It is recommended to watch a season of Downton Abbey first. It will be much easier to have some understanding of the "process" of life in the English manor a hundred years ago. I even think Downton Abbey is a full imitation of this Gosford Manor, or a tribute.
The film is set in a complex life scene, and uses a more complex and fast approach to tell the story between different characters. The estranged husband and wife of the manor and their respective pursuits; the husband and wife problems that the daughter of the manor cannot escape; the Hollywood producer who is addicted to his own business; the movie star who pretends to be a servant to experience life.
The servant's story is even better. There are also fat maids who seduce men for pleasure; there are maids who love the manor and even offend his wife and were forced to leave her job (I think she is the most representative character in this film, breaking away from the shackles of the old world) ;The climax of the movie is that the illegitimate son of the manor "lurks" as a servant to kill his father, but he does not know who poisoned him first and why; the only person who anticipated his motives was his mother, an old maid, in order to protect The son first poisoned the manor owner.
The police who came to handle the case slapped him, walked through the motions, and even prevented his subordinates from conducting in-depth investigations. He knew that none of these people could offend him. And it seems that many relatives, lovers and servants are numb to the murder of the manor owner, and everyone quickly returns to their own troubles in their own lives. And the sensitive and curious maid Mary found all the answers like a real detective. After listening to all the "confessions", her choice was let it go.
When the director tells this huge and complex story, even the dialogues of different characters overlap, and the details may not be the most important. The pouring rain when everyone comes to the manor at the beginning of the film is in stark contrast to the sunshine at the end, and the audience suddenly forgets the murder, and everything seems to be unchanged. The manor is the representative of the old world, and the management can't see any difference from the outside, but the times are changing drastically, breaking away from the old world, the aristocratic power represented by the manor is being broken and powerless.
The maid who poisoned the manor's owner was brilliant in describing what it means to be a good servant, "a good servant should anticipate the needs of the master, even before the master himself realizes it." Does it sound familiar? Times have changed, but the manor owner has become the owner/manager of a modern business. It turns out we still live in the old world.
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