years ago, I had the very simple germ of an film idea - one that I thought Robert Altman would be a wonderful director for. He and I started talking about making a seemingly traditional 1930s murder mystery, set in an English country house over several days, that was told entirely from the point of view of the servants."

Robert Altman adds, "I think I said, 'I've never done a murder mystery before, although I've done almost every kind of genre.' I love to take genres and turn them over a little bit, look at them differently. So we started talking and looked at all sorts of material, including Agatha Christie works, and none of it was quite right. But it grew from there: I didn't really want to do a 'whodunit' but rather a 'that it was done.' We decided to deal with the social issues within the period. At first we set it in 1934 or 1935, but then decided that we didn't want the rise of Hitler to color everything, so we set it just before that, in 1932. I also like that period because I was alive and I have a frame of reference for it, rather than just reading someone else's reports of it."

Screenwriter Julian Fellowes was already working on another script with Balaban. When Balaban introduced him to Altman and brought him into Gosford Park discussions, Fellowes found himself drawn to the idea's potential, the collaboration, and the project's place in Altman's oeuvre: "I think that what interests Bob [Altman] for movie projects are narratives wherein people arbitrarily have to share a geographical position, and not by emotional choice: the gathering of a family wedding, for example [as in A Wedding], or the variety of individuals employed by a Hollywood studio [as in The Player]. They are brought together, not necessarily because they want to be together, and therefore they almost always have entirely different agendas.

"It occurred to Bob that an English house party in the 1930s would lend itself to this. To him, the servant/employer situation affords a rich setting of people with completely different lives and with different aims - all under one roof. The film would be 'servant-led' and, in deference to Agatha Christie and the whole country-house-mystery genre, he decided there should be a murder which would act as a device to stop any of the parties from leaving the house. I had to come up with the characters and the stories to flesh this idea out. I was familiar with the way these houses were run at that time, and Bob was determined that it be based on absolute truth - i.e., he wanted the details of the varied activities carried out in a house like Gosford Park, above and below stairs, to be correct."

To preserve the project's foundation in truth, it was also decided early on that Gosford Park would be filmed in the U.K., and almost entirely with U.K. actors. When the project was announced in the late summer of 2000, it may have seemed strange to some that a quintessentially American director would be exploring such quintessentially English subject matter. Would the filmmaker who had so richly captured Nashville's burgeoning country music scene and The Player's closed-ranks insularity of the film industry be the right man to suss out the classes and class differences of Gosford Park?

As Alan Bates (cast as Gosford Park butler Jennings) explains, "It doesn't strike me as odd because I think Robert is a great director of nuance, behavior, atmosphere, and mood - these qualities are potent in all of his films. After all, this film is about people, and is shot under his wonderful, careful, watching eye. I always feel that he understands life - watching everyone all the time, and being slightly amused. It's a wonderful quality."

Active pre-production began in late 2000, with the priority being to assemble an impressive ensemble cast. While that is the norm on many a Robert Altman film, this time the pool of actors was on the other side of the Atlantic. Producer David Levy, a longtime Altman associate, praises casting director Mary Selway for her contributions: "She has incredible taste and knows everybody in London. Never before had I been in a situation where every actor who came through the door was interesting, vital, and charismatic."

Levy adds, "For the sort of actor who tends to count their speeches, this was not their project, nor Bob their director. On the other hand, if they were willing to take a little leap of faith and realize that, as an actor, they could have a lot to say as to where their character goes and they would enter into a collaborative relationship with Bob - then they were going to be served very, very well."

As is so often the case with an Altman ensemble, the cast grew to embrace a wealth of talent ranging from acting icons to fresh faces. There is nothing like a Dame, and Gosford Park has two: Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins. (The latter actress has long had an affinity for the above and below stairs contrasts, as she had co-created [with actress Jean Marsh] the classic U.K. television drama series Upstairs Downstairs some three decades earlier.) Joining the Dames are two Sirs: Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi. Among the relative screen newcomers recruited were Claudie Blakley and Camilla Rutherford.

