The English Patient Cert. 15
Anthony Minghella has directed a remarkable film. Acclaimed by the critics, it was no surprise when it won nine Oscars. An intricate story-line, strong and sensitive acting, inspiring photography and a moving musical score are combined in a masterpiece.
The story itself is adapted from a novel by Michael Ondaatje focusing on the last days and recollections of a horribly burned Hungarian, Count Ladislaus Almasy, who lies dying in an Italian monastery, tended by a Canadian army nurse who has left her regiment to care for him. Present and past intertwine, as the dying man remembers his tragic affair with a beautiful English-woman. Themes of mortality, faithfulness and betrayal run in parallel, and prompt searching questions.
As in all art, there is a strange dualism in film-making. The need to distinguish between a film's message, and the way that this message is portrayed, must never be forgotten. We can leave a cinema knowing that we have watched a masterpiece, and yet be profoundly disturbed by what we have seen.