The English Patient (film)

The English Patient
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anthony Minghella
Screenplay by	Anthony Minghella
Based on	The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
Produced by	Saul Zaentz
Starring	Ralph Fiennes Juliette Binoche Willem Dafoe Kristin Scott Thomas Naveen Andrews Colin Firth Julian Wadham Jürgen Prochnow
Cinematography	John Seale
Edited by	Walter Murch
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Production company	Tiger Moth Productions
Distributed by	Miramax Films (through Buena Vista International outside the United States[1])
Release date	November 15, 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time	162 minutes[2]
Countries	United States[3][4] United Kingdom[5]
Languages	English German Italian Arabic
Budget	$27–31 million[6][7]
Box office	$232 million[6]

The English Patient is a 1996 epic romantic war drama film directed by Anthony Minghella from his own script based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje and produced by Saul Zaentz. The film tells the story of four people who find themselves in an abandoned monastery in northern Italy in the last months of World War II.

The eponymous protagonist, a man burned beyond recognition who speaks with an English accent, recalls his history in a series of flashbacks, revealing to the audience his true identity and the love affair he was involved in before the war. He does not admit his identity or reveal the entire story to the nurse who cares for him and the man who suspects him until the end of the film. This form of exposition is very different from the book, where, under the influence of morphine, the patient talks about his past.

The film received 12 nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, winning nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. It was also the first to receive a Best Editing Oscar for a digitally edited film. Ralph Fiennes, playing the titular character, and Kristin Scott Thomas were Oscar-nominated for their performances. The film also won five BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globes. The British Film Institute ranked The English Patient the 55th greatest British film of the 20th century.^[8]

Plot[]

In the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, gains permission from her unit to move into a bombed-out Italian monastery, to look after a dying, critically burned man who speaks English but allegedly cannot remember his name. His only possession is a copy of Herodotus' Histories, with notes, pictures and mementos contained inside.

They are soon joined by Kip, a Sikh sapper in the British Army posted with his sergeant to clear mines and booby traps left by the Germans, including one discovered in the monastery where Hana is staying with her patient. David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who has no thumbs as a result of torture during a German interrogation, also arrives to stay at the monastery. Caravaggio questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past through a series of flashbacks.

The patient reveals that in the late 1930s he was exploring a region of the Sahara Desert near the Egyptian-Libyan border. He is, in fact, Hungarian cartographer Count László de Almásy, who was mapping the Sahara as part of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya with a group including his good friend, Englishman Peter Madox. Their expedition is joined by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, who own a new plane and will contribute with aerial surveys.

Almásy is given clues by a local Bedouin man which help the group to discover the location of the Cave of Swimmers, an ancient site of cave paintings in the Gilf Kebir. The group begin to document their find, during which time Almásy falls in love with Katharine. He writes about her in notes folded into his book, which Katharine discovers when Almásy awkwardly accepts her offer of two watercolours she has painted of the cave imagery, and asks her to paste them into the book.

The two begin an affair on their return to Cairo, while the group arranges for more detailed archaeological surveys of the cave and the surrounding area. Almásy buys a silver thimble in the market as a gift to Katharine. Some months later, Katharine abruptly ends their affair from fear her husband Geoffrey will discover it. Shortly afterwards the archaeological projects are halted due to the onset of the war. Madox leaves his Tiger Moth aeroplane at Kufra Oasis before his intended return to Britain.

Over the days while Almásy relates his story, Hana and Kip begin a shy love affair, but Kip is reposted once he has cleared the area of explosives. They agree they will meet again. Meanwhile, Caravaggio reveals that he has been seeking revenge for his injuries, and has killed the German interrogator who cut off his thumbs and the spy who identified him, but has been searching for the man who provided requisite maps to the Germans, allowing them to infiltrate Cairo. He suspects Almásy is that man, and asks him point blank "Did you kill the Cliftons?", to which Almásy shakes his head no, but then concedes "Maybe... I did".

Returning to the past, Almásy is packing up the base camp when Geoffrey Clifton arrives overhead. Instead of landing he aims straight for Almásy. At the last minute, Almásy dives out of the way. Scrambling over to the wreckage he finds Geoffrey, dead at the controls. To his grief, he finds Katherine is present as well, badly hurt in the front seat. She tells him Geoffery knew, perhaps had always known. He apparently was heartbroken, and was attempting a murder-suicide. Almásy carries her to the Cave of Swimmers. He notices around her neck she is wearing a chain bearing his gift. "You're wearing the thimble" he says. "Of course, you idiot. I've always worn it. I've always loved you."

