The English Patient', seeing the film was a very disappointing experience.

After having read ‘The English Patient’, seeing the film was a very disappointing experience. The novel is about a nameless, faceless, burned English man that is cared for by a mysterious nurse, Hanna. Within the film Hanna is a good nurse that has a sexy longhaired boyfriend. But, within the book Hanna is a mad nurse obsessed with the health of the English man, yet is numb to thoughts of rape, war, or death.The reader is thrown into a villa then surrounded by flash memories of sand, war, love and betrayal. Surreal dreams or a past reality, the answer to the riddle of ‘The English Patient’ is revealed but the reader is left with ambiguous memories of a boy masturbating behind a fire, the painting of a dying body, or sex with a deteriorated woman.You will not remember those parts from the movie. They left all the good parts out. The film turns ‘The English Patient’ into a sappy love story with such cliches as, ‘But, I have always loved you.’The film did have its good points. I will agree with the Lantern arts editor, Nicole Pankuch, ‘The cinematography is beautiful, and I can’t say enough good things about it. The sweeping mountain scenes and arid desert…,’ or what about the wonderful sex scenes with Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas.Simply breathtaking. It poisoned my body, I wanted to penetrate the screen and touch the mountains. I wanted to investigate the cave with Fiennes. I wanted to be one with the film!Well, ‘The English Patient’ is supposed to do the Oscar sweep, and I hope it does. That will further my belief that the ‘best’ films are nothing to the novel, and literature still remains the supreme art.

Michael Anthony BennettEnglish