Altman was certainly delighted with the actors who joined the project: "I think it is because of the ties to the stage that acting in the U.K. is so strong, and I think that the actors themselves generally understand and respond to ensemble work." In fact, for the actors in an Altman movie, the ensemble work is rewarding and can be less stressful. Richard E. Grant, who had worked twice with Altman before signing on as Gosford Park first footman George, explains: "It is a study of behavior and manners, and individual stories are in some way hostage to the overview, which makes it very relaxing for everybody, because you know that nobody is carrying the can - it is as democratic and collaborative a process as any that I've encountered."

Clive Owen (who plays visiting valet Robert Parks) adds, "Gosford Park is classic Robert Altman: it's an ensemble piece; it interweaves; everybody has their own agenda; everybody has their own through line. It's very rich and full. Sometimes it did feel like doing theater, because everybody comes in every day and you end up figuring in scenes that you're not even scripted in - being tracked through the scene. Robert works in a very fluid manner, and it's really about where he places his perspective, so every day you come in and take part in genuine ensemble work."

As he has with previous ensembles, Altman mapped out the manner in which he believes the actors, and himself, could work together - which can mean working without a map: "The characters in Gosford Park had very few mandates. There are certain things that happen in the plot, and most actors will read the script and come prepared, but I don't say, 'This is the way to do it.' They have the whole sphere of their character in their head, and I don't want to cut it down to a little slice of pie. There are plenty of people [on a project] that keep track and see that we get through plot points, but if I'm just shooting to get that stuff in, then I'm looking for the wrong thing. What I really want to see from an actor is something I've never seen before, so, I can't tell them what it is.

"We normally shoot a few takes, even if the first one was terrific, because what I'm really hoping for is a 'mistake.' I think that most of the really great moments in my films were not planned. They were things that occurred and we thought, 'Wow, look at that - that's something we want to keep!' That's where you hit the truth button with the audience, and I want anybody seeing Gosford Park to get excited about recognitions of truth."

Once on the set, cast members working with Altman for the first time (which constituted the vast majority of the troupe) found themselves active participants in a filmmaking style that surprised and exhilarated them. Kristin Scott Thomas (cast as Lady Sylvia McCordle, wife of Gosford Park owner Sir William McCordle) comments: "The way we worked here was very different from many other films where you prepare and you know exactly what you're going to do. We didn't rehearse, we just all turned up! Robert described it like throwing pearls onto a parquet floor - we would see who was going to bump into whom and how it would all fit together. It's very creative in that you are allowed to take risks and try things that you are not sure will work. Robert has managed through casting, writing, and the way he directed us in this improvisational fashion, to create a real feeling of family between the three sisters [played by Scott Thomas, Geraldine Somerville, and Natasha Wightman] and their husbands [played, respectively, by Sir Michael Gambon, Charles Dance, and Tom Hollander]."

Altman's camera work is always distinctive. Making Gosford Park, he lived up to his reputation for an inventive shooting style, choosing to work with two cameras shooting simultaneously for much of the production. On the set, U.K. cinematographer Andrew Dunn's two cameras would track around different sections of the action, ensuring that the cast members in a scene were always potentially in the shot. Altman, who had never before worked with Dunn, found the director of photography "terrific to work with."

Emily Watson (who plays Gosford Park head housemaid Elsie) had worked with Altman once prior - but as producer, not director. On the Gosford Park set, the actress found the director's way of working "liberating and different from a lot of other ways of shooting where you know precisely when to deliver a certain thing. On Gosford Park, you didn't, so you just had to keep working all the time and hope that Robert's getting some of it. The cameras are like two ranging beasts scavenging for food, looking around and seeing what's going on."

Elaborating on the approach, Stephen Fry (cast as Scotland Yard Inspector Thompson) comments: "It's a fascinating process. He's a great shaggy bear, big Bob Altman, and he has a style very much of his own. One or both cameras will be moving and you somehow go in between them and say your dialogue off-camera and think that it's making no sense. You do four camera rehearsals, which are absolute chaos, and you think you are in a nightmare. But by the sixth rehearsal, suddenly this kind of ballet has emerged. Bob has a calmness and the ability to have the whole film inside his head - he's quite remarkable."

