In Search for Poetry

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2003)

It is rare when a filmmaker manages to shine in his first features, especially after 20 years of continuous work in television. Well, Anthony Minghella is such a case: an artist to discover the boundaries of poetry only when reaching complete maturity. And what an artist! "Truly Madly Deeply" (1991) and "Mr. Wonderful" (1993) where respectable pieces, that established him as a craftsman in the field; but it wasn't until "The English Patient" (1996) that we got to see the godlike creative power of the man who later gave us "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999) and "Cold Mountain" (2003).
"The English Patient" is veritable poetic art, and, as with poetry, it opens delicately and invites you to share the experience of a lifetime, quietly, so you could hear Gabriel Yared's harmonious tunes in the process. Hana (Juliette Binoche) a Canadian nurse, lost in the deserted minefields of World War II Italy, is in search for life and scope. As in Ondaatja's novel, she gradually starts to rediscover reality once she is put in the care of an amnesiac Count Laszlo Almásy (Ralph Fiennes). Neither Kip Singh (Naveen Andrews), her new found lover, nor David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), her countryman, manage to fulfil her soul's need. None, but Almásy and his stories about the Egyptian deserts, about the winds of Sahara, and more importantly his own story: `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, and worships'  Katherine (Kristin Scott Thomas). A truly moving relationship unfolds, which reduces to a blubbering mess even the most cold-hearted among us.
Binoche, in her Oscar-winning role, is so simple and real, which makes Hana's breakdown even more tragic. Scott Thomas, in her best performance, is just beautiful in the entire sense of the word: sensual, talented, ignorant, and so passionately in love. And then Fiennes captures exquisitely the sheer complexity of the English patient, the vastness of Herodotus's poetry of the desert.
"The English Patient" is a definite must-see for any serious filmgoer. It is a rare case when art managed to transcend the boundaries of this world, and mainly because it was a film made out of love for beauty. The production has run out of the budget before the film was finished, which meant that the actors, the director, most of the crew, left with empty pockets, received only the catharsis of creation, hoping of a smashing success. There was no alternative, but superlatives at all levels.