The English Patient

The English Patient (released November 15, 1996)
Directed by: Anthony Minghella
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Produced by: Paul Zaentz
Written by: Anthony Minghella, based on the novel my Michael Ondaatje
Music by: Gabriel Yared
Cinematography by: John Seale
Distributed by: Miramax Films

“Never Judge a Book by Its Movie"

I could say that being a librarian, I read voraciously, but that isn’t an inherently true statement. I read voraciously long before being a librarian ever crossed my mind, and (believe it or not) I know a couple of librarians who don’t read at all. For those of you who don’t read everything you can get your hands on, or don’t work with books every day, there are a lot of books that get turned into movies. And time and again, I am terribly disappointed each time I see a movie that has been adapted from a book I have read that I have loved, or even liked. There are reasons for this. Hollywood tries to cram a great (and lengthy) complex book into 120 minutes of film. Movies are visual, while books tend to explore the inner landscapes of the human brain. And then, the Hollywood movie machine needs to blow things up and put in new characters that were never in the book, while leaving important parts out. My husband has a huge problem with the movie Troy. No gods or goddesses, who were instrumental to the story, and they kill Agamemnon, who in the Homeric cycle has to live to go home and be murdered by his wife. Nothing is sacred anymore.

The English Patient was originally a book by Michael Ondaatje, and by some miracle, I actually have not read it. It was a relief, in some ways, because I didn’t want to sit there, and watch Hollywood butcher another lovely book for me, like they did with A Prayer for Owen Meany (anyone see the stinker Simon Birch?), The Princess Diaries, or all but the first Harry Potter movie. Set in Italy and North Africa and told in a series of flashbacks, Count László de Almásy (played by the yummy Ralph Fiennes) relates how he went from smoking hot geologist making maps in the desert, to crispy burned geologist barely able to move in Italy. Hana (played by Juliette Binoche) is a Canadian nurse who takes care of him in a ruined villa, who has her own ghosts. We learn of his ruinous and obsessive affair with the married Katherine Clifton (played by Kristin Scott Thomas), and of the disastrous consequences that followed. We also learn of Hana’s bad luck, and how she believes she is cursed, because everyone she loves is killed violently. These two wounded people are careful with each other and give each other kindness, but not quite empathy.

Now having said that I haven’t read the book, I can still say that this was a remarkable story, even if a remarkably unlucky and unhappy one. I feel that too often movies are too neat and tidy in their telling, and feelings and plots are all nicely resolved at the end. Even though we know what happens to László, we don’t know what ultimately happens between Hana and her love interest, Kip. Kip (played by Naveen Andrews, who most of you know as Sayid from Lost, and another yum), was an Indian soldier who was diffusing bombs in Italy. So who better to fall for him than someone who curses everyone she loves with a violent death? She doesn’t even have to work at this one. Actually, he doesn’t die, and it is the one ray of hope that I was left with. We know he and Hana have plans to meet in the future, and all we can do is hope that they make that connection.

The movie was full of raw emotion. I can’t find the words outside of hackneyed phrases to describe them: heartbreaking sadness, naked jealousy, wrenching grief, and above all, rotten luck. Boy, were these unlucky people! And yet, in spite of my trite descriptions, there was real human experience underneath, and it was palpable… breathing and writhing on its own. I am almost afraid to read the book now. I don’t know what will happen – will the movie end up disappointing me, as usual, or will the book??? For instance, there is a scene shortly after Hana sets up László in the villa, and she cuts off all her hair. Nothing is said about why she does this, and one assumes she does it for practical reasons. I imagine there is a lengthy section in the book that goes into the cutting of her hair and her thoughts and reasons for it. But we can’t get inside her head in a film, unless there is voice over, and that would have been ridiculous. We are not all Alan Ball.

Visually, the picture was like a piece of amber thrown on the green grass. That’s how it felt anyway, with the golden tones of the African desert juxtaposed against the beautiful green Italian spring. In the end credits, we see that the prosthetics were done by the Jim Henson Company. I guess they were the ones that made Ralph Fiennes look like Scooter. Actually, the makeup was very well done. He didn’t look like Scooter. Much. Actually, he looked a lot like he does in his role as Voldemort in the Harry Potter films.

The English Patient not only won Best Picture, it also won 8 other Academy Awards, and was nominated for 12. Juliette Binoche beat out Lauren Bacall for Best Supporting Actress, and it also won for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, and Best Costume Design among others. I find Juliette Binoche to be absolutely delightful as an actress. I loved her in Chocolat too.

