The English Patient:
Outline of human body being painted on sand.
Eyes see sand as far as sight can reach, till the sky meets the dunes at horizon. A biplane containing a man and a woman is seen flying above the desert. The plane is shot down. It comes crashing down as sand partly envelopes the dieing machine.
The man is discovered by local Arabs. with his face badly burned. He is handed over to a Red Cross unit serving the wounded in that part of the desert.
Who is this man? Who was the lady with him? The English Patient searches the answers through a tale of love, passion, pain, helplessness and death.
The English Patient uses the end of the story to kickstart this enchanting tale of love. It progresses after the end to see another love story blooming and keeps going back to find the origins of The English Patient.
The setting is near the end of World War II.
An amnesiac patient Almasy suffering from burns all over the body lies in a military camp. A Canadian Red Cross nurse named Hana, though very loving and caring, tags herself to be unlucky for her loved ones. Anyone she starts growing closer to, meets a painful end. Out of frustration after her lover’s death and then her best friend’s death, Hana takes charge of this dieing patient and moves him to an old building where she gives her best in taking care of the patient
A soldier named Caravaggio enters the scene - mad for vengeance against a German officer who cut his thumbs during interrogation. He is out looking for a traitor who gave away confidential information to the Nazis and he suspects The English patient. While Hana’s intimate relationship with a Sikh soldier Kip serving the British army forms the present tense while Almasy’s past is revealed through his interrogations by Caravaggio. He gains flashes of his lost memory, through his expedition in the desert as an archaeologist, his passionate love affair with his friend’s wife Katherine Clifton, the dillema of their relationship and then till he reaches the point where the movie starts - where the plane is shot down.
To fall in love is easy but to stand by love isn’t. The English Patient tells a tale about love and standing by love defying nationality, patriotism and whatever standards geographical boundaries derive. The movie even sees marriage and friendship as boundaries and goes on tell a tale of love that defies these borders and forms it’s own boundaries till the line where life meets death
The Origins:
The English Patient is based on Michael Ondaatje’s book by the same name. The movie never defies the main theme of the book barring some minute details which in a movie would have given way to confused subplots. The English Patient is simply poetry in motion, be it personification of geographical boundaries by human relations or the intertwining of past and present events and least to say, the effect is mesmerizing.
Efforts:
Everything about The English Patient is simply fabulous. The performances, direction, cinematography... just about everything is first rate.
Ralph Fiennes brings Almasy to life with his penetrating staring eyes and his somewhat cold body language. Almasy’s role comes tailor-made for Fiennes. He exudes the right colours of silent but strong passion as Almasy’s character grows in the movie.
Kristen Scott Thomas lends tremendous energy to Katherine. Her liveliness is what attracts Almasy and Kristen does full justice in portraying the English lady with an undying passion for life.
Juliette Binoche plays Hana with conviction. Though the character - Hana is not fleshed out strongly enough. Hana had the potential to be one of the strongest central characters ever seen onscreen.
The rest of the cast too namely Willem Dafoe as Caravaggio, Naveen Andrews as Kip, Colin Firth as Katherine’s husband and Julian Wadham as Almasy’s best friend, Madox provide rock solid support.
Characterization is the main component of books and depicting each of the book’s character onscreen demands more runtime for the movie, so that’s how many of the characters don’t develop fully onscreen. Same comes true with The English Patient.
Though the director Anthony Minghella does total justice to Almasy, Katherine, Kip and Caravaggio, he somehow falls short while dealing with Hana. Barring this drawback, Anthony Minghella does a magnificient job with The English Patient. Who can ever forget that vastness of the desert, the first sexual or rather violent encounter between Almasy and Katherine, that splendidly executed climax where Almasy carries Katherine in his arms and in fact each n’ every frame that makes the movie. Simply beautiful. John Seale’s cinematography is spellbinding. He gives a totally independent character to the desert itself.
Warning:
The English Patient demands loads of patience from the viewer. It moves at a very slow pace. And one needs to be sincerely engaged in watching the flick to appreciate it.
Quotes:
Almásy: This... this, the hollow at the base of a woman’s throat, does it have an official name?
Almásy: I just wanted you to know: I’m not missing you yet.
Katharine: You will.
Caravaggio: Ask your saint who he is. Ask him who he’s killed.
Katharine: What do you hate most?
Almásy: Ownership. Being owned. What you leave here you should forget me.
Katharine: Will we be alright?
Almásy: Yes. Yes, absolutely.
Katharine: ’’Yes’’ is a comfort. ’’Absolutely’’ is not.
Hana: There’s a man downstairs. He brought us eggs. He might stay.
Almásy: Why? Can he lay eggs?
Hana: He’s Canadian.
Almásy: Why are people so happy when they collide with someone from the same place? What happened in Montreal when you passed a man in the street? Did you invite him to live with you?
Almásy: New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire.
Caravaggio: In Italy, there’s always chickens, but no eggs. In Africa there’s eggs, but never chickens. Who separated them?
Almásy: There is no God, but I hope someone watches over you.