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The English Patient

The English Patient

By Barbara Diril • March 16th, 2012
DECONSTRUCTING CINEMA, PART 27: THE ENGLISH PATIENT
Miramax Films

Release date: November 15th, 1996
Certificate: 15
Running time: 155 minutes

Director: Anthony Minghella
Writers: Anthony Minghella, Michael Ondaatje (novel)
Composer: Gabriel Yared

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Firth

“I always loved you”: 02:03:24 to 02:06:16

Deconstructing Cinema: One Scene At A Time, the complete series so far

Have you ever asked yourself what love really means?

Love is perhaps the strongest human emotion. Everyone has felt it, and we just know how much it impacts our lives, our thoughts, our actions. It’s a feeling we can’t control… We can’t decide who we fall in love with, even if we suffer – like Laszlo de Almasy:

“Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again.”

De Almasy is the main character in Michael Ondaatje’s prize-winning novel The English Patient, a masterpiece adapted for the screen by director Anthony Minghella, a great storyteller in his own right. A dramatic tale of passion and romance, The English Patient is set during World War II and tells of the love between Almasy (Ralph Fiennes) and Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas) during World War II.

The film is much more than just another well-crafted love story; it’s one of those rare movies that equally captivates its audience and reminds us of the power of cinema – and in compelling ways of a feeling that is maybe a faint memory for most of us.

But some people remember – when they fall in love again, perhaps with someone who is married…

The English Patient

“Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender, but smash everything. For the heart is an organ of fire.” ~ Laszlo de Almasy

When two people love each other but can’t be together, it can turn into an obsession, a love that makes them happy and unhappy at the same time

ALMASY
When were you most happy?

KATHARINE
Now.

ALMASY
And when were you least happy?

KATHARINE
Now.

The English Patient pulls us into the intimate moments of an obsessive love story – a story of two people who resist their feelings rather than embrace them. So it becomes a love that is painful, difficult, damaging and tragic.

ALMASY
I just wanted you to know: I’m not missing you yet.

KATHARINE
You will.

It’s the story of a badly burned man, a plane crash victim who is bedridden in a monastery in Italy. He is in the care of young nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche). She doesn’t know much about the man as he supposedly lost his memory. She assumes he is English and names him “the English patient”.

The English Patient

The English patient doesn’t seem to possess anything but a copy of Herodotus’ The Histories, marked throughout with his notes, figures, and observations. Eventually, he remembers his time in Africa, where he worked as a geographer in an exploration team.
His story is told through dreams and flashbacks, taking the viewer back to his time during World War II, leading from the larger theme of war to personal stories about love, betrayal and identity.

Almasy falls in love with Katharine who is married to Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth). Her husband finds out about the affair and wants revenge – the ultimate revenge. The story culminates in a scene that stands for Minghella’s mastery in storytelling. To me, the “I always loved you” scene is the most memorable one, the scene that arguably represents the essence of The English Patient.

When World War II breaks out, the members of the exploration team decide to pack the camp. Geoffrey offers to pick up Almasy with his plane but Almasy doesn’t know Katharine is on board. Geoffrey flies towards Almasy with the intent of killing all three of them but Almasy can to pull away just before the plane crashes in the desert. He finds Geoffrey who died instantly. Then he sees Katharine, alive but badly injured and in pain.

The English Patient

ALMASY
Katharine! Oh dear God, Katharine – what are you doing here?

KATHARINE
I can’t move. I can’t get out.

ALMASY
Why did he bring you?

KATHARINE
A surprise, he said…

Poor Geoffrey. He knew. He must have known all the time. He was shouting – I love you, Katharine, I love you so much… Is he badly hurt?

ALMASY
I have to get you out.

Almasy lifts Katharine out of the plane wreck and carries her on his arms to the Cave of Swimmers, a place that the exploration team had discovered previously.

KATHARINE
Please don’t move me. It hurts too much.

ALMASY
I’ve have to get you out.

KATHARINE
It hurts too much.

ALMASY
Almasy: I know, darling, I’m sorry.

He wraps her in the silk folds of her parachute and walks along the cleft in the rock to approach Cave of Swimmers as he notices the thimble around her neck.

The English Patient

KATHARINE
Why did you hate me?

ALMASY
What?

KATHARINE
Don’t you know you drove everybody mad?

ALMASY
Shh, don’t talk.

KATHARINE
You speak so many bloody languages and you never wanted to talk.

ALMASY
You’re wearing the thimble.

KATHARINE
Of course, you idiot. I always wear it; I’ve always worn it… I’ve always loved you.

The tone in Katharine’s voice and her staunchness when she says “I always loved you” is one of the most emotional moments in the movie. It’s a moment that always touches me and makes me feel Almasy’s pain – the pain of a man who carries his badly-hurt love that he might lose again, but this time forever.

While Almasy carries Katharine who strokes his face, we see him crying. The close-up of his face reveals a surge of emotions, and the pain he’s in. We see the deep affection of two lovers in a moment of shattering tragedy, as the salvation that lies in Katharine’s confession is taken away at once. It might be too late for the two of them to finally follow their hearts.

The English Patient

Like this scene, the whole film draws his mesmerizing energy also from the art of editing. Out of 9 Academy Awards, The English Patient won an unprecedented double Oscar for its sound and film editing. Walter Murch covered uncharted territory with this film – it was the first movie he completely edited at the computer. In his book, In The Blink of an Eye, he describes how the movie made a transition from mechanical to electronic editing in the middle of the production which had never happened.

Murch did an excellent job on the flashback structure and the different time frames, taking us back to Almasy’s time during World War II, into his dreams and back to his last moments. The interaction of image, dialogue and sound guide us through the very tragic and extremely intimate moments of The English Patient, not least the “I always loved you” scene.

In his dying moments, Almasy takes us back to his time with Katharine. We literally see that love isn’t always a “sweet tale of passion”, there almost seems to be a connection between the bliss of the ultimate emotion and its potential for tragedy.

“When you close your eyes to tragedy, you close your eyes to greatness”. ~ Stephen Vizinczey
SOURCE:
Walter Murch, In The Blink Of An Eye – A Perspective on Film Editing (2001), Silman-James Press

This might also be the enduring message The English Patient, and explain the impact the film made.
In Almasy’s last moment, a moment of pain and persisting love, Hana reads Katharine’s last note to him.

“My darling, I’m waiting for you — how long is a day in the dark, or a week? The fire is gone now, and I’m horribly cold. I really ought to drag myself outside but then there would be the sun… I’m afraid I waste the light on the paintings and on writing these words. We die, we die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have entered and swum up like rivers, fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave. We are the real countries, not the boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you will come and carry me out into the palace of winds. That’s all I’ve wanted — to walk in such a place with you, with friends, on earth without maps.”
Barbara Diril

Barbara Diril

Barbara is currently a Motion Pictures and Television student at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, USA. What she enjoys most about filmmaking is film editing and her ultimate ambition is to become a film editor.

She draws inspiration from a number of people in the industry including directors Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese and significantly from her ultimate role model, film editor Walter Murch, who cut many award-winning films including The English Patient and The Godfather II. Even though Barbara is in her mid twenties she is appreciative of films produced in a number of eras such as the pre-war film era and often she feels she favors these to those made in today’s era.

Barbara wants to write to share her passion for film and to give the reader a better understanding of the “little details” in film that she says are actually “the big things” playing pivotal roles in making each production so unique and entertaining.

You can follow Barbara on Twitter @B_Diril.

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