I was very impressed with this film. I didn’t see all the films that were up for the Best Picture Award that year, but it certainly beat Jerry Maguire in my opinion. You complete me…meh. And as a side note, my darling husband may go on forever about how I wept over this film. Rest assured I did not. A tear or two may have escaped my eyes, but I did not weep. I’m saving that for West Side Story and Gone with the Wind.

~Anna

Sand, Villas & Forbidden Love

No one would presume to argue the point that the 1997 Best Picture winner, The English Patient was not gorgeously photographed. It was. Not since Lawrence of Arabia or The Road Warrior have I seen a more lusciously photographed wasteland. Oddly enough, the corresponding scenes at the crumbling Italian villa do not for me hold the same visual power. John Seale, the cinematographer had a wealth of color-saturated landscapes in Tunisia from which to paint his cinematic canvas and I found myself drawn to the desert and its “pure” appearance, bringing to mind the response by T. E. Lawrence when asked what lured him to the desert: “It’s clean.” was his answer.

The story unfolds with no concession to the clock, slowly revealing its central mystery like the shedding of skins off an onion. It is this languid sense consummation that marks the film and its director (the late Anthony Minghella) as a craftsman at the height of his story-telling powers. While some (Elaine Benis for one!) have chided him for perhaps dragging the story on, I felt the pacing right. I also found it somewhat amazing that the subplot of an event as grand and overpowering as The Second World War was properly cast in a secondary role throughout the film. To be sure, it was never relegated too far in the background, but Minghella as screenwriter and director cleverly kept it in its place as we learned the relationships of the central characters to one another.

He doesn’t make many, but whenever Saul Zaentz is involved in a film project, the little golden man is usually hovering about the vicinity.

--kak

Up next: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

The Greatest Show on Earth

The Greatest Show on Earth (released January 10, 1952)

Directed by: Cecil B. DeMille

Starring: Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, James Stewart, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame

Produced by: Cecil B. DeMille

Written by: Frederic M. Frank, Theodore

St. John, Frank Cavett, Barre Lyndon

Music by: Victor Young

Cinematography by: George Barnes

Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

“THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH”

"WHAT WAS THE ACADEMY THINKING?!"

My wife says I have to compose an essay critiquing an Academy Award-winning movie that we’ve picked at random. She says we need to do this to ostensibly keep up our writing styles fresh between scripts and to better educate ourselves in the history of the cinema. All that is fine and good; even a noble endeavor perhaps, but our first randomly chosen film happened to be: The Greatest Show on Earth, voted Best Picture for 1952.

Ouch!

With unabashed delight, C.B. DeMille loaded his circus picture with enough ham and cheese to supply a corner deli. While there is no doubt there are some who still enjoy such things, I fear the majority of viewers nowadays would scoff at the simple, unsophisticated and terribly-dated storyline about a modern-day circus and the soap-operatic vicissitudes of its members. Between you and me, I’ve never really given much thought to what clowns do on their days off, or the love trysts between acrobats and elephant trainers, but apparently Cecil did, and more astonishingly, the Academy did too!

Wilde, Hutton, and Heston form a love triangle.

The show, sadly, has garnered the unenviable sobriquet of being one of the worst Best Picture picks in the history of the Academy Awards. Well, you don’t earn that title without a little effort. Taken as a whole, I really really have a hard time convincing myself that this picture was thought of as the best thing Hollywood could produce in 1952. If he is to be saluted for anything, C. B. DeMille and the folks at Paramount should be applauded for their courage to air such hokum for over two hours.

Doubt me? Watch and be amazed (and/or horrified) at the scripted lines: “…the circus is a massive machine whose very life depends on discipline and motion and speed. A mechanized army on wheels, that rolls over any obstacle in its path…” Are we watching a show about a circus or Hitler’s invasion of Russia? Or, “You can shake the sawdust off your feet, but you can’t shake it outta your heart.” Oh boy.

Add to these immortal cinematic lines the sight of The Great Sebastian’s (Cornel Wilde) terrible fall from the high trapeze into a soft deep layer of sawdust doubling as the hard-packed circus ring floor. The stuntman’s body actually disappears into the sawdust! A little more judicious editing there would have saved that scene, C. B. The infamous dénouement scene involving Sebastian’s twisted claw of a hand (due to the accident) was unintentionally hilarious.

Buttons and Brad help the Great Sebastian after he falls. Nice pants.

