As World War II is reaching its conclusion, French nurse Hana takes up caring for Almásy, a man with extensive burns on his body caused by the airplane crash that occurred when he was flying it over the war zones of North Africa. As he opens up to her about his life, episodes of a fateful love affair unfold. Only a handful of films can boast they were etched onto the collective cinematic unconscious of the '90s the way Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient did, as evidenced by the nine Academy Awards it was awarded – Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche, among others. Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Juliette Binoche form a trio that dominates the screen, and with each flashback of the central hero they seem to get further entrapped, sinking increasingly deeper into the quicksand of the vast African desert. Trapped yet preserved in eternity, as the case seems to be with each great love affair.
The English Patient
The English Patient
Screening Schedule
No physical screenings scheduled. |
- Direction: Anthony Minghella
- Script: Anthony Minghella, Michael Ondaatje
- Cinematography: John Seale
- Editing: Walter Murch
- Sound: Walter Murch
- Music: Gabriel Yared
- Actors: Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth
- Production: Miramax, Tiger Moth Productions
- Producers: Saul Zaentz
- Co-production: Paramount Television Studios
- Production Design: Stuart Craig
- Executive producer: Scott Greenstein, Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein
- Format: DCP
- Color: Color
- Production Country: USA, UK
- Production Year: 1996
- Duration: 162'
- Contact: Park Circus
- Awards/Distinctions: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Dramatic Score – Academy Awards 1997, Best Film, Best Screenplay - Adapted, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music – BAFTA 1997, Best Actress – Berlin IFF 1997, Best Director, Best Screenplay – Critics Choice Awards 1997
Anthony Minghella
Because of his start as a writer, actor and teacher in theater, filmmaker Anthony Minghella directed some of the most emotionally compelling films of the late-20th century and beyond. Ever since his directorial debut, Truly Madly Deeply (1990), it was evident that Minghella was on a path to make films of extraordinary depth and richly-textured nuance. When he made his multi-Academy Award winning epic, The English Patient (1996), Minghella's status as a top shelf writer-director who was able to compel great performances from actors was only confirmed. He continued forging his legacy with strong adaptations of difficult novels, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003), both of which earned critical kudos and numerous award nominations. After delving into opera with a 2005 staging of Madame Butterfly and helming the sub-par comedy-drama, Breaking and Entering (2006), Minghella's artistic output was cut short at the age of 54, when he died suddenly from a fatal brain hemorrhage. But he left behind a strong, yet incomplete body of work that would long rival the great directors of any generation.
Filmography
1978 A Little Like Drowning
1990 Truly Madly Deeply
1996 The English Patient
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley
2001 Play (short)
2003 Cold Mountain
2006 Breaking and Entering
1990 Truly Madly Deeply
1996 The English Patient
1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley
2001 Play (short)
2003 Cold Mountain
2006 Breaking and Entering
