The English Patient (film)
The English Patient | |
---|---|
Directed by | Anthony Minghella |
Screenplay by | Anthony Minghella |
Produced by | Saul Zaentz |
Starring | |
Cinematography | John Seale |
Edited by | Walter Murch |
Music by | Gabriel Yared |
Production company | Tiger Moth Productions |
Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 162 minutes[1] |
Country |
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Languages |
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Budget | $27 million[2] |
Box office | $232 million[2] |
The English Patient is a 1996 American romantic drama 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 was released to critical acclaim, and received 12 nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, eventually winning nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche.
Plot
In the final days of the Italian Campaign of World War II, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse working and living in a bombed Italian monastery, looks after a critically burned man who speaks English but cannot remember his name. They are joined by Kip, a Sikh sapper in the British Army who defuses bombs and has a love affair with Hana before leaving, and David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who was questioned by Germans and has had his thumbs cut off during a German interrogation. He questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past.
The patient tells Hana and Caravaggio that, in the late 1930s, he was exploring the desert of Libya. 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 Englishman Peter Madox and others. Their expedition is joined by a British couple, Geoffrey and Katherine Clifton. Katherine and Almásy have an affair, which she abruptly ends. The explorers find and document the Cave of Swimmers and the surrounding area until they are stopped due to the onset of the war. Madox leaves his Tiger Moth plane at Kufra oasis before returning to England.
While Almásy is packing up their base camp, Geoffrey, in attempted murder-suicide, deliberately crashes his plane, narrowly missing Almásy. Geoffrey is killed instantly, Katherine is seriously injured. Almásy carries her to the cave, leaving her with provisions, and begins a three-day walk to get help. At British-held El Tag he attempts to explain the situation, but is detained as a possible German spy and transported on a train. He escapes the train and trades the Geographical Society maps to the Germans for gasoline. He finds Madox's Tiger Moth and flies back to the cave, but Katherine has died. As he flies himself and Katherine's body away, they are shot down by German anti-aircraft guns. Katherine's body is not recovered; Almásy is badly burned but is rescued by a Bedouin.
After he has related the story, Almásy asks Hana for a lethal dose of morphine; she complies and reads Katherine's final journal entries to him as he dies. She and Caravaggio leave the monastery for Florence.
Cast
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Production
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.[3] During the development of the project with 20th Century Fox, according to Minghella, the "studio wanted the insurance policy of so-called bigger" actors.[4] Zaentz recalled, "they’d look at you and say, ‘Could we cast Demi Moore in the role?"[5] Not until Miramax Films took over was the director's preference for Scott Thomas accepted.[4]
The film was shot on location in Tunisia and Italy.[6] with a production budget of $31 million.[7]
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002)[8] 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.[9]
Two types of aircraft are used in the film,[10] a De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth and a Boeing-Stearman Model 75. Both are biplanes.[11][12] The camp crash scene was made with a ½-size scale model.
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 84% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 75 reviews, concluding. "Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving."[13] The film also has a rating of 87% on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".[14] 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."[15] In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin rated the film 3½ 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".[16]
The film was a major plot point in a Seinfeld episode of the same name from the 8th season, The English Patient (Seinfeld). The episode features Elaine intensely disliking the film, while her friends and colleagues enjoy it. [17]
Awards
Year | Category | Distinction | Date Checked | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
1998 | AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies | Nominated | ||
2002 | AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions | #56 | ||
2005 | AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores | Nominated | ||
2007 | AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)[21] | Nominated | ||
1999 | BFI Top 100 British films | #55[22] |
References
Notes
- ^ "The English Patient (15)". British Board of Film Classification. December 4, 1996. Retrieved March 4, 2013.
- ^ a b The English Patient at Box Office Mojo
- ^ Ondaatje, Michael (March 24, 2008). "Remembering my friend Anthony Minghella". The Guardian. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ a b Blades, John (November 24, 1996). "'The English Patient': Minghella's Film Fitting Treatment of Ondaatje Novel". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ "Saul Zaentz producer of Oscar winning movies dies at 92". The New York Times. January 5, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
{{cite news}}
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suggested) (help) - ^ "Film locations for The English Patient (1996)". movie-locations.com. 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Shulgasser, Barbara (November 22, 1996). "Masterful 'English Patient'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Random House Inc.
- ^ Bolton, Chris (August 31, 2002). "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje". Powell's Books. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ "The English Patient". The Internet Movie Plane Database. 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ "De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth". Aviastar.org. 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ "Stearman Model 75: History, performance and specifications". pilotfriend.com. 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ The English Patient at Rotten Tomatoes
- ^ The English Patient at Metacritic
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 22, 1996). "The English Patient Movie Review (1996)". rogerebert.com. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ Maltin, Leonard (2013). 2013 Movie Guide. Penguin Books. p. 416. ISBN 978-0-451-23774-3.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697691/
- ^ a b Van Gelder, Lawrence (March 25, 1997). "'English Patient' Dominates Oscars With Nine, Including Best Picture". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved June 18, 2008.
- ^ a b "The 69th Academy Awards (1997) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved November 23, 2011.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1997 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved January 8, 2012.
- ^ "AFI's 100 YEARS…100 Movies Official Ballot" (PDF). American Film Institute. 2006. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- ^ "BFI's Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century". listal.com. 2015. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
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 (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 0-8108-5910-6.
External links
- 1996 films
- 1990s romantic drama films
- 1990s war films
- British films
- British epic films
- British romantic drama films
- American films
- American epic films
- American war films
- American romantic drama films
- English-language films
- German-language films
- Italian-language films
- Arabic-language films
- Films directed by Anthony Minghella
- Best Drama Picture Golden Globe winners
- Films that won the Best Original Score Academy Award
- Best Picture Academy Award winners
- Films based on Canadian novels
- Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winning performance
- Films set in the British Empire
- Films set in Egypt
- Films set in Libya
- Films set in Italy
- Films set in the 1930s
- Films set in the 1940s
- Films shot in Rome
- Films shot in Tunisia
- Films that won the Best Costume Design Academy Award
- Films that won the Best Sound Mixing Academy Award
- Films whose art director won the Best Art Direction Academy Award
- Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography Academy Award
- Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award
- Films whose editor won the Best Film Editing Academy Award
- Miramax films
- Romantic epic films
- War romance films
- World War II films
- Film scores by Gabriel Yared
- Films produced by Saul Zaentz
- Best Film BAFTA Award winners
- Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award