Multi-line narrative has never been Robert Altman’s weakness. It can be judged from the eloquent scheduling in "Silver, Sex, Men and Women", but "Gosford Manor" is not just a multi-line narrative. Simple, in fact, after the generation of Hollywood "movie boys" parted ways, Altman has gone a long way on the anti-Hollywood non-mainstream road.
From the other translation of "Gosford Manor", "Mist Manor", I can already smell the taste of Agatha Christie. In the mighty volumes of Apo's novels, it is named XX Manor, or XX mystery. There have been several works, and the plot structure is generally a murder in a fixed scene that is not disturbed by the outside world. It seems that everyone involved is suspected of being a criminal. When the case is complicated and confusing, whether it is Hercule Poirot or Hercule Poirot. Miss Jane Marple can happen to be there to solve the mystery after taking a break. The storyline and setting of "Gosford Manor" are very similar to the flavor of Agatha Christie. A group of British celebrities from the upper class "gather together". After the introduction of the main characters, the audience waited quietly under the screen. The beginning of the murder-however, this is the routine of "The Tragedy on the Nile".
Let us briefly imagine how a standard Hollywood detective film would frame this murder in Gosford Manor. First of all, the opening of the movie will be a news-style setting around the little-known manor’s brutal past (such as "Murder on the Orient Express"), and then a fast-paced montage will explain all the upcoming cases clearly and clearly. For the various roles that play the role of suspects, all the grievances between the characters and the manor must be explained clearly, so that the audience thinks that everyone is suspected of committing the crime (such as "Crimes in the Sun"), and then the victim manor should die immediately, and With all the crime scene and external tools being destroyed (such as the "Holmes Manor" case in "Detective Conan"), then the detective must stand up from a certain corner and arouse the co-operation and emotion of the parties. If it is " "Tragedy type", there will still be deaths one after another while the detective is handling the case. In the end, the detective solved the case with wisdom and luck.
However, "Gosford Manor" overthrew the golden rules of all these classic reasoning movies-first, there are no real detectives in the film, only two stupid police officers who will never be able to solve the case; second, everyone and the owner of the manor Complaints are deliberate and random explanations, permeating every seemingly insignificant conversation, directly contrary to the "three times principle" of the Hollywood film industry; third, the incident occurred when three-fifths of the film had passed, the timing The choice is really breathtaking; fourth, this is an unsolved official case; fifth, from the beginning of the film to the end of the murder, there is no change in the rhythm of the film and the life rhythm of the characters in the film, as if murder is only Exist in another world.
All of the above violates narrative conventions everywhere, but it conveys everything Robert Altmansitu has shown to the audience in a very precise manner: the director frankly admits that part of the inspiration for the film comes from Jean Renoir’s classic work "The Rules of the Game." This is a satire that puts the absurd bourgeoisie on the stage of the clown to show its arrogance, luxury, extravagance, and emotional emptiness. Altman borrows the image of hunting in the "Rules of the Game" and the theme he conveys, with another A detective story is packaged-as we all know, detective movies are actually very particular about copying the history of the perpetrator. Altman valued this feature to show the past and struggles of the characters in the movie. It's really a coup. Therefore, the characteristics of detective films such as managing murder suspense and examining the audience's reasoning ability were directly filtered by the director in "Gosford Manor", which declared the collapse of traditional narrative techniques.
In fact, this kind of storytelling method that violates traditional laws has succeeded in this film. In the final analysis, the director has carefully set up countless ingenious small conflicts between people to balance the film’s lack of big contradictions and big suspense. Malnutrition, and precisely because there is no suspense that should have attracted the audience, the audience’s attention will immediately shift to the details under the magnificent Ukiyo-e carefully planned by Altman, and all these details convey Orr. Terman's sharp portrayal of the bourgeoisie's face, so far, this anti-reasoning detective film finally allowed Robert Altman to achieve another strange work in the history of his anti-genre film creation.
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