The Controversial Oscar Winner - a review of 'The English Patient' (1996, dir. Anthony Minghella)

I first watched The English Patient about a year ago and have since watched it several times. It quickly became a firm favourite, but in logging it numerous times on Letterboxd (and putting it as one of my four favourites!) I noticed a mixed bag of reviews on the film and realised that there is controversy around its Best Picture win at the Academy Awards in 1997. The English Patient, if you haven't watched it, stars Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche and tells the story of Almasy, the 'English patient' (who funnily enough isn't actually English but Hungarian), who is severely burnt in a plane crash around the time of WW2 and is being taken care of by Hana (Binoche), a wartime nurse. He begins to slowly recount his past, which includes flashbacks to his love affair with Katharine Clifton (Scott Thomas), a woman married to a man a part of Almasy's archaeological crew in Egypt (played by Colin Firth). Also explored in the film is Hana's romance with Kip, a bomb disposal Lieutenant (Naveen Andrews)

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One issue I keep seeing referred to in reviews of the film is its length, coming in at 2 hours and 42 minutes, and the amount of unnecessary scenes. I do agree that the film is quite long, but equally understand that Minghella was dealing with a lot of material and narrative strands here. We're presented with two different moments in time (the present with Almasy being cared for by Hana, and then the past and his affair with Katharine) and numerous different characters who all have some tie to Almasy. Not enjoying the length of the film and all that goes on within it honestly comes down to preference/taste, in my opinion, rather than it being indicative of the film being bad. I personally love longer multi-strand narratives where we follow multiple different characters and their storylines - my other absolute favourite film like this is From Here to Eternity (1953, dir. Fred Zinnemann). And as for unnecessary scenes, of course there are some that could have been cut down, but I love the more mundane scenes that we are presented with in this film. Particularly two sequences involving Katharine and Almasy. The first is when they've made love for the first time and share a bath afterwards. Almasy asks Katharine:

"When were you most happy?"

"Now."

"When were you least happy?"

"Now."

"What do you love? Say everything."

"Hmm lets see... water, the fish in it. And hedgehogs... marmite, I'm addicted... and baths, but not with other people..."

On the surface, the dialogue seems quite random, and maybe therefore unnecessary. But we're witnessing a moment between two people that have an enormous amount of lust for one another but know barely anything about each other, and so they're having those conversations - the 'tell me everything about yourself, the weird and boring things, I want to know it all' sort of conversations. And I LOVE it; I love seeing these two passionate characters get to know each other more, even if it isn't moving the film along substantially.

The second sequence I love is after Katharine and Almasy have made love again (!). Almasy plays a Hungarian folk song on the record player and he jokes that it was about a Hungarian man who falls in love with an English woman who beats him, and Katharine quickly picks up on the fact that he's lying and is instead referring to them both. She goes on to hit him as they laugh and lay together. Then there's moments of silence where they're just looking at each other. The warm light that surrounds them makes the scene so much more romantic, and it is again these seemingly unnecessary and mundane moments of conversation that enhance the film and the passion between these two characters. We gain a sense of just how much they love spending time with one another that they're both willing to risk people finding out about them.

Another phrase that people seem to love to use about this film is that it's 'Oscar baity'... which yes, it is! But if that phrase means it has beautiful sweeping, Lawrence of Arabia-esque shots of sand dunes whilst exploring dramatic love stories, then I will absolutely take it. Nobody can deny that the cinematography in this film is anything short of stunning.

This shot is probably my favourite out of the entire film.

It seems that others also think that Fargo (1996, dir. Coen brothers) should have won Best Picture instead, and that perhaps Lauren Bacall should have won Best Supporting Actress for A Mirror Has Two Faces (1996, dir. Barbra Streisand) instead of Juliette Binoche. Personally, I think the latter two gave two very different performances in two very different films, so its difficult to determine who was more deserving. All I know is that, in my own opinion, Binoche (along with Fiennes, Scott Thomas and the supporting actors) gave strong and touching performances in a very beautiful film. There's much more to the film than what I've discussed here and other compelling elements of the narrative, but I simply love the fact that this film has multiple strands to its story with several passionate (for varying reasons) characters. It's haunting, captivating, romantic and beautiful to look at; it will remain a favourite of mine foreverrrr.

Disclaimer: Images are not my own.