Jeremy Northam (who portrays real-life British matinee idol Ivor Novello) explains, "Robert has this amazing knack for choreographing scenes, so that scenes can be encapsulated in a single shot - he'll watch what people naturally want to do and then find a place for it within the shape of the shot where it's seamless and shown to its best advantage. So, even in a story like this where there are so many separate stories going on, there isn't one predominating plot and all these different moments and episodes are caught."

The cast's Altman veteran, Richard E. Grant, confides: "Robert wants to be surprised. He doesn't want to know what the actors are going to do, or to see what he's seen before. There are not many directors who ask that of an actor - they claim to at the beginning of jobs, but usually people want you to do what you're known for doing. But Robert goes out on a limb every time."

Among the actors who most found Altman's way of working liberating was one of only two Americans in the cast, Ryan Phillippe (cast as visiting valet Henry Denton). Phillippe says that the interplay in a scene "feels like it's happening instead of being staged. A lot of choreography goes into a movie like this because of the large cast. But at the same time it feels organic and like you're living it, which is the best experience for an actor. The circumstances on a film set are so false sometimes - the light is obtrusive and there are so many people on set, it can be hard to detach. When you're working with Robert, you're not quite sure what the camera is picking up, so you're constantly on - and everyone else is too."

Helen Mirren (who plays Gosford Park housekeeper Mrs. Wilson) adds: "Robert has a very idiosyncratic style. It's very specific and interesting for an actor because he pays as much, if not more, attention to the apparently inconsequential details as to the main push of the scene. He'll let the scene take care of itself, and often concentrates his attention, imagination, and energy into everything that's going on around the central theme of the scene. And that's wonderful, because the whole scene around you is full of detail and interest. Very often, it is one of the actors who provide the detail. We're all onscreen in Gosford Park nearly all the time - there were no extras - so if the scene needed to be filled up in the background, it was we who did it!"

Overlapping dialogue among an ensemble is another hallmark of Altman's films. To achieve this, all dialogue during all takes must be picked up by the production's sound recordists. Sound mixer Peter Glossop oversaw the outfitting of all the actors with radio microphones - and at times there were sixteen radio channels recording dialogue. It is because of such thoroughness that Altman can, in final editing, pick and choose what he finds interesting: "Great pieces of dialogue are often improvised. I try to encourage actors not to take turns speaking, but to deal with conversation as conversation. In the end, they learn that it's fun, and that it's no big deal if it goes wrong because we can shoot it again and do it another way."

Speaking as a working actor himself, Fellowes states, "Bob has a real, unfeigned love for actors - and an eagerness and respect for their contribution. This in itself is rare in the extreme: it is extended to every player in the piece, and it is not an act. On top of this, Bob has a grasp of visual narrative that I have never seen equalled. I remember one particular scene, where the women are assembling before the shooting party lunch: after running through it a few times, he suddenly suggested to all of them that they should move, speak, and do everything else simultaneously, without regard for cues and without leaving any space around the lines of dialogue. At the time, I freely admit that I thought, 'What is going on?' The next afternoon, I watched the dailies and every key element in the scene, every nuance of character, was as clear as day - but all set in the context of real chaotic life, as opposed to a false stagy screen world. To take this kind of risk, with humor and confidence, is genius."

Sir Michael Gambon (cast as Gosford Park owner Sir William McCordle) states: "It was terrific. Gosford Park is funny, it's brilliantly written, it's directed by the best director, and all my mates were in it, so every day felt like a party!"

Altman concludes, "I had the time of my life making this movie."

Dressing Gosford Park

For the actors portraying the above stairs characters, much of the shooting schedule was spent in a country house just north of London, where most of the above stairs sequences were filmed. (In addition, a few of the above stairs bedroom scenes were filmed at Syon House in Middlesex.) Production designer Stephen Altman went to work changing furniture and carpets to match the period, but felt that the basic structure and architecture of the house served his purposes very well: "In houses like this, there are antiques from two or three hundred years before, so we just added in layers of modernity. We wanted to make it comfortable and liveable, since many of the stately homes we'd seen were like museums and didn't seem like homes."

