It is extremely difficult to make a choice between 2 movies involving Anthony Minghella. Nine – which had the screenplay written by Minghella and the other was a winner of 9 academy awards in 1997 including best director for Minghella. I have never gotten around to seeing The English Patient fully for some inexplicable reason. Probably the same inexplicable reason why I managed to see Deewar only in 2003 (OK now that’s no reason to beat me up… I did manage to see it right). So Nine had to wait for a different date. I am anyways getting a copy of the movie in a bit. For those who have not seen TEP yet (the unfortunate few like me) I would exhort you to not delay any further. One of the best movies made that year as well as to date and why it doesn’t feature in the imdb Top 250 is beyond me.
Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) and Katherine Clifton (Kirstin Scott Thomas) are a happily married couple. They know each other since they were 3. Almost like brother and sister as Geoffrey says. They both find themselves in Egypt in the late 1930s to help out an expedition that is being led by Count Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) a Hungarian cartographer who has been contracted by the Royal Geographical Society along with Madox (Julian Wadham). That Katherine is the only woman in the entire group which does put most men at a lot of discomfort. But Almasy more so who finds himself attracted to her like never before. One cannot say that the feelings are not reciprocated but they take a while to surface and then there is no looking back as the two find themselves spiraling into a whirlpool of intense love that pretty much blinds them towards everything around them.
TEP is shuttles between the late 1930s / early 1940s and the mid 1940s where the war is about to finish. It is narrated by Almasy who, towards the end of the war is struggling to stay alive after his charred body is recovered by arabs from a plane crash and he is being taken care of by Hana (Juliette Binoche). Hana is a Canadian nurse who believes that she is cursed because everyone who she gets close to dies in the war. When she loses one of her closest friends on a mine field, she deicdes to stay back at a monastery and take care of Almasy.
Very few movies are able to create such clear character sketches like TEP has managed to. Yes it was helped by that Sri Lankan born Canadian writer called Michael Ondaatje and now I have to read to book to figure out if the movie did justice to it. If there is any flaw that I can find with the movie it would be the pace but that is more that offset by the award winning direction and the strong performances from every single person in the cast. Juliete Binoche went on to win the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress. Ralph Fiennes and Kirstin Scott Thomas were nominated in the lead roles. And Anthony Minghella went on to win the Oscar for the Best Director for his best work to date. A nomination in almost every important category and wins in 8 of them would be indication of the fact that in the 9th and the most important of them all, The English Patient was an obvious choice. This one is definitely course material for schools that deal with Cinematography, Costume Design, Art Direction, Editing and Sound. I give it 8.5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFdGAHjaOcM
Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) and Katherine Clifton (Kirstin Scott Thomas) are a happily married couple. They know each other since they were 3. Almost like brother and sister as Geoffrey says. They both find themselves in Egypt in the late 1930s to help out an expedition that is being led by Count Laszlo de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) a Hungarian cartographer who has been contracted by the Royal Geographical Society along with Madox (Julian Wadham). That Katherine is the only woman in the entire group which does put most men at a lot of discomfort. But Almasy more so who finds himself attracted to her like never before. One cannot say that the feelings are not reciprocated but they take a while to surface and then there is no looking back as the two find themselves spiraling into a whirlpool of intense love that pretty much blinds them towards everything around them.
TEP is shuttles between the late 1930s / early 1940s and the mid 1940s where the war is about to finish. It is narrated by Almasy who, towards the end of the war is struggling to stay alive after his charred body is recovered by arabs from a plane crash and he is being taken care of by Hana (Juliette Binoche). Hana is a Canadian nurse who believes that she is cursed because everyone who she gets close to dies in the war. When she loses one of her closest friends on a mine field, she deicdes to stay back at a monastery and take care of Almasy.
Very few movies are able to create such clear character sketches like TEP has managed to. Yes it was helped by that Sri Lankan born Canadian writer called Michael Ondaatje and now I have to read to book to figure out if the movie did justice to it. If there is any flaw that I can find with the movie it would be the pace but that is more that offset by the award winning direction and the strong performances from every single person in the cast. Juliete Binoche went on to win the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actress. Ralph Fiennes and Kirstin Scott Thomas were nominated in the lead roles. And Anthony Minghella went on to win the Oscar for the Best Director for his best work to date. A nomination in almost every important category and wins in 8 of them would be indication of the fact that in the 9th and the most important of them all, The English Patient was an obvious choice. This one is definitely course material for schools that deal with Cinematography, Costume Design, Art Direction, Editing and Sound. I give it 8.5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFdGAHjaOcM
Had watched this all alone in a theatre in SoBo - when on a break from work. I guess this was the movie that got me to look at cinema as an art. Unforgettable.
ReplyDelete