Leaving her in the cave with provisions and his book, Almásy attempts a three day walk across the desert to get help. Finally arriving at British-held El Tag, he explains the desperate situation and asks for a car, but is frustrated by the young officer's unwillingness to cooperate. Detained on suspicion of being a spy, he is transported away by train. He escapes and soon afterwards comes into contact with a German army unit. They take him to the Kufra Oasis, where Madox has hidden his plane. Exchanging maps for fuel, Almásy takes to the air and finally reaches the cave, only to find that Katharine has died. He carries her body from the cave back to the plane and takes off. The image of a plane flying across a sea of desert connects the story to the start of the film, where a plane is doing just that before it is shot down by German gunners. Almásy is badly burned, but he is pulled from the wreckage and rescued by a group of Bedouin, who bring him to the Siwa Oasis, from where he is moved to Italy. After hearing the story Caravaggio gives up his quest for revenge.

Pushing several vials of morphine towards Hana, Almásy tells her he has had enough, he wants to die. Though visibly upset, she grants his wish, and administers a lethal dose. As he drifts to sleep, she reads him Katharine's final letter, written to Almásy while she was alone in the cave. The next morning Caravaggio returns with a friend, and they get a lift to Florence. Hana holds Almásy's book tight as she rides away.

Cast[]

Production[]

Triumph 3HW 350cc motorcycle specified in the novel as Kip's choice of transport and used in the film

Saul Zaentz was interested in working with Anthony Minghella after he saw the director's film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990); Minghella brought this project to the producer's attention. Michael Ondaatje, the Sri Lankan-born Canadian author of the novel, worked closely with the filmmakers.^[9] During the development of the project with 20th Century Fox, according to Minghella, the "studio wanted the insurance policy of so-called bigger" actors.^[10] Zaentz recalled, "they'd look at you and say, 'Could we cast Demi Moore in the role'?"^[11] Not until Miramax Films took over was the director's preference for Scott Thomas accepted.^[10]

The film was shot on location in Tunisia and Italy.^[12] with a production budget of $31 million.^[7]

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002)^[13] by Michael Ondaatje is based on the conversations between the author and film editor. Murch, with a career that already included such complex works as the Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now, dreaded the task of editing the film with multiple flashbacks and time frames. Once he began, the possibilities became apparent, some of which took him away from the order of the original script. A reel without sound was made so scene change visuals would be consistent with the quality of the aural aspect between the two. The final cut features over 40 temporal transitions. It was during this time that Murch met Ondaatje and they were able to exchange thoughts about editing the film.^[14]

Two types of aircraft are used in the film,^[15] a De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth and a Boeing-Stearman Model 75. Both are biplanes.^[16][17] The camp crash scene was made with a 1⁄2-size scale model.

The Hungarian folk song, "Szerelem, Szerelem", performed by Muzsikas featuring Márta Sebestyén, was featured in the film.

Reception[]

The film received widespread critical acclaim, was a box office success and a major award winner: victorious in 9 out of 12 nominated Academy Awards categories; 2 out of 7 nominated Golden Globe Awards categories; and 6 out of 13 nominated BAFTA Award categories.

The film has a "Certified Fresh" rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 7.89/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving."^[18] The film also has a rating of 87/100 on Metacritic, based on 31 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[19] Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a four-star rating, saying "it's the kind of movie you can see twice – first for the questions, the second time for the answers".^[20] In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin rated the film 3+1⁄2 out of 4, calling it "a mesmerizing adaptation" of Ondaatje's novel, saying "Fiennes and Scott Thomas are perfectly matched", and he concluded by calling the film "an exceptional achievement all around".^[21]

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on a scale of A+ to F.^[22]

Awards[]

See also[]

• BFI Top 100 British films
• The English Patient (Seinfeld)

References[]

Further reading[]

• Blakesley, David (2007). "Mapping the other: The English Patient, colonial rhetoric, and cinematic representation". The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2488-0.
• Deer, Patrick (2005). "Defusing The English Patient". In Stam, Robert; Raengo, Alessandra (eds.). Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation. Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-23054-8.
• Minghella, Anthony (1997). The English Patient: A Screenplay by Anthony Minghella. Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-71500-0.
• Thomas, Bronwen (2000). "Piecing together a mirage: Adapting The English patient for the screen". In Giddings, Robert; Sheen, Erica (eds.). The Classic Novel from Page to Screen. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-5230-0.
• Yared, Gabriel (2007). Gabriel Yared's The English Patient: A Film Score Guide. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5910-4.

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The English Patient

• The English Patient at IMDb
• The English Patient at Box Office Mojo
• The English Patient at Rotten Tomatoes
• The English Patient at Metacritic
• Laszlo Almásy: the real English patient