“Anticipation” says Mrs. Wilson(Helen Mirren) is the mark of a good servant. To know when and exactly what the person you are serving wants, knowing it better than they know themselves. In Altman’s anthropological exploration of class relations, anticipation becomes the central moment. In his film the servants are the class that make the party and the rituals function even if they don’t participate themselves. In film-making terms they are the crew and the people above are the cast. If in La Regle du Jeu there is flux and transfer and brief moments when the masters and servants find mutual accord before the restoration of the social order. Here the order is ritually maintained and coded and performed and for some, this performance is improved upon by a perfectly timed murder.