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A 2001 film written by Julian Fellowes, who later went on to create Downton Abbey.

We weren’t sure if we’d seen Gosford Park before, but eventually decided that this was our second viewing. I think a repeat watching helps with this film. It’s so fast-paced, especially in the beginning. The aim is to capture the frenzied activity, upstairs and (even more) downstairs, of a country house weekend party.

Gosford Park predates Downton Abbey by a few years, but carries many of the same themes — the changing world of the aristocracy and those who are employed in service. I suspect that I understood more of what was going on in Gosford Park, in part, because I’ve been more informed by Downton Abbey.

Gosford Park is presented as a murder mystery, but the murder doesn’t take place until quite late in the story and the investigation is inept (hilariously so, as the bumbling investigator is played by Stephen Fry) and incomplete by the end of the film. The real point of the film is the, apparently, ever-popular British class system, with both a wisp of nostalgia and an illustration of the abuses and inequities inherent in that scheme.

Have you seen Gosford Park? Is it a film that you would watch a second time?