The below stairs set was created at the U.K.'s famed Shepperton Studios. Stephen Altman explains, "We set our sights on building our own below stairs set because we were unable to find anything intact and convenient for filming. The set was based on a composite of pretty much everything that we'd seen, whether from research or actual places that we visited. In compiling it, I tried to get the scale and geography right with our above stairs location house. We duplicated a couple of staircases that connected above and below stairs, but otherwise it's the best bits of many places."

Extensive research went into making the below stairs set the essence of a working household. Stephen Altman and his team fashioned an ironing-and-sewing room where the maids and valets prepare their employers' clothes for the glamorous events ahead; a still room where jams are made, cordials are distilled, and breakfast trays are set up; the butler's pantry where silver is first polished and then locked away; the brushing room, service lift, kitchen, servants' hall, scullery, and some of the senior servants' own accommodations.

Being true to scale, the set would be a confined space. This was a challenge that Stephen Altman was able to solve: "Most of the real below stairs places were like labyrinths, which would have been very difficult to shoot. Hence, we added some crossing corridors and windows that are not entirely fictitious: they did have a lot of windows in the corridors to let sunlight into the dark halls. I did adjust them slightly for shooting purposes - at each one of the cross sections, there are doors and windows on each corner so we could shoot through and get a sense of feeling around it. Otherwise, we'd just have had tunnel vision all the time. You have to try and find ways of expanding the cameras' images as much as possible."

The costume department was no less rigorous in its attention to specifics. Costume designer Jenny Beavan notes, "We talked in detail about every element of the costumes, down to what underwear the maids would be wearing. Robert Altman loves this detail: he wanted everything to be incredibly real without looking stagey or phony. To that end, I did a great deal of research and looked at original clothes from the 1930s that we then remade. Whilst there was a lot of inspiration for the upstairs characters, there was less available for the servants. They were not greatly photographed at that time, but we did have some wonderfully written records, by Nancy Astor's maid, Rosina Harrison and by Lady Troubridge."

Speaking in his capacity as Gosford Park producer, Bob Balaban proudly states, "I love the way this movie looks. 1932 is a period we don't see all that often in movies. It's a great look, those great hairstyles and beautiful, voluptuous gowns."

Above Stairs and Below Stairs

Gosford Park is set in November 1932, near the end of the era of domestic service in the U.K. World War II has not yet started, but the status quo has begun, almost imperceptibly, to shift away from the strict social structure so integral to England for hundreds of years.

Stephen Fry, no stranger to writing and/or performing works relating to class differences, remarks, "This is a world which we have all seen in Upstairs Downstairs and films like The Remains of the Day - but it's never been seen from quite this point of view. Gosford Park is shot in such a way that if there's a scene above stairs, it's only legitimately observed if there's a servant in the room - everything is seen from a servant's point of view. A footman clears away an ashtray, a lady's maid brushes her mistress' hair, and that is how you piece together the world above stairs. Meanwhile, below stairs there's what can only be described as a gigantic machine with its own protocol and etiquette."

Robert Altman elaborates, "We decided that we wouldn't bring the audience above stairs unless they were accompanied by a below stairs person, so we couldn't just cut to an upstairs scene between two people and advance the plot that way. Out of this came the idea that the audience would get snippets of information about above stairs people - but not all of it, and what there is would be transmitted by below stairs gossip, sometimes contradictory."

Helen Mirren notes, "There are these strange stylistic contradictions going on within: it's extremely naturalistic, but there's also a touch of melodrama."

Kelly Macdonald has the pivotal role of visiting lady's maid Mary Maceachran. It is through Mary that the audience first gains entrée into Gosford Park. When Mary is summoned above stairs, though, recalls the actress, "I was usually in the background and not making eye contact with people during scenes. I could see relationships building between the above stairs actors, and we below stairs actors are building our own relationships as well. It's interesting how there's definitely an above stairs/below stairs divide - even behind the scenes amongst the actors."

Sir Derek Jacobi (cast as Probert, valet to Gosford Park owner Sir William McCordle) deadpans, "We don't mix with the Lords and Ladies above stairs, we're very, very 'umble below stairs!"

