Themes: Star-Crossed Lovers, Infidelity, Women During Wartime
Main Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews
Release Year: 1996
Country: UK/US
Run Time: 162 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Anthony Minghella wrote and directed this award-winning adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel about a doomed and tragic romance set against the backdrop of World War II. In a field hospital in Italy, Hana (Juliette Binoche), a nurse from Canada, is caring for a pilot who was horribly burned in a plane wreck; he has no identification and cannot remember his name, so he's known simply as "the English Patient," thanks to his accent. When the hospital is forced to evacuate, Hana determines en route that the patient shouldn't be moved far due to his fragile condition, so the two are left in a monastery to be picked up later. In time, Hana begins to piece together the patient's story from the shards of his memories; he's actually Count Laszlo Almasy (Ralph Fiennes), of Hungarian nobility and an explorer working with a group mapping uncharted territory in North Africa. An Englishman, Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth), soon joins Almasy's team; travelling with him is his lovely and spirited wife, Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas). Katherine and Laszlo soon fall in love, which leads Laszlo to betray his friend, his country and all that is dear to him. Meanwhile, Hana and the Patient are joined by Kip (Naveen Andrews), a Sikh with a gift for defusing mines, and Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), an intelligence agent who knows some of Laszlo's most shameful secrets. The English Patient won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Juliette Binoche). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
The English Patient is admired for the lush, romantic texture of its story and for its visual richness. It is a complex and rewarding film, meticulously produced and featuring superb performances from an ensemble cast, particularly Juliette Binoche, whose upset Oscar win as Best Supporting Actress (over sentimental favorite Lauren Bacall) is one aspect of the film that has never been significantly under question. It is also fair to say that few films have had so quick a downward re-evaluation. The winner of nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the film was released to a smartly designed marketing campaign of snob appeal that overwhelmed the Oscar voting season. There arose an immediate and continuing consensus that nine Oscars may have been too many for this romantic war epic and that Fargo was the greater and more lasting work of 1996. Producer Saul Zaentz was the primary creative force behind the film, obtaining the financing and bringing together an unusually talented team of top-notch actors and tech personnel. The film was marketed as a triumph of "independent" filmmaking, even though it was essentially financed and distributed by its corporate parent, studio giant Disney. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide
Colin Firth - Geoffrey Clifton; Julian Wadham - Madox; Lothaire Bluteau; Nino Castelnuovo - D'Agostino; Raymond Coulthard - Douglas, Rupert; Fritz Eggert - interrogation room soldier; Clive Merrison - Fenelon-Barnes; Jürgen Prochnow - Maj. Muller, german officer; Liisa Repo-Martell - Jan; Amanda Walker - Lady Hampton; Kevin Whately - Sgt. Hardy; Geordie Johnson - Oliver; Philip Whitchurch - Corporal Dade; Matthew Ferguson - young Canadian soldier; Hichem Rostom - Fouad; Lee Ross - Spalding; Peter Ruhring - Bermann; Torri Higginson - Mary; Dominic Mafham - officer, El Taj; Jason Done - kiss me soldier; Sonia Mankai - Arab nurse; Rim Turki - Aicha; Sebastian Rudolph - officer in square; Sebastian Schipper - interrogation room soldier; Anthony Smee - Beach Interrogating Officer; Roger Morlidge - sergeant, desert train; Clive Morrison - Fenelon-Barnes; Simon Sherlock - private, desert train; Thoraya Sehill - interpreter in square; Sondess Belhassen - woman with baby in square; Salah Miled - Bedouin doctor; Abdellatif Hamrouni - ancient arab; Samy Azaiez - Kamal; Habib Chetoui - Al Auf; Phillipa Bay - officer's wife; Paul Kant - Sir Ronnie Hampton
Credit
Aurelio Crugnola - Art Director, Stuart Rose - Art Director, Paul Zaentz - Associate Producer, Steve Andrews - Associate Producer, Michelle Guish - Casting, Carolyn Choa - Choreography, Harry Rabinowitz - Conductor, Ronnie Hazlehurst - Conductor, Ronnie Hazelhurst - Conductor, Gary Jones - Costume Designer, Ann Roth - Costume Designer, Gianni Arduini - First Assistant Director, Steve Andrews - First Assistant Director, Moez Kamoun - First Assistant Director, Emma Schofield - First Assistant Director, Andrea Marrari - First Assistant Director, Meriem Beshaouch - First Assistant Director, Andrea Girolami - First Assistant Director, Moslah Kraiem - First Assistant Director, Luigi Vallini - First Assistant Director, Anthony Minghella - Director, Peter Markham - Second Unit Director, Walter Murch - Editor, Bob Weinstein - Executive Producer, Harvey Weinstein - Executive Producer, Scott Greenstein - Executive Producer, Elisabetta De Leonardis - Hair Styles, Abdelijjabar Ayadi - Location Manager, Annette Carducci - Location Manager, Fabiomassimo D'Orco - Location Manager, Giorgio Gallani - Location Manager, Mokhtar Joulak - Location Manager, Brahim Toumi - Location Manager, Leila Turki - Location Manager, Alessandro von Normann - Line Producer, Ronnie Hazelhurst - Musical Arrangement, Georges Rodi - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gabriel Yared - Songwriter, Fabrizio Sforza - Makeup, Antonio Maltempo - Makeup, Alessandra Sampaolo - Makeup, Giuseppe Desiato - Makeup, Daniele Massaccesi - Camera Operator, Stuart Craig - Production Designer, John Seale - Cinematographer, Saul