Maybe it’s just that I’m not a Betty Hutton fan, but her character, Holly, the two-timing lady aerialist rather grated on me after her first ten minutes of screen time. The great Jimmy Stewart (as Buttons, the Clown) took part, but thankfully managed to play it entirely in clown makeup. Although I still fail to see the need to continue to wear the greasepaint after he was indentified as the murderous doctor on the lam.

As the detective arrives to take Buttons away, he is still in his makeup. Creepy! And speaking of creepy, lest we forget the very bizarre scene with the dancing, flying midget-on-a-rope, his pony, and clowns midway through the picture. Yikes! This is the stuff of nightmares…

But C. B. DeMille, being the consummate showman that he was, saved the best for last: the great circus-car train wreck. (I found this very apropos for this train-wreck of a movie). I shall allow the first-time viewer to see for himself how this calamity occurs. I wouldn’t want to spoil that surprise for you. I did enjoy however the fact that with half the train laying across his legs crushing the life out of him, Brad (Charlton Heston) is game  enough to keep issuing orders to his dazed crew and carnies who gather around him. His most memorable admonishment was to order them to round up the escaped lions and tigers before the smell of blood had them feeding on the trapped survivors(!)

After the train wreck, Brad receives a blood transfusion from Sebastian.

I could go on, but then I would be beating a dead circus elephant. As corny and goofy as this movie undoubtedly is, I can see why some would press it to their nostalgic hearts with fondness. However, best picture for 1952.

I think not.

--kak

“There’s a Sucker Born Every Minute.”

P.T. Barnum is famous for saying this. Cecil B. Demille followed that philosophy by suckering the public into buying tickets to his circus movie.

Probably not the most auspicious movie with which to start this project, The Greatest Show on Earth didn’t exactly live up to its name. Twenty minutes into the movie I was wondering when it was going to be over. And almost three hours later it was. This movie ran for 2 hours and 53 minutes. Does the actual circus even last that long?

The main plot is a love triangle set up between two aerialists, Holly (Betty Hutton) and The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde), and the circus manager Brad (Charlton Heston). Brad brings Sebastian in to help boost flagging ticket sales, but that bumps his girlfriend Holly out of the center ring. Holly, not to be outdone by some suave Frenchy, does a nightly chicken fight with the Great Sebastian 60 feet above the ground, much to the delight of the audience. Naturally, Holly can’t help but be attracted to someone who shares her passion. She remarks they are both like “two streaks of light with wings” when they are up there. (Yack…who wrote that??) Inevitably, Sebastian falls with no net and he lands in a heap on the ground. He ends up with a pathetic claw for a hand. Good times.

Betty Hutton and Cornel Wilde actually trained as aerialists for their roles.

There is also the subplot of Buttons the Clown. Buttons is played by Jimmy Stewart, and he is never once seen in the movie without his clown makeup, which is decidedly creepy. We learn early the reason why he never shows his face: he is on the run from the law. But it is not until almost the end that we find out he was a doctor who performed a mercy killing on his wife and was wanted for murder.

Jimmy Stewart as Buttons the Clown.

The third act of the movie begins with what I like to call a metaphor for the entire film – a train wreck. The jealous elephant tamer who can’t stand to see the woman he loves (Angel, another elephant tamer) throw herself at the newly single Brad, causes the two circus trains to collide, causing mayhem. (I would add that you just can’t make this shit up, but apparently, someone did.) Lions and tigers escape their cages. (I was kind of hoping for an all-you-can-eat clown buffet, but this is a Demille film, not a Tarantino.) Brad is caught in the wreckage. The big top is torn to shreds. How will they go on? This is when Holly decides that she doesn’t love Sebastian at all. She loves the newly injured Brad, and she will do anything to save the show. And Buttons steps in to save Brads life so he doesn’t bleed to death, even though he is later arrested.

Gloria Grahame as Angel, the elephant tamer.

I knew I was in trouble watching this movie in the first few minutes watching Brad walk across the grounds, talking to the circus folk, giving advice here and there. He came upon an animal handler who had a giraffe with a sore throat.

Think about that for a minute.

Did you catch it? How in the bloody hell did the giraffe convey it had a sore throat? What is the universal animal sign for, “Gosh, my throat hurts?”

Seriously.

The writing was painful. It made me cringe in quite a few places, and the actors really couldn’t do much with the lines. I really thought Jimmy Stewart was the only one who didn’t come off looking like a total loon. Even Cornel Wilde (who I know can act – having seen Naked Prey) looked ridiculous. But maybe that had a lot to do with the costumes. Edith Head was the costumer, and they were pretty spectacular, but they were circus costumes, so of course they were spangly and skintight.

