The English Patient (film)

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

The English Patient is a 1996 American romantic war drama film directed by Anthony Minghella from his own script based on the novel of the same name by Michael Ondaatje and produced by Saul Zaentz. The film tells the story of Count László de Almásy, who is burned from a plane crash and tells his past story in flashbacks involving a romantic affair, while he is tended by a nurse.

The film was released to critical acclaim, and received 12 nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, winning nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. 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.^[6]

Plot[edit]

In the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, obtains permission from her unit to move into a bombed-out Italian monastery, to look after a dying, critically burned man who speaks English but cannot remember his name. The patient's 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 unexploded bombs in the local area, including one in the monastery where Hana and the English Patient are residing. 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 to him, Hana and Kip through a series of flashbacks.

The patient tells Hana and Caravaggio that, in the late 1930s, he was exploring a region of the Sahara Desert near the Egyptian-Libyan border. He is revealed to be 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 are to contribute to the aerial survey efforts. 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.

While Almásy is packing up the base camp at the cave site, Geoffrey, in an attempted murder-suicide having apparently long known about the affair between Almásy and Katharine, deliberately crashes his own Boeing-Stearman plane, narrowly missing Almásy. Geoffrey is killed instantly and Katharine is seriously injured. Almásy carries her to the Cave of Swimmers, realising she is wearing the thimble he gave to her on a chain around her neck. She confesses that she has always loved him despite ending their affair. After leaving her with provisions, Almásy begins a three-day walk across the desert to get help. At British-held El Tag he attempts to explain the situation, but on revealing his name, is detained on suspicion of being a German spy and transported on a train. He escapes from the train, and soon afterwards comes in contact with a German army unit. They transport him to Madox's sequestered plane at Kufra Oasis, where he exchanges its stored survey maps for fuel, enabling him to fly back to the cave. However, he finds that Katharine has since died. He takes a letter she has written to him by torchlight to fold into his book, and he flies himself and Katharine's body away. Before long, though, the plane is shot down by German anti-aircraft guns. Almásy is badly burned and is rescued by a group of Bedouin, who bring him to the Siwa Oasis from where he is moved to Italy.

After he has related his story, Almásy indicates to Hana that he wishes to die, pushing several unopened vials of morphine towards her as she gives him his regular injection for pain relief. Though visibly upset, she grants his wishes for a compassionate death and reads Katharine's final letter to him as he dies. She and Caravaggio leave the monastery for Florence with a passing army truck, and she hugs Almásy's book to herself as she rides away.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

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.^[7] During the development of the project with 20th Century Fox, according to Minghella, the "studio wanted the insurance policy of so-called bigger" actors.^[8] Zaentz recalled, "they'd look at you and say, 'Could we cast Demi Moore in the role'?"^[9] Not until Miramax Films took over was the director's preference for Scott Thomas accepted.^[8]

The film was shot on location in Tunisia and Italy.^[10] with a production budget of $31 million.^[5]

The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002)^[11] by Michael Ondaatje is based on the conversations between the author and film editor. Murch, with a career that already included complex works like 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.^[12]

Two types of aircraft are used in the film,^[13] a De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth and a Boeing-Stearman Model 75. Both are biplanes.^[14][15] 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, featured in the film.

Reception[edit]

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 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 7.7/10. 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."^[16] The film also has a rating of 87/100 on Metacritic, based on 31 critical reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[17] 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".^[18] 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".^[19]

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

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 0-8093-2488-1.
• Deer, Patrick (2005). "Defusing The English Patient". In Stam, Robert; Raengo, Alessandra. 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. 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 0-8108-5910-6.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: The English Patient

• The English Patient on 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