On a more serious note, Fry says, "The way the film investigates the class system, without the political banner waving, slowly reveals the ridiculousness of it - the dependency of rich adults, who own massive estates, on a servant class. Hitler and the Second World War, plus the Labour government of the 1940s, are just around the corner, so it is pretty much going to be swept away."

Mirren offers, "The characters within it are who they are and think this world is perfectly normal. I don't think it's a political comment on Britain or the English class system."

Richard E. Grant respectfully disagrees, believing Gosford Park to be "unequivocally a study of the English class system. Also of people's behavior and how the class system inherently provokes duplicitous behavior: when you're above stairs you have to be one thing, and when you're below stairs you can show your true self. It's been a source of comedy in English life and literature for the last thousand years, and long may it continue."

From concept to production, the disparity between the two settings was mined: the above stairs sequences show the characters sitting around rather languidly; while, in contrast, below stairs the characters are constantly in motion to keep up with the demands of above stairs. As the cameras rolled, the mandate for below stairs was that nobody could remain still: something was going on the entire time, even if only in the background (sewing, ironing, cleaning shoes).

Yet Altman also found subtle similarities between above and below stairs: "Below stairs, there are almost more layers of hierarchy than above stairs. Above stairs, at dinner, the same person sat next to the same person every time because of what their title was or who they were married to. But something comparable happens below stairs, where they took it even more seriously: if you are the maid to the highest titled person, you sit in relation to the head butler, emulating the same thing above stairs. Interestingly, they also dress alike - the men wear tails whether they're guests or servants!"

Along those lines, another custom, dramatized in an early Gosford Park sequence, is the "renaming" of visiting servants. As Gosford Park housekeeper Mrs. Wilson (played by Helen Mirren) explains to the visiting servants (and the audience), the below stairs visitors are referred to by the names of their employers. Thus, Gosford Park houseguest Morris Weissman's valet Henry Denton (played by Ryan Phillippe) is addressed by the Gosford Park staff as "Mr. Weissman" for the duration of his stay.

Both above and below stairs existences were thoroughly researched by the filmmakers. David Levy remembers, "I did exhaustive reading, and had a lot of fun doing it - so much so that we made a point of exposing a lot of our actors to some of the same research. To get them comfortable and secure in what they were doing, we provided the above stairs actors with books on etiquette and how to address people, while the below stairs cast were given charts about functions for every hour of the day for servants in every capacity."

From butler to valets and footmen, from housekeepers to cooks, from housemaids to kitchen maids, the below stairs household members all had specific responsibilities to ensure that the house was run smoothly and efficiently. Everyone working on Gosford Park was particularly keen to ensure that there were no inaccuracies in the depiction of life below stairs. To this end, producer Levy secured the counsel of consulting experts who had been in domestic service in 1930s England. Once retained, they remained on hand to advise throughout filming.

Arthur Inch joined the project as the consultant butler, footman, and valet. Born in 1915, Inch's father was a butler and his mother had been a housemaid. He grew up in household service and, at age 15, he was trained by his father in all the arts of private service. Thus, while still a teenager, he was able to utter the immortal words: "Dinner is served, Madam."

During production, the now-retired Inch was on hand to advise all of the male actors portraying servants and household staff on how they should behave, dress, and carry themselves. Alan Bates marvels, "We all bow before him. He is the absolute genuine article, and he knows the jobs down to their finest detail."

Inch was pleased with the results. He enjoyed the experience but confesses to being a touch overwhelmed: "It's just my life being redone. When I walked onto the set, it was like going back in time. It has been amazing for me to see this."

Ruth Mott joined the production as the consultant cook. She went into service in kitchens during the 1930s, when she was about 14 years old. She first worked at her local manor house. There, she earned 5 shillings a week, of which she sent back home over half to her mother. She has remained a cook almost ever since, and says, "I don't think there's much I don't really know about a kitchen, so I can help the actors if they get stuck. There is a huge contrast between pre-war and post-war kitchens, and I consider that I've been very lucky to see both sides."

