Yesterday, we covered the London premiere of the new Downton Abbey movie, which of course I shall be seeing tout de suite. And what better time to climb into the wayback machine and visit the premieres of Gosford Park, the Robert Altman-directed flick for which Julian Fellowes won Best Original Screenplay. Downton was originally intended to be a spin-off of Gosford Park (….presumably with less murder? Although, honestly, not entirely). EVERYONE is in it — sadly, not everyone attended all the premieres — and Maggie Smith is also a dowager countess in this one. You can absolutely see the connections between the two — there’s so much upstairs/downstairs tension, and, of course, the estate itself is nearly a character, as it absolutely is in Downton. This is one of those movies that I always watch if I stumble on it on TV, and it’s also a great background movie if you’ve seen it enough. Let’s revisit the 2001 premieres!
