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 | |
| Music by | Gabriel Yared |
| Cinematography | John Seale |
| Edited by | Walter Murch |
Production company |
Tiger Moth Productions |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
Release dates |
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Running time | 162 minutes[1] |
| Country |
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| Language |
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| Budget | $27 million[2] |
| Box office | $232 million[2] |
The English Patient is a 1996 British-American romantic drama war 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 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 Katharine Clifton. Katharine 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, Katharine 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 from 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 Katharine has died. As he flies himself and Katharine's body away, they are shot down by German anti-aircraft guns. Katharine'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 Katharine'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]
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)[20] | Nominated | ||
| 1999 | BFI Top 100 British films | #55[21] | ||
References
Notes
- ↑ "The English Patient (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 4 December 1996. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
- 1 2 The English Patient at Box Office Mojo
- ↑ Ondaatje, Michael (24 March 2008). "Remembering my friend Anthony Minghella". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- 1 2 Blades, John (24 November 1996). "'The English Patient': Minghella's Film Fitting Treatment of Ondaatje Novel". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "Saul Zaentz producer of Oscar winning movies dies at 92". The New York Times. 5 January 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2015. (subscription required (help)).
- ↑ "Film locations for The English Patient (1996)". movie-locations.com. 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ Shulgasser, Barbara (22 November 1996). "Masterful 'English Patient'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ Random House Inc.
- ↑ Bolton, Chris (31 August 2002). "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film by Michael Ondaatje". Powell's Books. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "The English Patient". The Internet Movie Plane Database. 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "De Havilland D.H.82 Tiger Moth". Aviastar.org. 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "Stearman Model 75: History, performance and specifications". pilotfriend.com. 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ The English Patient at Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ The English Patient at Metacritic
- ↑ Ebert, Roger (22 November 1996). "The English Patient Movie Review (1996)". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ Maltin, Leonard (2013). 2013 Movie Guide. Penguin Books. p. 416. ISBN 978-0-451-23774-3.
- 1 2 Van Gelder, Lawrence (25 March 1997). "'English Patient' Dominates Oscars With Nine, Including Best Picture". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved 18 June 2008.
- 1 2 "The 69th Academy Awards (1997) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
- ↑ "Berlinale: 1997 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 8 January 2012.
- ↑ "AFI's 100 YEARS…100 Movies Official Ballot" (PDF). American Film Institute. 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
- ↑ "BFI's Top 100 British Films of the 20th Century". listal.com. 2015. Retrieved 30 May 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. 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
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: The English Patient |
- 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