Cast as Gosford Park cook Mrs. Croft, Dame Eileen Atkins seized on the authenticity of each domain having its leader: "Mrs. Croft doesn't mix, she's the boss of her little kingdom. The only people above her are the housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson [played by Helen Mirren] and the butler, Jennings [played by Alan Bates] - but she doesn't have very much to do with him. In her world, in the kitchen, she is the Queen, and she has quite a lot of fun at the rest of the household's expense."

As were Inch and Mott, Gosford Park consultant housemaid Violet Liddle was also in service during the 1930s. She has worked for, amongst others, George Bernard Shaw; and at Chequers (the country residence of the U.K.'s Prime Minister). The concept of a housemaid seeing and hearing much of interest and remaining discreet (or not) is one that is also explored in Gosford Park - especially from the vantage point of head housemaid Elsie (played by Emily Watson).

Cast members were given extracts of Lady Troubridge's The Book of Etiquette, among them the following: 'It would appear that there are people who feel that those who labour in the capacity of servants are inferior, but in most cases it is those who place servants on a lower plane who are themselves inferior. We owe to those who take part in the work…more than the wages we pay them: we owe them gratitude, courtesy and kindness. They, equally, should treat their employers with courtesy and kindness, and they should regard it as beneath their self-respect to ask wages for work which they are not fitted to perform. A reliable servant holds a place of importance in the home, and it should be recognised in the social world as a place worthy of courtesy and respect.'

Lady Troubridge's instructions for servants go on to emphasize moving quickly and quietly; not speaking unless necessary; not rattling knives, forks, or plates; ensuring that hands are scrupulously clean; and not breathing heavily.

While the breathing may have been easier above stairs, etiquette was essential there as well. Here too Gosford Park actors found themselves scrupulously researching proper behavior. Kristin Scott Thomas laughs, "We were given a kind of care package, with rules on how to hold your knife and fork; when to stand and sit down; and how to address people."

Indeed, the complications and intricacies of life above stairs would be overwhelming for 21st century society. Complete Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen offers these instructions on the proper manner in which to eat a grape: 'Grapes are placed in the mouth and the skin is lightly withdrawn. The seeds must be removed on the fork, which you hold sideways to your mouth to receive them. Place the seeds on the dessert plate.'

Even more apropos for the Gosford Park cast, Eileen Terry's Etiquette for All provided numerous examples of how to behave during country house parties, with information regarding attire, dancing, motoring, and, perhaps most helpfully, turning in for the night: 'Remember that you must not go to bed when you choose, however tired you may be - unless you are really feeling unwell, a horrible sensation when on a visit! It is the hostess' duty to make the first move for bed.'

Another scenario that proved to be relevant to the production was post-supper entertainment in the drawing room. Once again, an excerpt from Lady Troubridge had the answers: 'It is not unusual nowadays to provide music after dinner…if good but not of too serious an order, music is generally enjoyed. If the music is to be serious, then only those persons who appreciate it should be invited. It is a sad sight to see poor Colonel Jones, who would appreciate a comic song or sentimental ballad, condemned to listen to a long string quartet! But whatever the music provided, it is the height of bad manners to talk while a performance is in progress.'

Real Life: Ivor Novello

It was Robert Altman who thought of incorporating the real-life U.K. matinee idol Ivor Novello into the fictitious Gosford Park setting. He comments, "About twenty years ago, I was involved in a project where I came across Novello. I now have a whole library of his music. I thought it would be good to have the anchor of one real person within the story - and he would also furnish us with some music."

Born in Wales in 1893, Ivor Novello was one of the greatest British actors and composers of his day. An immensely popular matinee idol during the silent era, he was also a gifted playwright, screenwriter, and producer of numerous plays and romantic musicals for the stage. Several of those were later made into films.

First and foremost a composer, he received his musical training at the Magdalen College Choir School in Oxford, where he was a superior boy soprano. His first song was published in 1910, and he went on to write many successful numbers for musical comedies and revues in London. In 1914, he composed the most popular song of the First World War, "Keep the Home Fires Burning," which made him famous. After entertaining the troops in war-torn France, in 1916 Novello became a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service. He survived two crash landings, and continued to compose whenever he had the chance.

