# Gosford Park

Gosford Park is a 2001 film, set in 1932, showing the lives of upstairs guests and downstairs servants at a party in a country house in England.
    Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Julian Fellowes.

## Lady Trentham

* If there's one thing I don't look for in a maid, it's discretion. Except with my own secrets, of course.

## Mrs. Wilson

* What gift do you think a good servant has that separates them from the others? It's the gift of anticipation. And I'm a good servant. I'm better than good. I'm the best. I'm the perfect servant. I know when they'll be hungry and the food is ready. I know when they'll be tired and the bed is turned down. I know it before they know it themselves.

## Dorothy

* I believe in love. Not just getting it, but giving it. I think that if you're able to love someone, even if they don't know it, even if they can't love you back, then it's worth it.

## Dialogue

    Lady Trentham: He's still got that vile little dog, I see.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Yes, the ones we hate last forever.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Mrs Wilson, a major crisis has arisen. I've just found out that Mr Weissman won't eat meat and I don't know what to do and I can't ask Mrs Croft. I simply don't dare.
    Mrs. Wilson: Oh, everything's under control your ladyship. Mr Weissman's valet informed us as soon as he arrived so we've prepared a special version of the soup, he can eat the fish and the hors d'oeuvres, there'll be a welsh rarebit for the game course, I'm not sure what we're going to do about the entree but we'll think of something.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Thank you Mrs Wilson. Ten steps ahead as always. Which one of you is Mr Weissman's valet?
    Henry Denton: I am, your Ladyship.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Are you indeed. Yes. Well. Thank you for your...[pause while she takes a good look at him] efficiency.
    Raymond Stockbridge: Well I think it's ridiculous. I'm here to shoot.
    Louisa Stockbridge: Darling, it's a relief to me to sit next to someone who isn't deaf in one ear.
    Raymond Stockbridge: How's that?
    Lady Trentham: They're rather a mixed bunch. That Mr. Weissman's very odd. Apparently, he produces motion pictures. The Charlie Chan Mysteries. Or does he direct them? I never know the difference. Mary! I suppose it's fun having a film star staying but there's always so little to talk about after the first flush of recognition. And why has Freddy Nesbitt brought that awful common little wife of his? Isabel only asked him because another gun dropped out; that's no excuse to inflict her on us all. Mary... Tomorrow, I'll have breakfast in bed, and then get straight up into the tweeds. What shirt have you brought?
    Mary Maceacran: The green with the pink stripe.
    Lady Trentham: Oh no, dear, no. No, that's quite wrong. Always something very plain for country sports, the one I wore today will do.
    Mary Maceacran: But it's soiled.
    Lady Trentham: Well, you can wash it, can't you?
    Mary Maceachran: Nobody can stab a corpse and not know it.
    Robert Parks: Really? When was the last time you stabbed a corpse?
    Henry Denton: You Brits really don't have a sense of humor do you?
    Elsie: We do if something's funny, sir.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: What are you wearing?
    Isobel McCordle: Don't you like it? You bought it.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Did I? How extraordinary of me.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Where's that wretched Mabel?
    Lady Trentham: Has anyone checked her outfit? She's probably in black velvet with a feather in her hair.
    Lavinia Meredith: She's in the morning room looking perfectly normal. Don't be such a snob, Aunt Constance.
    Lady Trentham: Me? I haven't a snobbish bone in my body.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Mr Weissman.
    Morris Weissman: Yes?
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Tell us about the film you're going to make.
    Morris Weissman: Oh, sure. It's called "Charlie Chan In London". It's a detective story.
    Mabel Nesbitt: Set in London?
    Morris Weissman: Well, not really. Most of it takes place at a shooting party in a country house. Sort of like this one, actually. Murder in the middle of the night, a lot of guests for the weekend, everyone's a suspect. You know, that sort of thing.
    Lady Trentham: How horrid. And who turns out to have done it?
    Morris Weissman: Oh, I couldn't tell you that. It would spoil it for you.
    Lady Trentham: Oh, but none of us will see it.
    Henry Weissman: How do you put up with these people?
    Ivor Novello: You forget I earn my living by impersonating them.
    Lady Trentham: Tell me, what happened to William's little maid? I never saw her again after that dinner.
    Mary Maceachran: Elsie?
    Lady Trentham: Hmm.
    Mary Maceachran: She's gone.
    Lady Trentham: Aw, it's a pity, really. I thought it was a good idea to have someone in the house who is actually sorry he's dead.
    Henry Denton: Who is it?
    Lottie: Oh, I'm ever so sorry, sir.
    Henry Denton: Sorry for what?
    Lottie: I'm supposed to get the fire lit without waking you.
    Henry Denton: Why does everyone treat me as if I were one of these stupid snobs? I spent half the week downstairs with all of you.
    Lottie: You can't be on both teams at once, sir.
    Lavinia Meredith: I don't care what's changed or not changed as long as our sons are spared what you all went through.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Not all. You never fought, did you, William?
    Sir William McCordle: I did my bit.
    Louisa Stockbridge: Of course you did.
    Lady Sylvia McCordle: Well, you made a lot of money but it's not quite the same as charging into the cannon's mouth, is it?
    Lady Trentham: Could you imagine someone being hanged because of something I said?
    Mary Maceachran: I know. And what purpose could it possibly serve?

## Cast

* Maggie Smith - Lady Constance Trentham
* Kelly Macdonald - Mary Maceachran
* Jeremy Northam - Ivor Novello
* Michael Gambon - Sir William McCordle
* Kristin Scott Thomas - Lady Sylvia McCordle
* Camilla Rutherford - Isobel McCordle
* Charles Dance - Lord Raymond Stockbridge
* Geraldine Somerville - Louisa Stockbridge
* Tom Hollander - Anthony Meredith
* Natasha Wightman - Lavinia Meredith
* Bob Balaban - Morris Weissman
* James Wilby - Freddie Nesbitt
* Claudie Blakley - Mabel Nesbitt
* Laurence Fox - Rupert Standish
* Trent Ford - Jeremy Blond
* Ryan Phillippe - Henry Denton
* Stephen Fry - Inspector Thompson
* Clive Owen - Robert Parks
* Helen Mirren - Mrs. Wilson
* Eileen Atkins - Mrs. Croft
* Emily Watson - Elsie

## External links

* Gosford Park quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Gosford Park at Rotten Tomatoes