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Ep. 115: Revisiting The English Patient 25 years later

We revisit The English Patient on its 25th anniversary and consider its complicated legacy and “poignant sense of sandy sadness.” The episode features two first-timers and two superfans.

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Ralph Fiennes & Kristin Scott Thomas in The English Patient

This episode features Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney, Executive Editor Orla Smith, Associate Editor Brett Pardy, and special guest Andrew Kendall.

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The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996)

Adapted from Michael Ondaatje’s 1992 Booker winning novel. In the final days of World War II, a nurse, Hana (Juliette Binoche) takes care of a badly burned patient (Ralph Fiennes), who speaks with a English accent. Through his memories, the film shows that in the prelude to World War II, he was Hungarian cartographer, Count László Almásy. Almásy had an affair with Katherine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), which ultimately led to a disastrous series of events.

The English Patient is available on DVD and VOD. It’s streaming on Crave Starz in Canada and HBO Max in the US.

On this episode

  • The English Patient and its reviled Oscar legacy (7:10)
  • The state of modern literary adaptations (15:50)
  • Why we like the film (21:40)
  • Almásy and Katherine/Ralph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas (24:53)
  • Hana and Kip/Juliette Binoche and Naveen Andrews (53:51)
  • The English Patient as a war movie (1:04:22)
  • Stand out scenes (1:14:20)
  • Adaptation (1:23:29)
  • Caravaggio/Willem Dafoe and alternate castings (1:27:12)
  • Minghella’s other work (1:47:05)
  • Conclusion (1:57:37)
  • Joachim Trier announcement (1:57:52)
  • Podcast format change (2:00:59)

Show notes

  • Sign up for updates on the first book to ever be published on the films of Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier
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