FilmSkool — a free film school
The English Patient
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
1996 · Directed by Anthony Minghella · 162 min · Drama · Romance · War · Screenplay in the scene database · 18 frames
Tagline
In love, there are no boundaries.
Plot
German gunners shoot down a British biplane, containing a pilot and a slumped down woman, flying across the desert. A group of Bedouin pulls the badly burned pilot from the wreckage, rescuing him.
Hana, a French-Canadian Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps nurse, learns from a wounded soldier that her boyfriend has been killed. In October 1944 Italy, she is caring for a dying, severely burned patient who speaks with an English accent and says he cannot remember his name. His only possession is a copy of Herodotus's Histories, with personal notes, pictures, and mementos stored inside.
When a fellow nurse is killed in front of her, Hana decides she's a curse to her loved ones. Her hospital unit is being relocated, but she gains permission to settle in a bombed-out monastery with her patient, as he is likely not to survive the move. She's joined by Lieutenant Kip Singh, a Sikh sapper in the British Army posted with Sergeant Hardy to clear German mines and booby traps, and David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative who was tortured in German captivity. Caravaggio questions the patient, drawing out details of his past while Hana and Kip begin a love affair.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Anthony Minghella
- Cinematography: John Seale
- Edited by: Walter Murch
- Music: Gabriel Yared
- Production design: Stuart Craig
- Produced by: Saul Zaentz
Cast
- Ralph Fiennes as Almásy
- Juliette Binoche as Hana
- Willem Dafoe as David Caravaggio
- Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine Clifton
- Naveen Andrews as Sikh Kip
- Colin Firth as Geoffrey Clifton
- Julian Wadham as Madox
- Torri Higginson as Mary
- Jürgen Prochnow as Major Muller
- Kevin Whately as Sgt. Hardy
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: German, Italian, Arabic, English
- Studios: Miramax, The Saul Zaentz Company, Tiger Moth Productions
- Budget: $27,000,000
- Box office: $231,976,425
- Themes: egypt, secret love, amnesia, airplane, cairo, identity, intelligence, traitor, burn, world war ii
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by Anthony Minghella
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.