Zaentz - Producer, Keith Grant - Recording, Aurelio Crugnola - Set Designer, Chris Newman - Sound Recordist, Ivan Sharrock - Sound Recordist, Daniele Massaccesi - Stunts Coordinator, Franco Salomon - Stunts Coordinator, Richard Conway - Special Effects Supervisor, Franco Ballati - Unit Production Manager, Hamid Elleuch - Unit Production Manager, Lynn Kamern - Unit Production Manager, Anthony Minghella - Screenwriter, Remi Adefarasin - Second Unit Director Of Photography, Dennis Lowe - Visual Effects Supervisor, Jennifer Ware - Sound Effects Editor, Kyrsten Mate Comoglio - Sound Effects Editor, Douglas Murray - Sound Effects Editor, Vincent Abbott - Animatronic Effects, Jason Read - Animatronic Effects, Andy Roberts - Animatronic Effects, Pat Jackson - Associate Editor, Robert Randles - Music Editor, John Constable - Musical Performer, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields - Musical Performer, Shepheard's Hotel Jazz - Musical Performer, Edie Bleiman - Post Production Supervisor, Amel Becharnia - Production Coordinator, Francesca Cingolani - Production Coordinator, Gabriella DiSanto - Production Coordinator, Judith Goodman - Production Coordinator, Daniela Vecchi - Production Coordinator, Nigel Booth - Prosthetic Makeup Effects, Jim Henson's Creature Shop - Prosthetic Makeup Effects, Walter Murch - Re-Recording Mixer, Mark Berger - Re-Recording Mixer, David Parker - Re-Recording Mixer, Dianne Dreyer - Script Supervisor, Rachel Griffiths - Script Supervisor, Pat Jackson - Supervising Sound Editor, Arthur Windus - Visual Effects Producer, Mark Stannard - Visual Effects Producer, Richard Quinn - ADR Editor, John Nutt - Dialogue Editor, Sara Bolder - Dialogue Editor, Dianna Stirpe - Dialogue Editor, Giulia Chiara Crugnola - Draftsman, Jennifer Myers - Foley Artist, Margie O'Malley - Foley Artist, Marnie Moore - Foley Artist, Malcolm Fife - Foley Editor, Brian Bishop - Scenic Artist, Doug Bishop - Scenic Artist, Tony Wright - Storyboard Artist, Digital Film - Visual Effects, Paul Riddle - Visual Effects, Frazer Churchill - Visual Effects, Richard Bain - Visual Effects, Charlie Noble - Visual Effects, Stephenie McMillan - Set Decorator, Michael Ondaatje - Book Author, Mark Levinson - ADR Supervisor, Richard Duarte - Foley Mixer, Marco Besagni - Pilot, Giancarlo Giunchi - Pilot, Pacific Title - Title Design, Deborah Ross Film Design - Title Design, Aldo Gasparri - Armorer, Carlo Schmidt - Armorer
The film is set during World War II and depicts a critically burned man, at first known only as "the English patient", who is being looked after by Hana (Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse in a ruined Italian villa. The patient is reluctant to disclose any personal information but through a series of flashbacks, viewers are allowed into his past. It is slowly revealed that he is in fact a Hungariangeographer, Count László de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes), who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas) ultimately brought about his present situation. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a Canadian thief/intelligence operative, arrives at the monastery. Caravaggio lost his thumbs while being interrogated by officers of the German Afrika Korps, and he gradually reveals that it was the patient's actions that had brought about his torture.
In addition to the patient's story, the film devotes time to Hana and her romance with Kip (Naveen Andrews), an Indiansapper in the British Army. Due to various events in her past, Hana believes that anyone who comes close to her is likely to die, and Kip's position as a bomb defuser makes their romance full of tension.
Production
In his book The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002) Michael Ondaatje records his conversations with the film's editor and sound designer Walter Murch, who won two Academy Awards for the film. Murch describes the complexity of editing a film with multiple flashbacks and timeframes; he edited and reedited numerous times and notes that the final film features over 40 time transitions.
The movie was filmed on location in Tunisia and Italy.
Reception
The film garnered widespread critical acclaim and was a major award winner as well as a box office success; its awards included the Academy Award for Best Picture, the Golden Globe Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Juliette Binoche won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, winning out over Lauren Bacall for The Mirror Has Two Faces (it would have been Bacall's only Oscar win, and in her acceptance speech Binoche commented that she had expected Bacall to win). Anthony Minghella took home the Oscar for Best Director. Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes were nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor. In all, The English Patient was nominated for an impressive 12 awards and ultimately walked away with 9. It is the highest-grossing non-IMAX film (and second highest-grossing film overall) to never reach the weekend box office top 5.[2]
The English Patient is one of only two Best Picture winners (Amadeus the other) to never enter the weekend box office top 5 since top 10 rankings were first recorded in 1982.[3][4]
Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the movie a 4/4 rating, saying "it's the kind of movie you can see twice - first for the questions, the second time for the answers."[5]
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. ISBN0809324881.
Massood, Paula J. (2005). "Defusing The English Patient". in Stam; Raengo, Alessandra. Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation. Blackwell. ISBN0631230548.
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. ISBN0719052300.
Yared, Gabriel (2007). Gabriel Yared's The English Patient: A Film Score Guide. The Scarecrow Press. ISBN0810859106.
