The English Patient (1996) dir. Anthony Minghella
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth

****

Yesterday we lost one of this generation's great filmmakers. Anthony Minghella's impeccably good taste resulted in films rich with texture layered through all its individual parts - lighting, music, performances, art direction. He preferred challenging literary adaptations with complex narratives, characters and themes. With only his third film, Minghella reached cinematic maturity very quickly - "The English Patient". Here's a reposting of my review of Anthony Minghella's crowning achievement.

I think the “Seinfeld” episode which had Elaine expressing her hatred of the film by yelling at the screen in the theatre may have tarnished the reputation of the film. And though the film took many of the Oscar’s big categories, including Best Picture, it’s rarely brought up as one of the great films of the 90’s. But let me remind you of just how good “The English Patient” is and why it was so successful 11 years ago.

The film was adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel by English director Anthony Minghella, whose only previous films were a couple of small British indies. “The English Patient” was a huge step up for Minghella, but he succeeded in creating a film that was popular with both audiences and the critics.

The film opens framing the sandy undulations of the Sahara desert from the point of view of a WWII 2-seater bi-plane. The passengers are Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) and Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas). The plane is hit by enemy fire and then crashes to the ground. Laszlo emerges bedridden and under heavy bandages from the near-fatal burns to his body. His name is unknown but he is assumed to be English. He is brought to a secluded Italian country-side home where he is cared for in peace by a French-Canadian nurse (Hana) played by Juliette Binoche. The film moves back and forth between these two periods to trace exactly how the ‘English patient’ came to be where he is today.

It’s a tragic story centering on a doomed love affair between Laszlo and Katherine. We learn before the war, they were on a cartography expedition to survey the Sahara Desert for the Royal Geographical Society. Katherine is married to Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) but slowly over time her and Laszlo develop a deep carnal attraction for each other. The domino effect of the affair eventually causes Katherine to be involved in a disturbing accident, which brings us to the opening shot of the film.

Minghella paints a canvas overflowing with mystery, eroticism, romanticism and rich visual metaphors. Fiennes and Thomas are a good pairing and their chemistry could start fires. Laszlo is curious. Fiennes plays him as a brooding, unemotional and abrupt upper classman, but in a few intimate moments with each other Katherine discovers a poetic romantic side to him.

Like the opening credits sequence, which features a close-up of a brush painting symbols on a rock floor, Minghella directs the film with an equally masterful touch. Every image is painstakingly composed, and every movement and casual look has deeper meaning. My favourite visual moment is when Fiennes and Thomas are in the car during the sandstorm. As the scene ends, he’s looks out the window and appears to see his own reflection as the burn victim by way of a clever dissolve to the future.

The romantic subplot of the emotionally scarred Hana (Juliette Binoche) and her Sikh lover Kip (“Lost’s” Naveen Andrews) is just as compelling. Hana feels people that she loves always dies, and so she cautiously approaches her relationship with Kip. His courtship of her is not as carnal as Laszlo’s and so we get the rare treat of a subplot which could stand alone as its own film.

Elaine objected to the lengthy demise of the scarred Fiennes. Indeed the film runs over 2 and a half hours. But it’s an epic love story crafted from an epic novel. The film’s subplots gain speed and converge at the end with the reveal of how Laszlo and Clifton came to be on that doomed plane. Men, check your male egos at the door and enjoy the sumptuous ride. Enjoy.

The English Patient (1996) dir. Anthony Minghella
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas

****


I think the “Seinfeld” episode which had Elaine expressing her hatred of the film by yelling at the screen in the theatre may have tarnished the reputation of the film. And though the film took many of the Oscar’s big categories, including Best Picture, it’s rarely brought up as one of the great films of the 90’s.
But let me remind you of just how good “The English Patient” is and why it was so successful 11 years ago.

The film was adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel by English director Anthony Minghella, whose only previous films were a couple of small British indies. “The English Patient” was a huge step up for Minghella, but he succeeded in creating a film that was popular with both audiences and the critics.

The film opens framing the sandy undulations of the Sahara desert from the point of view of a WWII 2-seater bi-plane. The passengers are Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) and Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas). The plane is hit by enemy fire and then crashes to the ground. Laszlo emerges bedridden and under heavy bandages from the near-fatal burns to his body. His name is unknown but he is assumed to be English. He is brought to a secluded Italian country-side home where he is cared for in peace by a French-Canadian nurse (Hana) played by Juliette Binoche. The film moves back and forth between these two periods to trace exactly how the ‘English patient’ came to be where he is today.

