Gosford Park And An Observation

Once when I asked my friend for a Wodehouse, he pushed me back. These are not your kind of stories, was his reason. For my "Claiming to read Anything" ego, this was kind of unacceptable. These are not kind of people you would ever relate to, he said. These are about the people who have a lot of undeserved wealth and just talk and talk. They never work. It is just the wit in their conversations, that is so good about these books. You would not like them, he said.

Anyways, I went on and tried reading a Wodehouse. It was about a character called PSmith . I am embarrassed to say that I do not even remember the name of the book. I could not finish the book. I think my friend was right.

The initial few reels of Gosford Park brought the same dread back in me. But, after watching Gosford Park, I came across one realization. Whenever we observe or read about the lives of others, we relate to their conflicts more than their happinesses. The reason could be plain spite, empathy or sympathy, but maybe that is what links you to a story more than anything. I guess that is why a certain Rocky Balboa is so popular. He has those self doubting conflicts of an everyman. Remember that last scene in the final installment Rocky Balboa when he walks away from the arena with his people before even the results are announced.The greatness of the scene lies in the conquest of self doubt rather than its quantification and sums up everything him and our love for him stands for.

Gosford Park to my humble observation strives on these conflicts and that is what kept me going on this movie. The Best part is that these conflicts most of time are just undercurrents. And you as a viewer are supposed to understand them. The less you judge, the more you know.

Gosford Park is in core a murder mystery.But I think that is just a reason to tag it to a genre. It is more about the people who have gathered in a country mansion in England for a shooting party. The Mix of the people belong to that stereotype of British bourgeoisie, where people are affected so much by others lives and are so quick to judge them.The movie is scandalous for most of its course with infidelity galore emphasizing more on that stereotype.

The Stereotype is just be a pretext. The brilliance of the movie lies in some moments where the camera just pans on certain characters out of the blue and concentrates on their lonely moments. These are the moments which are so cleverly few and far between those tiring rounds of conversations that make the whole story so human. The reason being that the scenes preceding these moments these characters behave so synthetically that a certain honest corner in you cringes. And in these moments you as a viewer are made to identify with their conflicts and actually try to guess their fears.

In essence, the story concentrates on mannerisms of many and lives of few. Two of them are kept indifferent to these proceedings and one other indulged. The indulged one is a maid called Dorothy(Sophie Thompson) who is shown more as an observer of the proceedings and is often amused or shocked.

The indifferent ones Robert Parks(Clive Owen) and Mrs. Wilson(Helen Mirren) are shown rarely.Helen Mirren plays a head maid who is more often shown concentrating on the job at hand.This is a master act by Helen Mirren who always seems to be holding something up her sleeve.

The most brilliant moment in the movie where she walks into the room of Clive Owen and inquires if the hospitality is good enough. You are thrown into the scene without any information,but Helen Mirren brings so much to the table with her dignified performance in that scene that you just live in that moment and know what is to come.

I think talking about the story would not be much fruitful.Nor what will happen at the end.These is no lesson in it. It is only people and their fallacies. It may be about us in a different surrounding. For once, we just need to observe everything and take we lessons home.And I may just be writing about all this due to only a realization.