We die!
We die rich with lovers and tribes
tastes we’ve swallowed,
bodies we ‘ve entered and swum up like rivers,
fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave.
I want all this marked on my body.
We are the real countries
Not the boundaries drawn on maps,
the names of powerful men...
I also do not want any boundaries to write this review. The English Patient has been my favourite must-see film from the time I watched first. I watched again and again maybe a hundred times. I almost memorised all the scenes in the film. It is really an extraordinary and the most successful film adopted by a novel. Before I express my feelings and thoughts about this stunning film, I want to inform you about the cast and the plot first.
The English Patient is a film that awarded more than 15 categories ranging from The Best Director to The Best adapted screenplay. It was adapted from a novel –The English Patient - written by Micheal Ondaatje- for the screen in 1996. Anthony Minghella is the director of the film, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes share the leading roles in the film. Willem Dafoe is a supporting actor, and Juliette Binoche is the supporting actress of the film and she was awarded as the Best Actress in a Supporting Role in Academy Awards, USA.
The film takes place in Italy during the Second World War and North Africa deserts that the English patient had to map out. The Eglish Patient ( Count Almasy –Ralph Fiennes) is Hungarian. He's an autodidact, he knows everything about anything. He's an expert about guns, books, explosives, history, the desert, and gardening. He's fascinated by maps, the desert, and Herodotus. He works for the Germans. He makes maps of the desert. He falls in love with Katherine who is married to one of his colleagues - Geoffrey Clifton. Katherine falls in love with count Almasy, too. She tries to keep this relation but in the end she could not because she no longer wants to hurt her husband Geoffrey and she broke up. After a couple of years she back to Almasy in a plane which Geoffrey uses. The plane is crashed and Geoffrey dies. Count Almasy founds them and he is suprised when he sees Katherine on the plane. She is injured and Almasy takes her to the cave to find help to save her life. She says how much she loves him when Almasy holds her in his arms. He gives a word to her to come back and he leaves out from the cave. Unfortunately, when he comes back Katherine had already died. He takes her and gets on the plane and his plane is shot and the plane crashes and Almasy gets burned. The film starts with this crash scene and with flashbacks it goes on. Too badly burned pilot ‘ the English patient’ is cared for by a Canadian Militarian nurse – Hana- ( Juliette Binoche). As the dying patient’s memory returns, he tells his story – of how he embarked on a passionate love with Katherine.
The summary is that but there are numerous scenes that I did not mention here. You can see every shape of love in this film. Like Hana’s affections to her patient, like Hana’s feelings to Kip who is an expert on bombs, and passionate love between Almasy and Katherine. Although, there are so many scenes which affect me so much, the most impressive scene is trembling hands and crying eyes of Hana when Almasy wants her to kill him with more morphine and wants her to read his diary. Both Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ralph Fines, and the other players are perfect. The soundtrack is also impressive and suits the pace of the film. All scenes are stupendous and almost heartbreaking.
I share the same feelings with Katherine about love. As she was waiting for Almasy in the cave, she writes her feelings in Almasy's diary. Her approach to love is quite different. All we understand and interfere with the ‘love’ differently but her words touch our hearts remarkably.
These are the whole words Katherine wrote:
My darlin’
I am waiting for you.
How long is a day in the dark?
Or a week?
The fire is gone now and I am horribly cold.
I really ought to drag myself outside
but then there ‘d be the sun.
I am afraid I waste the light
on the paintings and on writing these words.
We die!
We die rich with lovers and tribes,
tastes we’ve swallowed,
bodies we ‘ve entered and swum up like rivers,
fears we have hidden in, like this wretched cave.
I want all this marked on my body.
We are the real countries
Not the boundaries drawn on maps,
the names of powerful men...
Melike ÇELIK
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