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The English Patient

14  MAR
FRI
In memory, love lives forever.


Directed by  Anthony Minghella
Written by  Anthony Minghella, Michael Ondaatje
Starring:  Ralph Fiennes (Count Laszlo Almasy)
Kristin Scott Thomas (Katharine Clifton)
Juliette Binoche (Hana)
Willem Dafoe (Caravaggio)
Naveen Andrews (Kip)
Colin Firth (Geoffrey Clifton)
Julian Wadham (Madox)
Runtime: 162 minutes
Plot:
In a crumbling villa in WWII Italy, during the final days of the European campaign, a young, shell-shocked war nurse (Hana) remains behind to tend her doomed patient - a horribly burned pilot. Through the gradual unravelling of his life and the appearance of an old family friend (Caravaggio) and a young Sikh sapper (Kip), the question of identity is explored. - Anonymous



Comment:
Although I don't usually like this sort of love-story I found this movie quite interesting, probably also because I liked the style of the narration based on present and past events mixed together.

The more catching characteristic of the whole movie is the photography that is really good, not that I generally like the desert or the italian countryside but in this case they are perfectly filmed (especially the first). The general sensation about the movie as a whole is that it has been carefully thought, acted and directed, unfortunately I don't fully like this genre so I couldn't fully appreciate it.

The story is not banal at all but it isn't also very catching nor particularly touching. I think that many scenes could have been completely removed or at least shortened, I wonder if there was really the need to make a 3 hours movie from this story that is not simple but that could have been probably narrated in the classic 2 hours of the 'standard' movie. Incidentally this doesn't mean that the movie has been boring, especially the second half is surprisingly fast but it is too long anyway.



Rating: 7.0  ***


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© Copyright Sergio Monesi, 1997-1999.
Last updated: 25 Jun 1999