It’s a tragic story centering on a doomed love affair between Laszlo and Katherine. We learn before the war, they were on a cartography expedition to survey the Sahara Desert for the Royal Geographical Society. Katherine is married to Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) but slowly over time her and Laszlo develop a deep carnal attraction for each other. The domino effect of the affair eventually causes Katherine to be involved in a disturbing accident, which brings us to the opening shot of the film.

Minghella paints a canvas overflowing with mystery, eroticism, romanticism and rich visual metaphors. Fiennes and Thomas are a good pairing and their chemistry could start fires. Laszlo is curious. Fiennes plays him as a brooding, unemotional and abrupt upper classman, but in a few intimate moments with each other Katherine discovers a poetic romantic side to him.

Like the opening credits sequence, which features a close-up of a brush painting symbols on a rock floor, Minghella directs the film with an equally masterful touch. Every image is painstakingly composed, and every movement and casual look has deeper meaning. My favourite visual moment is when Fiennes and Thomas are in the car during the sandstorm. As the scene ends, he’s looks out the window and appears to see his own reflection as the burn victim by way of a clever dissolve to the future.

The romantic subplot of the emotionally scarred Hana (Juliette Binoche) and her Sikh lover Kip (“Lost’s” Naveen Andrews) is just as compelling. Hana feels people that she loves always dies, and so she cautiously approaches her relationship with Kip. His courtship of her is not as carnal as Laszlo’s and so we get the rare treat of a subplot which could stand alone as its own film.

Elaine objected to the lengthy demise of the scarred Fiennes. Indeed the film runs over 2 and a half hours. But it’s an epic love story crafted from an epic novel. The film’s subplots gain speed and converge at the end with the reveal of how Laszlo and Clifton came to be on that doomed plane. Men, check your male egos at the door and enjoy the sumptuous ride. Enjoy.

Buy it here: The English Patient

Breaking and Entering (2007) dir. Anthony Minghella
Starring: Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn, Juliette Binoche

**

“Breaking and Entering” is a film that seems to try hard not satisfy its audience. It’s a little bit of a heist film, part erotic thriller, part domestic drama, there’s even some chase sequences in there. The film tries not to pigeon-hole itself into one film, but tests the waters of all genres. As a result, it fails.

Jude Law plays a well-off architect (Will) who has recently moved his firm to the soon-to-be gentrified King’s Cross neighbourhood of London – perhaps the equivalent of Parkdale in Toronto. His grand plan is to build a new architectural design – part art, part commerce. He has a wife, Liv (Robin Wright Penn) and a daughter (Bea) with autism. The demands of his job and the stress of his daughter’s disability are taking its toll on their marriage.

After several break-ins Jude stakes out his own office attempting to catch the thief first hand. During the stake out he befriends a prostitute whom he only converses with, but is clearly enjoys the companionship. He discovers the thief (a Bosnian immigrant, Miro) and chases him through-out the neighbourhood. Miro is like an acrobat and nimbly leaps over fences, over buildings and up stairs, thus eluding him. But Will eventually finds where he lives, only to discover his mother is an attractive woman Amira (Juliette Binoche) whom he met the day before at the park. Instead of turning him in, he secretly makes friends with Amira, and in turn develops an attraction to her. Their relationship soon blossoms into an affair.

By not telling Amira of his initial intentions, Will is in a way cheating on both his lover and his wife. Of course, the secrets get out and Will is forced to make life-choices which affects all of the people he seems to love – his wife, daughter, mistress, Miro, his job etc. Somehow, he manages to reconcile all his problems. The scene at the end of the movie is horribly rushed and contrived, and seems like something out of a TV drama, or an episode of “Diff’rent Strokes.”

Minghella (also the writer) never punishes Jude Law’s character for his behaviour. His wife’s reaction to everything that has gone on is ridiculously implausible. But perhaps that was Minghella’s intention, to play her character against type – either way, it doesn’t work. By the end we ask ourselves, how has Will changed?

Many dramatic beats are set up but do not payoff, just teasing us perhaps into thinking the film will actually go anywhere, that the stakes might escalate into dramatic jeopardy. For example, the prostitute never returns in the second half of the film, Amira’s incriminating photos of Will never emerge as a threat, Will’s daughter’s accident becomes a false alarm.

The most exciting moments of the film are the acrobatic maneuvers of Miro and his thieving friends during the heist sequences. But, we’ve also seen those moves in “Casino Royale,” “District B13,” and countless martial arts films.

I respect all Anthony Minghella’s films, including “Cold Mountain”. He’s a natural filmmaker with panache for visually expressing characters’ deep, inner desires and anxieties. Will Francis is not without his anxieties and desires, but without dramatic jeopardy, he’s just having his cake and eating it too.