The English Patient (1996) starring Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, and Colin Firth is the story of Count Almásy, a Hungarian map maker who charts the Sahara Desert for the Royal Geographical Society in the years preceding World War II. While dying from burns suffered in a plane crash at the end of the war, Almásy (Fiennes) recounts his life, including his love for the married Katharine Clifton (Scott Thomas) to his attending nurse, Hana (Binoche).

Produced by Tiger Moth Productions with a $31 million budget, and distributed through Miramax Films, The English Patient is based on Michael Ondaatje's 1992 Booker Prize-winning novel, with a screenplay by director Anthony Minghella. Minghella had enjoyed Ondaatje's other books and was overwhelmed by The English Patient. He immediately got producer Saul Zaentz on the phone, and then, Minghella later said, "I collided with my stupidity." Minghella realized that the novel was very fragmented and would be difficult to film. "[I]ts gifts, in a way, are very elusive and are very much connected with the beauty of language which is probably the thing that the film is least good in conveying."

In order to help create clarity, author Ondaatje worked on rewrites of the script during filming. There were many things that Minghella wanted to keep in the final version, but it was already long, and - Minghella and Ondaatje reasoned - most of the people who would come to see the film would not have read The English Patient and might become confused.

Kristin Scott Thomas read the novel over and over while she was filming An Unforgettable Summer (1994) in Romania. "I was totally enamored of it and just convinced it should be a movie, although I had no idea whatsoever how it could be done. But most of all, I was convinced I must play Katharine and absolutely certain that everyone else should immediately recognize that, too." When she learned that Anthony Mingella had already written a script, she was disappointed to learn that she was not the first choice for the role of Katharine, but she campaigned hard and won.

Filming locations for The English Patient included North Africa and various spots in Italy, including Tuscany, Rome, and Venice, where the Hôtel des Bains on the Lido stood in for the legendary Shepheard's Hotel of Cairo, which was destroyed by a fire in 1952.

When she finally saw the film, Kristin Scott Thomas was delighted with how she looked. "I totally forgot that it had taken five makeup people and who knows what kind of lighting to create that kind of illusion." The critics were taken with Scott Thomas and the film, but stopped short of calling it a masterpiece. David Denby wrote in New York Magazine that it was "grand, ambitious, and high-minded. Is it a great film? It's impossible, I think, not to have mixed feelings. [...] A remarkable, not-quite-great film." Roger Ebert called it a film "you can see twice - first for the questions, the second time for the answers."

The English Patient earned a whopping twelve nominations, but when the awards were handed out, it was not Ralph Fiennes or Kristin Scott Thomas, or Mingella's screenplay who earned the trophy. The English Patient grabbed Best Picture, Director, Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche, Best Cinematography for John Seale, Best Art Direction - Set Direction for Stuart Craig and Stephenie McMillan, Best Costume Design for Ann Roth, Best Sound for Walter Murch and his crew, Best Film Editing for Murch, and Best Music, Original Dramatic Score for Gabriel Yared. The film also picked up BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and many other awards.

SOURCES:

Baldassarre , Angela The Great Dictators: Interviews with Filmmakers of Italian Descent
Denby, David "Burning Love" New York Magazine 25 Nov 96
Ebert, Roger Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews 1967-2007
The Internet Movie Database
Lawson, Terry "Winning the War on Dignity, Kristin Scott Thomas Loses Rigid Image in The English Patient" The Argue-Press 11 Dec 96

By Lorraine LoBianco