![]() With The English Patient, Minghella proves that a movie love story can be smart, principled and provoking, and still sweep you away. The English Patient, that Michael Ondaatje met the master film and sound. Flashbacks reveal how the cool, cynical Almasy becomes drunk on Katharine, forging his honor through a commitment that prevails over the conflicting loyalties of war. On first seeing Katharine, Almasy is told by a friend: “She’s charming, and she’s read everything,” Intellect and carnality fuse combustibly in the rhapsodically sexy Scott Thomas. Katharine betrays her husband (a superb, touching Colin Firth) in scenes of sizzling eroticism with Almasy that lead to scalding guilt. And Scott Thomas, mistaken as chilly by those who know her only from Four Weddings and a Funeral, is an incandescent revelation in her first full-out romantic role. It’s the memories of the English patient, filtered through pain and drug-induced delirium, that provide the focus for Minghella, whose artful script and direction mark him as a master of intimate emotion.įiennes, in or out of disfiguring makeup, gives a performance of probing intelligence and passionate heart. Binoche and Andrews are vibrant and moving, though the back story of Hana and Kip’s interracial affair has been truncated for the screen. This hypnotic epic, impeccably produced by Saul Zaentz ( Amadous) and stunningly shot by John Seale ( Witness), moves across time and the borders of Italy, Egypt and North Africa to link its two love stories. Yet Ondaatje’s poetic spirit flares brightly onscreen. 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. Minghella, born in England to Italian parents, imposes a more linear structure, maximizes Almasy and Katharine at the expense of other characters, and sacrifices some of the book’s mystery for cinematic coherence. In the opening scene, a small propeller airplane carrying a man and a woman is shot. The movie is set in the years before and during World War II. ![]() It also won four BAFTA Awards, including best picture, as well as the Golden Globe Award for best drama. Ondaatje, a Canadian citizen born in Sri Lanka, told his story in lyrical bursts. The English Patient, British-American film, released in 1996, that won glowing reviews and nine Academy Awards, including that for best picture. Writer and director Anthony Minghella ( Truly, Madly, Deeply) has altered the novel. Admirers of the 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje won’t remember things beginning that way because they didn’t. German fire sends them parachuting to the desert in flames, his body clinging to hers in a paradigm of love and death. It’s clear from the shimmering, startling opening shot: Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), a Hungarian count, desert explorer and pilot, is flying Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), the married Englishwoman he loves, over the Sahara in a small plane during World War II. Screen It (spoilers) MaryAnn Johanson 25 Years Later Paul Keelan. Get ready for the great romance of the movie year. The English Patient (1996) - Movies, TV, Celebs, and more.
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