Customer Reviews

My favourite film! - By: the english patient, 30 Dec 2008
I read The English Patient and, although I enjoyed it, wouldn't have ranked it as one of my favourite stories until a friend recommended I watched the film. Brilliant acting & beautiful scenery made it very easy & enjoyable to watch, & I would argue that the story has more depthin the film adaptation. I cry every time! Definately a must-see.

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Great movie - one of the best... - By: Jeep Tenk, 03 Dec 2008
Just want to add my 10c...
I have a weakness for Ralph Fiennes - I think he is a very good actor!
Kristin Scott Thomas does well tooin this movie,in her cool, distanced, aristocratic way.

One I'll watch repeatedly.

If you too like Ralph Fiennes, you should watch 'Sunshine' - a marvellous movie too...

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The technique is still pristine - By: Jacques COULARDEAU, 19 Sep 2008
It is an interesting film, but not more than that. What does it shows? That the English were particularly sectarian during WW2 on the African front. Nothing new under the sun. Anyone who had a slightly different name or a slightly surprising or uncommon attitude was at once considered as a spy unworthy of any trust. This created myriads or even legions of misunderstandings & human errors along with cruelty, barbaric acts, violence, etc. The only interest of this film is the technical brilliancein the use of flashbacks that only happenin the head of this English patient who plays the loss of his memory to protect himself against his own name & his own ascendants. Yet his survival is not possible & the nurse who is looking after him is little by little led to being convinced by him that she has to overdose him with morphine, which she does. The sentimental elements along the way for the nurse or the Sikh bomb & mine technician are there only to provide a present time line onto which the flashbacks can be woven & attached. The acting is absolutely outstanding, even if the story is rather trite.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

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Great Book translated into a classic movie - By: Brendan O. Clarke, 02 Jun 2008
Having watched The English Patient again recently, I had sandin my shoes & a tearin my eye...

Almásy: What do you love?
Katharine Clifton: What do I love?
Almásy: Say everything.
Katharine Clifton: Water, with fishin it. Hedgehogs, I love hedgehogs. Marmite. Baths, but not with other people! Islands. I could go on all day.
Almásy: Go on all day.
Katharine Clifton: Your handwriting.
Almásy: And what else?
Katharine Clifton: A husband.
Almásy: What do you hate most?
Katharine Clifton: A lie.

For those who have forgotten the depth of romance & passion that the movies are capable of conveying, English Director Anthony Minghella's The English Patient can remedy the situation. This is the most unabashed & powerful love story or recent years, using flawless performances, intelligent dialogue, crisp camera work, & loaded glances to convey a level of emotional connection that many similar films miss.

Is The English Patient melodramatic? Of course, but it's the sort of finely-honed melodrama that embraces viewers rather than smothering them. And the movie never resorts to cheap, manipulative tactics. This well-crafted story, brought to the screen with great care by Anthony Minghella (Truly, Madly, Deeply; Talented Mr Ripley) & based on the prize-winning novel by Michael Ondaatje, serves up the love of Almasy (Fiennes) & Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas)in a way that is simultaneously epic & intimate.

The English Patient has an elliptical structure, beginning with the same scene that it ends with. In between, it moves several years into the future, & even further into the past. The opening sequence, which takes place during World War II, shows a British plane being shot down over the North African desert. The pilot, a Hungarian count named Laszlo Almasy, is badly burnedin the ensuing crash. Years later,in 1944 Italy, we meet him again. Although his outward injuries have healed, leaving his features scarred beyond recognition, he is dying. He has also supposedly lost his memory. Hana (Juliette Binoche), the Canadian nurse who cares for him, takes him to an isolated, abandoned church to allow him to diein peace. There, injecting him with morphine & reading to him from his beloved volume of Herodotus, Hana seeks to seeks to stimulate his memories. Meanwhile, others arrive at the church -- a mysterious, crippled war veteran named Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), who has a hidden agenda, & a pair of bomb experts, the British Sgt. Hardy (Kevin Whately) & his Sikh superior, Kip (Naveen Andrews), who becomes Hana's lover.

Eventually, through dreams & waking flashbacks, Almasy's memories come flooding back, although Caravaggio asserts that he hasn't really forgotten anything -- he just wants to forget. The story then flip-flops between the present & a period during the late-'30s & early- '40s, when Almasy is part of a British map-making effort surveying the Sahara. It's then that he meets Katharine Clifton, the wife of a good-natured pilot (Colin Firth) who is helping with the project. Almasy & Katharine fall for each other, & the stage is set for a classic exploration of love & betrayal set against the dangerous background of Nazi aggression.

Kristen Scott Thomas is luminous as Katharine, effortlessly conveying to the audience the energy & zest for life that Almasy finds irresistible. Together, these two lovers are hotter than the desert heat that simmers around them.

Juliette Binoche won an academy award as Hana, although her character is poorly developed. Willem Dafoe plays the kind of mysterious role he has become accustomed to (primarily because he does it so well).

The English Patient is the sort of intelligent, epic love story that seems so rare these days. There's something about this film that lingers long after the end credits have rolled -- a desire to re- experience all the feelings generated by the movie, perhaps. One of the reasons for The English Patient's power is that it strikes universal chords. This motion picture is yet another example of how the patience of movie-goers, after being sorely tried during the first eight mediocre months of 1996, is being rewarded by a surge of excellent end-of-the-year releases.
The dvd is crammed with extras, & the OST by M.Jarre is the best soundtrack i have ever heard.

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A film that takes you on a journey... - By: Maverick, 19 May 2008
I first watched this film about a year & a half ago to two years ago on Channel 4. At first, I watched it just for something to watch. After about the first 30 minutes of the film I was still unsure whether to commit to watching the entire film. However, I did.

After finishing the film I wasn't overly impressed. Sure, I enjoyed it quite a lot. But it hadn't made a huge impression on me. The next day I got up & if I recall correctly my brother whom had went to bed as the movie was starting the previous night asked me if I had enjoyed the film. To which I responded "Yeah, it was pretty good"

Something strange happenedin the following weeks, months & years? Possibly 2 years since I first watched it. I'm still unsure. Anyway, this strange thing slowly became apparent to me. It was a very odd feeling that I didn't notice when watching the film but it was definitely there. To put it plainly, the film took me on a journey. A very personal journey to be exact.

It's rare. There aren't many movies that you can say REALLY took you on a personal journey. Out of the hundreds upon hundreds of movies I've seen over the course of my life so far there are maybe about 3? About that anyway... That I can say took me on a personal journey. Most films take you somewhere, somehow. But not many of them capture your "heart" as such. This movie did this for me & I'm very glad that I experienced it when I did.

Since I first watched it I always wanted to get this film on dvd. I raved about it for months to my brother, always strongly recommending for him to see it. Hopefully I didn't build it up too much & therefore somehow damage the experience for him when he saw it the other day.

Anyway, if you have never seen this film & enjoy movies that really pull youin close then this is the one for you.

I would advise watching this movie alone first time around. I find it helps you to become more involvedin a film.


On this DVD...

As far as this specific DVD, it's nice. Looks nice, outer cardboard box on the dvd box. Special features are pretty good. There is an hour documentary on the making of the film, with cast interviews, on set preparation before shooting scenes which includes the director talking to the actors & discussing how to do the scene etc... I love seeing what goes on behind the scenes & this is pretty good for that sort of stuff. However, the bonus material is nothing special. It's neither bad or great. It's enjoyablein parts, interestingin parts. Definitely worth watching for a fan of the film though.