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
Music by	Gabriel Yared
Cinematography	John Seale
Editing by	Walter Murch
Studio	Miramax Films Tiger Moth Productions
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	November 15, 1996 (1996-11-15)
Running time	162 minutes
Country	United States United Kingdom
Language	English German Italian Arabic Hungarian
Budget	$27 million
Box office	$231,976,425

The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Ondaatje worked closely with the filmmakers.

Set before and during World War II, The English Patient is a story of love, fate, misunderstanding and healing. Told in a series of flashbacks, the film can best be explained by unwinding it into its two chronological phases.

Plot

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, a French-Canadian nurse in an abandoned Italian monastery. 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 Hungarian cartographer, Count László de Almásy, who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman, Katharine Clifton, ultimately brought about his present situation. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio, a Canadian intelligence operative and former thief, arrives at the monastery. Caravaggio lost his thumbs while being interrogated by a German army officer, 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, an Indian Sikh sapper 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.

In the first phase, set in the late 1930s, the minor Hungarian noble Count Laszlo de Almásy (Fiennes) is co-leader of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and surveying expedition in Egypt and Libya. He and his English partner Madox are at heart academics with limited sophistication in the swirling politics of Europe and North Africa. Shortly after the film begins, both the morale and finances of their expedition are bolstered by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katherine Clifton that joins the exploration party. The Count is taken by the gorgeous and refined Katherine. When Geoffrey is often away from the group on other matters, an affair takes wing. The final months before the war's onset bring an archeological triumph: the Count's discovery of an ancient Saharan cave decorated with "swimming figure" paintings dating from prehistoric times, the "Cave of Swimmers". This period also sees the romance between Katherine and the Count rise to a sensuous peak and then seemingly fade. Katherine is plagued with the guilt of infidelity, while the Count shows a streak of jealousy along with an imbalance that will later haunt him.

The fall of 1939 and the war bring all excavation at the cave to a halt, and Madox and the Count go their separate ways. Geoffrey Clifton meanwhile has pieced together the outline of the affair, and seeks a sudden and dramatic revenge: crashing his plane, with Katherine aboard, into the Count's desert camp. The wreck kills Geoffrey instantly, seriously injures Katherine, and narrowly misses the Count. He manages to take Katherine into the relative shelter of the swimming figure cave, leaves her with food, water, a flashlight, and a fire, then begins his scorching three day walk back to the nearest town and help. The town is held by the British Army, and the dazed and dehydrated Count, with his non-English name, is unable to coherently explain to officials the plane crash and Katherine's plight. Instead he loses his temper during questioning and is thrown into military jail. He is sent in chains on a train "north to Benghazi", escapes, finds himself behind Afrika Korps lines and quickly trades his desert maps with the Germans for petrol for Madox's biplane, a De Havilland Tiger Moth, which he had left behind at the close of their archaeological expedition. By the time he returns to the cave, Katherine is dead – and in all but a physical sense, so is the Count. He manages to bundle Katherine's body into the plane and takes off. Mistaking the Tiger Moth for an RAF reconnaissance aircraft, a German anti-aircraft battery shoots down the plane as Almásy pilots it over the desert. Horribly burned but alive, he is rescued by Bedouin tribesmen.

Hana finds reconciliation at the film's end. Kip survives a brush with death on the war's last day and her hope in love is rekindled. The Count asks for, and dies of, an overdose of morphine from Hana. The last scene shows Hana getting a ride to Florence, where Kip was reassigned; we are left with the possibility they may be reunited.

Cast

• Ralph Fiennes as Count László Almásy
• Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton
• Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio
• Juliette Binoche as Hana
• Naveen Andrews as Kip
• Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton
• Julian Wadham as Madox
• Jürgen Prochnow as Major Muller
• Kevin Whately as Sgt. Hardy
• Clive Merrison as Fenelon-Barnes
• Nino Castelnuovo as D'Agostino
• Hichem Rostom as Fouad
• Peter Rühring as Bermann
• Geordie Johnson as Oliver
• Torri Higginson as Mary
• Liisa Repo-Martell as Jan
• Raymond Coulthard as Rupert Douglas
• Philip Whitchurch as Corporal Dade
• Lee Ross as Spalding
• Anthony Smee as Beach interrogation officer
• Matthew Ferguson as Young Canadian soldier
• Jason Done as Kiss Me soldier
• Roger Morlidge as Sergeant – Desert Train

Themes

Archaeology

Hungarian noble Count Laszlo de Almásy is co-leader of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and survey expedition in Egypt and Libya. His appearance is commonly linked to Indiana Jones, with the tanned skin, khaki attire and similar hat. Male archaeologists portrayed in films fit one of the numerous stereotypes.

