The English Patient (film)

In 1996, director Anthony Minghella adapted Michael Ondaatje's 1992 novel into the epic romantic war drama *The English Patient*, which he also wrote and which Saul Zaentz produced. The cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Naveen Andrews, and Colin Firth. The story follows its title character, a man so badly burned he is unrecognizable and speaks with an English accent. Through flashbacks, he reveals his true identity and the love affair he had before the war. The film closes with a statement noting it is a fictionalized account of the real László Almásy (who died in 1951) and other historical figures and events. Released by Miramax Films on November 15, 1996, the movie was both a critical and commercial success.

At the 69th Academy Awards, it earned twelve nominations and won nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Binoche. It also made history as the first film to win Best Editing for a digitally edited movie. Fiennes and Scott Thomas received Oscar nominations for their performances. Additionally, the film won six BAFTA Awards and two Golden Globes. The British Film Institute ranked it the 55th-greatest British film of the 20th century, while the American Film Institute named it the 56th-greatest love story of all time.

The plot begins with German gunners shooting down a British biplane carrying a pilot and a slumped woman over the desert. Bedouins rescue the badly burned pilot from the wreckage. In October 1944 Italy, Hana, a French-Canadian nurse with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, learns her boyfriend has been killed. She cares for a dying, severely burned patient who speaks with an English accent and claims not to remember his name. His only possession is a copy of Herodotus's *Histories*, filled with personal notes, pictures, and mementos. After a fellow nurse is killed in front of her, Hana believes she is a curse to her loved ones. When her hospital unit is relocated, she gets permission to stay with her patient at a bombed-out monastery, as he likely wouldn't survive the move. She is joined by Lieutenant Kip Singh, a Sikh sapper in the British Army, and Sergeant Hardy, who are clearing German mines and booby traps, as well as David Caravaggio, a Canadian Intelligence Corps operative tortured in German captivity.