This plot I have described could have been done in a regular 120 minute movie, but Demille put in all these extra circus acts. And this is sort of like watching fireworks on TV – the effect is ruined because it isn’t live. But the circus acts are genuine with real Ringling performers, adding to the hokeyness of the production.

I am willing to bet that a lot of people who saw this movie when they were kids have fond memories and love the picture even to this day. I have big love for the Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson. I got it on VHS when I was about 8 years old and watched it until the tape broke. So I get loving bad movies because they were great to you as a kid. However, even as an 8 year-old kid, I probably would have had the presence of mind to know that it was a movie for kids, and not the “best movie of the year.”

I did do some reading about the Oscars for 1952. This was at the height of the Red Scare, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities had investigated Carl Foreman, the producer of High Noon (which was undoubtedly the favorite to win). Therefore, it is thought that Demille’s picture won by default, although there were three other pictures up for the honor including The Quiet Man, Ivanhoe, and Moulin Rouge. Many consider this the worst film ever to win Best Picture.

High Noon was robbed.

I do want to end with the one moment in the movie that made me shriek with laughter. It wasn’t supposed to make me laugh, but it did. Dorothy Lamour had an act in the circus where she comes out with a large group of girls dressed as hula dancers, and she sings “Lovely Luawana Lady.” The girls shed their blue and green shiny grass skirts, and ascend ropes to twirl about as the music plays. Then all of a sudden they pull out mallets and begin to play little xylophones attached to the tops of their ropes! How random!

Dorothy Lamour shakes her grass skirt for Emmett Kelly.

I guess you had to be there.

Up next: The English Patient (1996)

Drop and give me 81...

Hi. This is Anna. I am going to be one of the two writers on this blog. The other will be my husband of almost 5 months. His name is Konstantine. His family calls him Kosta, but most folks call him Koko. We are coming to you out of south Florida where it is still stinking hot and probably will be for another month before it starts to cool down.
We both work at the same public library. That's how we met, actually. Almost 5 years ago I started as a new Reference Librarian at the place where he had been working at the circulation desk. We were friends for a year, and then we were more. After 2 1/2 years of dating he asked me to marry him, and last April 25 we got married. We are disgustingly happy. At least, with each other.


We're not so happy with our jobs anymore, but that's a story for another blog. (And one that won't get us fired, thank you very much.) We have both been writers for a very long time. Since we were both able to pick up a pencil, we've been writing stories. We are in the process of trying to break into screenwriting, which is incredibly difficult, and a very painful and arduous task. But one, we feel, that will be extremely rewarding and satisfying if we succeed.


That, actually, is where this blog comes in. We are both voracious readers, and have a huge library of books at home. While we are both extremely well read, there are major holes in our knowledge of movies. Koko knows lots about older movies (from the 60's and before), and I am more well-versed in contemporary films (being 18 years younger than my husband will do that). So when I was sitting at the reference desk yesterday, I got a wild hair up my butt to try this idea:


Since the beginning of the Academy Awards, there have been 81 winners (to date) for something equating Best Picture. I found that "Best Picture" was an award the academy started bestowing in 1962. Before that it was "Best Motion Picture," and other different arrangements of words that basically come out to the same thing. I wanted to watch them all and get a better idea of what The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considered to be the cream of the crop over the years. But I didn't want to just go down the list either. So what I did was I wrote all the movie titles down on little slips of paper, threw them in a box, and we are going to draw them out one at a time. We'll watch the movie together, then we will each put some thoughts together, and write about it.


I like the idea. It pleases me to know that not only will I be learning more about movies, but we will be able to share our ideas with anyone who cares to read about them. Blogs are an interesting phenomenon. Anyone with the know-how and an idea (no matter how kooky) can put together a blog on whatever they damn well please, and anyone in the world can read it. In the old days of writing, it was so important not to let anyone see your work unless it was published through the proper channels in order to maintain integrity. And while I would still never be caught dead self-publishing anything, blogs seem to be a socially acceptable avenue for getting your voice out there. I am not saying I am trolling for a book deal out of this, but if someone wanted to offer me one, well...
And trust me, you will hear two distinct voices in this blog, with two distinct opinions. I am really excited about this project. Of course, we will continue with our screenwriting efforts. We need this creative outlet now more than ever to get us out of the misery that is our daily jobs.


So the first movie drawn out of the box? Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth, winner of Best Motion Picture in 1952.


Oh, and just so you know, I am not going to give spoiler alerts. Know that if you read the blog post, you will know how the movie ends. If you want to be surprised when you watch it, then don't read the post until after you have viewed the movie.
~Anna