The archaeological discovery of an ancient Saharan cave with "swimming figures" paintings dating from prehistoric times, the "Cave of Swimmers". The painted caves were discovered by the Hungarian explorer László Almásy in October 1933, during the Frobenius expedition. This cave is portrayed in Michael Ondaatje's Novel 'The English Patient' and the Oscar Academy Award winning film. Discovery of the Cave of Swimmers

Archaeology was becoming prevalent during World War 2, especially in Egypt. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, an entire compound of royal graves were discovered whole and preserved at Tanis. Riches, such as gold masks, silver coffins and remarkable jewelry were found. The treasures are one of the greatest archaeological findings of all time.

Production

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

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 film was shot on location in Tunisia and Italy.

Music

The film's music was composed by Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared, and won an Academy Award. See The English Patient (soundtrack).

Reception

The film received 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 for Best Motion Picture - Drama 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. Overall, The English Patient was nominated for 12 awards and ultimately walked away with 9. Its presence at the Oscars was so large that upon winning Best Original Song for Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber joked "Thank goodness there wasn't a song in The English Patient."

The English Patient is one of only three Best Picture winners (Amadeus and The Hurt Locker being the other two) to never enter the weekend box office top 5 since top 10 rankings were first recorded in 1982. It is also the highest-grossing non-IMAX film (and second highest-grossing film overall) to never reach the weekend box office top 5.

The film has a "Certified Fresh" rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews and consensus stating "Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving." The film also has a rating of 87% on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim". Noted Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film 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."

Legacy

In a season eight episode of Seinfeld, character Elaine expresses her disgust of the film, finding it terminally boring. Some of the plot points in the episode parallel that of the film.

Awards and honors

69th Academy Awards

• Won, Best Picture (Saul Zaentz)
• Won, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Juliette Binoche
• Won, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan)
• Won, Best Cinematography (John Seale)
• Won, Best Costume Design (Ann Roth)
• Won, Best Director (Anthony Minghella)
• Won, Best Film Editing (Walter Murch)
• Won, Best Original Score (Gabriel Yared)
• Won, Best Sound (Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, and Christopher Newman)
• Nominated, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Ralph Fiennes
• Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Kristin Scott Thomas
• Nominated, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Anthony Minghella)

54th Golden Globe Awards, USA

• Won, Best Motion Picture – Drama (Saul Zaentz)
• Won, Best Original Score – Motion Picture (Gabriel Yared)
• Nominated, Best Director – Motion Picture (Anthony Minghella)
• Nominated, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Ralph Fiennes
• Nominated, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama: Kristin Scott Thomas
• Nominated, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture: Juliette Binoche
• Nominated, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture (Anthony Minghella)

1997 BAFTA Awards, UK

• Won, Best Film (Saul Zaentz)
• Won, Best Cinematography (John Seale)
• Won, Best Editing (Walter Murch)
• Won, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Juliette Binoche
• Won, Best Screenplay – Adapted (Anthony Minghella)
• Won, Best Music (Gabriel Yared)
• Nominated, Best Direction (Anthony Minghella)
• Nominated, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Ralph Fiennes
• Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Kristin Scott Thomas
• Nominated, Best Costume Design (Ann Roth)
• Nominated, Best Production Design
• Nominated, Best Sound
• Nominated, Best Makeup/Hair

1997 Berlin Film Festival

• Won, Silver Bear for Best Actress (Juliette Binoche)
• Nominated, Golden Bear

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies - Nominated Film
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions - #56
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores - Nominated Score

See also

• BFI Top 100 British films

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 0-8093-2488-1. 
• 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. 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

• Official website
• The English Patient at the Internet Movie Database
• The English Patient at Box Office Mojo
• The English Patient at Rotten Tomatoes
• The English Patient at Metacritic
• Laszlo Almásy: the real English patient