Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

Watched “Gosford Park” on DVD. It is a very nice film. I liked it for several reasons.

Firstly, it had the biggest number of characters that I can remember seeing in one movie. Despite of that, character development was excellent. And it was totally not intrusive. I didn’t notice how all of them were introduced to me, but I was pretty comfortable with that amount of new faces. There must have been about 30 or 40 people. Or at least that is my impression.

Secondly, I liked the way human relationships were pictured. No matter what bars you raise to separate people of one social group from the other, they will blend and bend if they are to interract, not to mention depend on each other. Like, say, lords and servants.

Thirdly, this film had an excellent atmosphere. It felt a lot like 1930s, but it wasn’t too distant. Everyone was smoking a lot, dialogues were modernized a bit, and few other small touches here and there. Excellent soundtrack helped to create and maintain the atmosphere.

I wish there was a tiny bit of suspense in there though. I am all for dialogue-only films, but suspense is what keeps me interested. Like the “Reserviour Dogs“, for example.

I would rate this movie as a 7 out of 10. Watch it if you are not folling a sleep and need something slow with many people in one house, lots of talk, relationships, and intrigues.