Gosford Park is a 2001 satirical black comedy mystery film directed by Robert Altman and written by Julian Fellowes.

The film, which is influenced by Jean Renoir's French classic The Rules of the Game,[3] follows a party of wealthy Britons plus an American producer, and their servants, who gather for a shooting weekend at Gosford Park, an English country house.

The film stars an ensemble cast, which includes Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Dance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, Richard E. Grant, Derek Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Emily Watson.

The TV series Downton Abbey – written and created by Fellowes – was originally planned as a spin-off of Gosford Park, but instead was developed as a standalone property inspired by the film, and set earlier in the 20th century (from 1912 to the mid-1920s).

[4] In 1932, Sir William McCordle, his wife Lady Sylvia, and their daughter Isobel host a shooting party at their country estate, Gosford Park.

Among the guests are Sylvia's sisters Louisa and Lavinia, and their husbands Lord Stockbridge and Commander Anthony Meredith; her aunt Constance, Countess of Trentham; the Hon.

Mrs Wilson, the housekeeper, assigns the visiting servants to their rooms and overhears Robert Parks, Lord Stockbridge's valet, mention being raised in an orphanage.

The guests gather in the drawing room as Novello plays the piano and sings, with the servants listening outside; Freddie, Anthony, Robert, and footman George each slip away.

The man enters the library with the missing carving knife and, finding Sir William seemingly asleep in his chair, stabs him in the chest.

Mrs Croft, the head cook, tells her staff about Sir William's history of seducing his female factory workers; those who became pregnant were forced to give their babies up for adoption or lose their jobs.

As the guests and their servants depart, Freddie, his blackmail scheme with Isobel having failed, pursues a partnership with Anthony, whose business venture has been saved by Sir William's death.

Realizing Parks was her son and that he intended to kill his father, she poisoned Sir William to ensure his only crime would be stabbing a dead body.

[7] Salon.com critic Steven Johnson notes a revival of the manor house mystery style, popularised by the writings of Agatha Christie, in the screenplay for Gosford Park.

[8] Bob Balaban, an actor and producer for Gosford Park, says that the idea of creating a murder mystery told by the servants in the manor was an interesting one for him and Altman.

Maggie Smith starred again in her role as a dowager countess, this time her title not being Trentham but Grantham; the family are related to the Marquess (rather than the Earl) of Flintshire.

[9] Altman wanted to create an Agatha Christie–like country house murder mystery that explored that way of life; he called the film a "classic situation: all suspects under one roof".

[12] Arthur Inch, the retired butler of Sir Richard and Lady Kleinwort, was the consultant on correct procedures and arrangements for dining on the set.

[24] The opening sequence outside Lady Trentham's home was shot at Hall Barn, near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, whose grounds were also used as the scene for lunch after the shoot.

[27] During production, Stephen Frears acted as a standby director, ready to replace Altman in case he was incapacitated, so that the film would receive insurance.

[30] Editor Tim Squyres described the editing process on Gosford Park as an unusual one, as the dual cameras used were generally located in the same areas when filming, instead of the more standard method of setting up a scene directly.

[32] Doyle said that it can take him up to six months to create a film score, but Altman asked him to write and compose the music for Gosford Park in less than five weeks.

"[40] However, reviewer Robert Mack generally wrote favourably of the picture quality, noting excellence in the shots' detail and sharpness and the lack of compression artefacts, but describing an unfavourable darkness to scenes filmed within the manor house.

Gonzalez wrote that "Gosford Park sounds amazing for a film so dialogue-dependent"[40] and Mack that "the audio transfer is about as good as it can get on a movie of this style.

"[41] On 26 November 2018, Arrow Films released a newly restored 2K remaster, taken from a 4K print of Gosford Park, on Limited Edition Blu-ray in the UK.

The site's critics consensus reads, "A mixture of Upstairs, Downstairs; Clue; and perceptive social commentary, Gosford Park ranks among director Altman's best.

[46] Roger Ebert awarded it his four out of four stars, describing the story as "such a joyous and audacious achievement it deserves comparison with his [Robert Altman's] very best movies.

[25] Emanuel Levy gave Gosford Park an A minus rating, describing one of its themes as "illuminating a society and a way of life on the verge of extinction",[47] placing the interwar setting as an integral part of the film's class study.

However, he notes that because Altman is an independent observer of the society he portrays in the film, it does not have the biting qualities of his previous social commentaries such as Short Cuts, set in the director's home country of the United States.

"[49] Ed Gonzalez of the online publication Slant Magazine writes that "Altman's camera is the star of Gosford Park" and that the film's cinematography is used as an aid to its storytelling.