After the War, in 1919, Novello embarked on his career as a film actor. He made over a dozen silent films in all and several early talkies, including two directed by Alfred Hitchcock: Downhill (1927), adapted from a play that Novello co-wrote; and the hit The Lodger (1926). The latter was remade several times, including another film with Novello again starring in the lead. It is this 1932 version (a.k.a. The Phantom Fiend), directed by Maurice Elvey, that is the subject of a dialogue exchange in Gosford Park.

Also in 1932, Novello's comedy Fresh Fields enjoyed a successful run on the London stage. Whitaker's Almanac named him Dramatist of the Year, for, in addition to the hit comedy, his Proscenium had a long run; however, a third play from his pen, Flies in the Sun, did not attract an audience. All told, Novello wrote or co-wrote 14 plays and appeared in 24, including Shakespeare's Henry V. However, his real love was composing lush, romantic, and sentimental musicals. He wrote waltzes and popular tunes and during the '30s and '40s he created eight elaborately staged musicals, starring in six of them. He composed over 250 songs.

When he died in 1951, 7,000 people attended his funeral. The women outnumbered the men 50 to 1.

Jeremy Northam, who portrays Novello, notes, "It is slightly odd to play a person who actually lived and was very well-known, within this fictitious supposition of what part of his life might have been. Within the story he's something of a device, because he brings people who are not part of this aristocratic country house circle into that world to explore it. His music is also essential to the film. Most of my work before we started shooting involved trying to find out about him and define a personality for him. It was not our intention that I should impersonate Ivor Novello, but that I would get the essence of his personality and try to find appropriate music."

Northam's eldest brother Christopher is a professional pianist. Although himself an accomplished pianist, Jeremy looked to his brother for help with the music and to be reminded what it is like to play in public: "Sometimes you realize that being at the piano is the safest place to be, because from that vantage point you can see the rest of the world going by and you become comfortable with that sense of detachment."

The music also heightens yet another difference between above stairs and below stairs: when Novello plays after supper in the drawing room the aristocrats seem bored, while all through the halls the servants are drawn to listen to the music as if under a spell - they are truly entertained.

Reel Life: Morris Weissman

The character of Hollywood film producer Morris Weissman, played by real-life Gosford Park producer Bob Balaban, is a guest at Gosford Park who has been brought along by his friend Ivor Novello. Unlike Ivor Novello, though, Morris Weissman is a character fictionalized for Gosford Park.

The 20th Century Fox project that the fictitious Weissman is hard at work on, however, did indeed get made: Charlie Chan in London was filmed at the end of 1933 and released in 1934. Gosford Park screenwriter Julian Fellowes laughs, "Charlie Chan in London [produced by John Stone and directed by Eugene Forde] is all about the Chinese detective [played by Warner Oland in the sixth of his sixteen appearances as Chan] going to an English house party. So we created this joke-within-a-joke. But it's also a device: it's easy to see how extraordinary these rituals are that the upper classes take for granted, when an outsider, be it Charlie Chan or Morris Weissman, comes to observe them."

In the Time of Gosford Park

This period in British history is well-documented in two books, one by a man of politics and the other by a man of letters: John F. Kennedy wrote While England Slept; and Robert Graves (author of I, Claudius) wrote The Long Week-end. The latter book closely surveys England's manners, mores, and social customs in the years between World War I and World War II.

While England was between the Wars in 1932, some of the historical occurrences that year were early indicators of the conflict to come: the Nazi Party led Germany's elections with 230 Reichstag seats, while widespread famine afflicted the USSR. Japan's aggression in Manchuria was protested by the United States.

Back in the U.S., Congress set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to stimulate the economy, while veterans of the First World War marched on Washington to lobby for cash bonuses (an idea rejected by the Senate).

Also in 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. New books were published at a rate of about 40 each day. The English author John Galsworthy won the Nobel Prize for Literature, while Pearl S. Buck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth. The year's Best Picture winner at the Academy Awards was Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel, starring Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, and Joan Crawford.