The eponymous protagonist, a man burned beyond recognition who speaks with an English accent, recalls his history in a series of flashbacks, revealing to the audience his true identity and the love affair in which he was involved before the war. The film ends with a definitive onscreen statement that it is a highly fictionalized account of László Almásy (died 1951) and other historical figures and events. The film received widespread critical acclaim and emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office.
A British biplane, flying across the desert, is shot down by German gunners. The badly burned pilot is pulled from the wreckage and rescued by a group of Bedouin.
When a nurse friend is killed in front of her, Hana decides she is a curse to her loved ones. She gains permission to settle in a bombed-out monastery with her patient, as he is suffering during their hospital unit's relocation.
Lieutenant Kip, a Sikhsapper in the British Indian Army posted with Sergeant Hardy to clear German mines and booby traps, soon joins them. David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who was tortured during a German interrogation, also arrives there. He questions the patient, who gradually reveals his past through a series of flashbacks. Over the days of the patient relating his story, Hana and Kip begin a shy love affair.
In the late 1930s, Hungarian cartographer László Almásy is exploring a region of the Sahara as part of a Royal Geographical Society archeological and surveying expedition group, which includes his good friend Englishman Peter Madox, and British couple Geoffrey and Katharine Clifton, who provide aerial surveys using their plane.
Almásy discovers through a Bedouin the location of the ancient Cave of Swimmers, containing cave paintings. As the group documents their findings, Almásy and Katharine fall in love. He writes about her in notes folded into his book, which she discovers when he awkwardly accepts two watercolours of the cave walls and asks her to paste them into the book.
Upon returning to Cairo, they begin an affair, while the group arranges for more detailed archaeological surveys of the cave and the surrounding area. Almásy buys her a silver thimble as a gift. Geoffrey secretly watches her from his car and realizes that she is cheating. Some months later, Katharine abruptly breaks things off, fearing the repercussions from Geoffrey. Shortly afterward the archaeological projects are halted due to the onset of the war. Madox leaves his Tiger Moth airplane at Kufra Oasis before his return to Britain.
Caravaggio now seeks revenge for his injuries, so far killing the German interrogator who cut off his thumbs and the spy who identified him, but now seeks whoever provided maps to the Germans, allowing them to infiltrate Cairo. He suspects Almásy, asking "Did you kill the Cliftons?", to which Almásy concedes "Maybe... I did".
Almásy tells Caravaggio, with Hana listening nearby, about packing camp in 1941 when Geoffrey arrives in the biplane. He aims at Almásy, who jumps out of the way, and crashes. Almásy finds Geoffrey dead at the controls and Katharine badly injured in the front seat. It was an attempted double murder-suicide, as he uncovered their affair. Almásy carries Katharine to the Cave of Swimmers. Seeing her wearing the thimble on a chain, she declares she has always loved him.
Leaving her there with provisions and his book, Almásy walks three days cross-desert. Arriving at British-held El Tag, he explains her desperate situation and asks for help, but a young officer detains him on suspicion of being a spy.
Transported away by train, Almásy escapes and eventually comes across a German army unit. They take him to the Kufra Oasis, where Madox has hidden his plane. Exchanging maps for fuel, Almásy flies to the cave, where he finds Katharine dead. Taking her on the plane, they are burned when shot down, connecting to the opening scene. After hearing the story, Caravaggio gives up his quest for revenge.
Kip is reposted once he has cleared the explosives; he and Hana agree they will meet again. Later, Almásy tells her he has had enough by pushing many vials of morphine towards her. Though distraught, Hana grants his wish, administering the lethal dose. As he drifts to sleep, she reads him Katharine's final letter, written while alone in the cave. The next morning Hana goes with Caravaggio to Florence, holding Almásy's book tightly as they ride away.
Triumph 3HW 350cc motorcycle specified in the novel as Kip's choice of transport and used in the film
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-bornCanadian author of the novel, worked closely with the filmmakers.[13] According to Minghella, during the development of the project with 20th Century Fox, the "studio wanted the insurance policy of so-called bigger" actors.[14] Zaentz recalled, "they'd look at you and say, 'Could we cast Demi Moore in the role'?"[15] After months of disputes with Fox, the studio pulled out just three weeks before production was to begin and Harvey Weinstein came in and acquired worldwide rights for Miramax Films for $27.5 million.[8][14] After Miramax became involved, the director's preference for Scott Thomas in the role of Katharine was honored.[14] To help the film get made, cast and crew agreed to salary deferrals totalling $10 million and Zaentz met the remainder of the production costs. Including the deferred costs, Variety reported the production costs at $43 million. The deferments were due to be paid after the film broke even, however, although the actors received a deferred payment of $5 million, after over three years after release, others were still waiting for their deferred salaries, subject to an audit of the figures.[8] Zaentz sued Miramax Films in 2006 claiming $20 million but the case was still unresolved when Zaentz died in 2014.[16][17]
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film[21] by Michael Ondaatje is based on the conversations between the author and film editor. Murch, with a career that already included such complex works as 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.[22]
The English Patient received widespread critical acclaim, and emerged as a major commercial success at the box-office, and received nine Academy Awards, six BAFTA awards, and two Golden Globe Awards.
Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the movie "a stunning feat of literary adaptation as well as a purely cinematic triumph".[25] In The New Yorker, Anthony Lane argues that "the triumph of the film lies not just in the force and the range of the performances—the crisp sweetness of Scott Thomas, say, versus the raw volatility of Binoche—but in Minghella's creation of an intimate epic: vast landscapes mingle with the minute details of desire, and the combination is transfixing".[26]
The film has a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 91 reviews, with an average of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Though it suffers from excessive length and ambition, director Minghella's adaptation of the Michael Ondaatje novel is complex, powerful, and moving."[27] The film also has a rating of 87/100 on Metacritic, based on 31 critical reviews.[28]Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a four-star rating, saying "it's the kind of movie you can see twice – first for the questions, the second time for the answers".[29] In his movie guide, Leonard Maltin rated the film 3+1⁄2 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".[30] In 2021, The Boston Globe called the movie a "masterpiece" in a 25-year anniversary review.[31]
Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on a scale of A+ to F.[32]
It became the highest-grossing film in the history of Miramax with a worldwide gross of $232 million.[33][6]
The film is referred to in the Seinfeld episode "The English Patient", where the character Elaine is shunned by her friends and co-workers for disliking the film.[34]
The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Michael Ondaatje. The book follows four dissimilar people brought together at an Italian villa during the Italian Campaign of the Second World War. The four main characters consist of: an unrecognizably burned man — the eponymous patient who is presumed to be English; his Canadian Army nurse; a Sikh British Army sapper; and a Canadian self described as a thief. The story is set during the North African Campaign and centers on the incremental revelations of the patient's actions prior to his injuries, and the emotional effects of these revelations on the other characters. The story is told through the characters' perspectives and "authors" of books the characters are reading.
Juliette Binoche is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English languages, and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a César Award.
Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist.
Shine is a 1996 Australian biographical psychological drama film directed by Scott Hicks from a screenplay by Jan Sardi, based on the life of David Helfgott, a pianist who suffered a mental breakdown and spent years in institutions. The film stars Armin Mueller-Stahl, Noah Taylor, Geoffrey Rush, Lynn Redgrave, Googie Withers, Sonia Todd and John Gielgud.
Cold Mountain is a 2003 epic period war drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella. The film is based on the bestselling 1997 novel by Charles Frazier. It stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and Renée Zellweger with Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, Kathy Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Jack White, Giovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, and Ray Winstone in supporting roles. The film tells the story of a wounded deserter from the Confederate army close to the end of the American Civil War, who journeys home to reunite with the woman he loves. The film was a co-production of companies in Italy, Romania, and the United States.
László Adolf Ede György Mária Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós was a Hungarian aristocrat, motorist, desert explorer, aviator, Scout-leader, and sportsman who served as the basis for the protagonist in both Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient (1992) and the movie adaptation of the same name (1996).
Anthony Minghella was a British film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He directed Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), The English Patient (1996), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), and Cold Mountain (2003), and produced Iris (2001).
Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes THX 1138, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Ghost and The English Patient, with three Academy Award wins.
In the Skin of a Lion is a novel by Canadian–Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje. It was first published in 1987 by McClelland and Stewart. The novel fictionalizes the lives of the immigrants who played a large role in the building of the city of Toronto in the early 1900s, but whose contributions never became part of the city's official history. Ondaatje illuminates the investment of these settlers in Canada, through their labour, while they remain outsiders to mainstream society. In the Skin of a Lion is thus an exposé of the migrant condition: "It is a novel about the wearing and the removal of masks; the shedding of skin, the transformations and translations of identity."
Saul Zaentz was an American film producer and record company executive. He won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and, in 1996, was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
The 69th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 24, 1997, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented the Academy Awards in 24 categories honoring films released in 1996. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates, and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the fifth time. He first presided over the 62nd ceremony held in 1990 and had last hosted the 65th ceremony held in 1993. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on March 1, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Helen Hunt.
Chocolat is a 2000 romance film, based on the 1999 novel Chocolat by the English author Joanne Harris, directed by Lasse Hallström. Adapted by screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, Chocolat tells the story of Vianne Rocher, played by Juliette Binoche, who arrives in the fictional French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes at the beginning of Lent with her six-year-old daughter, Anouk. She opens a small chocolaterie. Soon, she and her chocolate influence the lives of the townspeople of this repressed French community in different and interesting ways.
The 50th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 29 April 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 1996. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 1998.
Ann Bishop Roth is an American costume designer. In a career spanning over six decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across stage and screen. She has received various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Tony Award.
The English Patient is the original soundtrack, on the Fantasy Records label, of the 1996 Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning film The English Patient starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Willem Dafoe, Juliette Binoche and Colin Firth. The original score and songs were composed by Gabriel Yared.
Breaking and Entering is a 2006 romantic crime drama film written and directed by Anthony Minghella and starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche, and Robin Wright. It was his first original screenplay since his 1990 feature debut Truly, Madly, Deeply and his final feature film before his death in 2008. Set in a blighted, inner-city neighbourhood of London, the film is about a successful landscape architect whose dealings with a young thief and his mother cause him to re-evaluate his life.
The Cave of Swimmers is a rock shelter with ancient rock art in the mountainous Gilf Kebir plateau of the Libyan Desert section of the Sahara. It is located in the New Valley Governorate of southwest Egypt, near the border with Libya.
In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing is a 1992 non-fiction filmmaking book on the art and craft of editing authored by Walter Murch. The book suggests editors prioritize emotion over the pure technicalities of editing. According to The Film Stage, the book “is often considered the essential literary source on film editing.”
The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film is a book of interviews between novelist Michael Ondaatje and film editor and sound designer Walter Murch. Ondaatje met Murch when he was editing the adaptation of Ondaatje's novel The English Patient. Throughout the book, Murch offers insight into films he worked on, including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Now Redux. The book is divided into five "conversations" and contains contributions from directors and producers Murch has worked with, including George Lucas, Coppola, Rick Schmidlin and Anthony Minghella and stills from the films discussed.
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. ISBN978-0-8093-2488-0.
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. ISBN0-7190-5230-0.
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