F-0223

Title:

The English Patient

Category:

S

Produced:

1996

Country:

USA

Released:

Film: Nov 1996 (USA)
DVD: Mar 1998; Jun 2004 (2-DVD); Feb 2004 (3-DVD)
VHS: Sep 1997 (2-VHS, VHS); Mar 1998 (4-VHS, VHS); Apr 2003
Soundtrack: Nov 1996 (CD, MC)

Director:

Anthony Minghella

Writer:

Michael Ondaatje (novel); Anthony Minghella (screenplay)

Actors:

Ralph Fiennes (Count Laszlo de Almásy); Juliette Binoche (Hana); Willem Dafoe (David Caravaggio); Kristin Scott Thomas (Katharine Clifton); Naveen Andrews (Kip); Colin Firth (Geoffrey Clifton); Julian Wadham (Madox); Jürgen Prochnow (Major Muller); Kevin Whately (Hardy); Clive Merrison (Fenelon-Barnes); Nino Castelnuovo (D'Agostino); Hichem Rostom (Fouad); Peter Rühring (Bermann); Geordie Johnson (Oliver); Torri Higginson (Mary)

Description:

Beginning in the 1930's, "The English Patient" tells the story of Count Almasy who is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almasy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics that is later revealed in a series of flashbacks while Almasy is on his death bed after being horribly burned in a plane crash. (Anthony Hughes & Amazon.com)

A burn victim, a nurse, a thief, and a sapper find themselves in each others company in an old Italian villa close to the end of World War II. Through flashbacks, we see the life of the burn victim, whose passionate love of a woman and choices he made for her ultimately change the lives of one other person in the villa. Not only is this film a search for the identity of the English patient, but a search for the identities of all the people in the quiet old villa. (Sarah Greenberg)

In a crumbling villa in WWII Italy, during the final days of the European campaign, a young, shell-shocked war nurse (Hana) remains behind to tend her doomed patient - a horribly burned pilot. Through the gradual unraveling of his life and the appearance of an old family friend (Caravaggio) and a young Sikh sapper (Kip), the question of identity is explored. (Gustaf Molin)

The moving story of a Hungarian mapmaker and his dying memories of the romance that tragically alters his life. Burned horribly in a fiery plane crash while crossing the Sahara Desert during WWII, he is tended to by a Canadian nurse with ghosts of her own and haunted by a thief seeking answers for a crime from his past. (Kerm)

Winner of nine Academy Awards and almost every critic's heart, The English Patient (based on Michael Ondaatje's prizewinning novel of love and loss during World War II) is one of the most acclaimed films of modern times. Hana, a nurse, (Juliette Binoche) tends to an archaeologist (Ralph Fiennes) who has been burnt to a crisp in a plane crash. As their relationship intensifies, he flashes back to his overwhelming passion for a married woman (Kristin Scott Thomas). Meanwhile, Hana begins a new romance with a man who defuses bombs (Naveen Andrews) and Willem Dafoe almost steals the show as the thumbless thief Caravaggio. The intricately layered flashback narrative, sounding the depths of the lovers' hearts, improves with repeated viewings--especially with the sharp picture and digital sound of the digital video disc.(Amazon.com)

Written and directed by Anthony Minghella, from the novel by Michael Ondaatje, this long and searching movie tangles together a number of stories. First, there is an adulterous love affair between Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) and Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas) which unfolds in the sands of North Africa before the outbreak of the Second World War. Then, as the war winds down, the badly burned Almásy is cared for in an abandoned Italian monastery by a French-Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche), who has an affair with a Sikh soldier (Naveen Andrews). Among the other characters are the decent chaps who tried to befriend the frosty Almásy in the desert and the mysterious Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a scavenging thief who appears to know the secrets of Almásy's past. All these plot lines interweave and tauten right up to the unbearable romantic tension of the climax. The triumph of the film lies not just in the force and 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. (Anthony Lane, Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker)

Language:

English, German, Italian, Arabic

TT:

162 min (Film, DVD, 2-DVD, VHS, 2-VHS) / 392 min (3-DVD) / 155 min (DVD)

J.S. Bach's Music:

Goldberg Variations BWV 988: Aria + Variation 1

Format:

Film: Color, Dolby Digital
DVD: (2-DVD, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (2-DVD, NTSC, Import, Widescreen, Dolby, Subtitled, Region 1) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1) | (NTSC, Region 2)
3-DVD: (Box set, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Region 1) | (Pal, Region2)
VHS: (NTSC) | (4-VHS Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC) | (Closed-captioned, Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC) | (Color, NTSC) | (PAL) | (PAL, German] | (NTSC)
Soundtrack: CD; MC

Company:

Film: Miramax Films (presents); Tiger Moth Productions (copyright owners)
DVD: Miramax Home Entertainmen; Walt Disney Video; Buena Vista
VHS: Walt Disney Video; Miramax Home Entertainment; Buena Vista Home Video; Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Soundtrack: Fantasy [CD, MC]

Comments:

3-DVD Set includes: Academy Award Winning Movies - Volume III (The English Patient/Il Postino/Shakespeare in Love)

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com [2-DVD] | Amazon.com [2-DVD] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2] | Amazon.com [Region 2]
3-DVD: Amazon.com
VHS: Amazon.com | Amazon.com [4-VHS] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [2-VHS] | Amazon.com | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL] | Amazon.com [PAL, German] | Amazon.com
Soundtrack: Amazon.com [CD] | Amazon.com [MC]

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)