The English Patient (1996)

At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.

Director:

Anthony Minghella

Writers:

Michael Ondaatje (novel), Anthony Minghella (screenplay)

Stars:

Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe

Won 9 Oscars. Another 47 wins & 39 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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	...	Sgt. Hardy
Clive Merrison	...	Fenelon-Barnes
Nino Castelnuovo	...	D'Agostino
Hichem Rostom	...	Fouad
Peter Rühring	...	Bermann
Geordie Johnson	...	Oliver
Torri Higginson	...	Mary

Storyline

Beginning in the 1930's, "The English Patient" tells the story of Count Almásy 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, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics that is later revealed in a series of flashbacks while Almásy is on his death bed after being horribly burned in a plane crash.

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Plot Keywords:

nurse | flashback | patient | love | sahara | 

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Taglines:

In love, there are no boundaries.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for sexuality, some violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA UK

Language:

English German Italian Arabic

Release Date:

15 November 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

El paciente inglés

Filming Locations:

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

$31,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£5,058,064 (UK) (21 March 1997)

Gross:

$78,651,430 (USA) (5 September 1997)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miramax Films, Tiger Moth Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

162 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Juliette Binoche knew she wanted to be in the film the minute she read the scene when Kip shows Hana the fresco paintings on the walls of a church.

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Goofs

Extras in the Cairo market are wearing burnooses (hooded robes) from Tunisia (filming location), not worn in Egypt.

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Quotes

Katharine Clifton: This - what is this?
Almásy: It's a folk song.
Katharine Clifton: Arabic.
Almásy: No, no. It's Hungarian. My daijka sang it to me when I was a child growing up in Budapest.
Katharine Clifton: It's beautiful. What's it about?
Almásy: Szerelam means love. And the story, well, there's this Hungarian count. He's a wanderer. He's a fool. And for years he's on some kind of a quest for... who knows what. And then one day, he falls under the spell of a mysterious English woman. A harpy, who beats him, and hits him, he becomes her slave, and he sews her clothes, ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The producer and director wish to thank The Tozeur District Governor.

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Connections

Referenced in Mystery Science Theater 3000: I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1997)

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Soundtracks

"It's Only a Paper Moon"
(1933)
Music by Harold Arlen
Lyrics by Billy Rose and E.Y. Harburg
Published by Warner Bros., Inc. & Chappell & Co., and Glocca Morra Music Corp.

User Reviews

a patience taking movie.. ;)

as can be read in many reviews here it is a movie you love or hate - apparently not so much space for opinions in between. I for one think that is a good sign.

I always appreciated this movie, although the genre is not my typical style (I never watched Titanic for instance, and am not planning to).

The English Patient grips because it shows how people can be different when they are in an exotic environment as opposed when they are 'home' (Katherine), it shows how destructive love can be in a slow, strong and utterly painful way, it excites because of the extremely passionate affair, the pain of the one(s) who leave behind, how pointless one can feel to move on.

The photography is just stunning, not to mention the play of the actors. The pace is slow, but timely, and that does justice to the book, the timeline, and the depth/development of the characters. To put this in 110 minutes (as some seem to suggest here) would amputate the multi-layeredness of this movie. People tend to have difficulties with the pace of movies... as if they are in a rush to get to work.. hey - get a life ! ;-) enjoy...

I give this movie 4.5 out of 5.