|
The
English patient
|
Quotes
|
Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
|
Book: The English Patient (1992)
Movie: The English Patient (1996)
Quotes:
"I know you'll come and carry me out into the palace of winds"
"Every night I cut my heart out, but in the morning its full again."
"I kept my promise."
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Premise
movie:
"Beginning in the 1930's, "The English Patient" tells
the story of Count Almasy who is a Hungarian map maker employed by the
Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara
Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II
unfolds, Almasy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics
that is later revealed in a series of flashbacks while Almasy is on
his death bed after being horribly burned in a plane crash."
from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116209/plotsummary
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Premise
book:
"It is 1944, and the war in central Italy is over. It
has moved north, leaving in its wake a landscape of ruined places and
people. In an isolated Tuscan villa that served as a military
hospital, two people remain, forgotten by the rest of the world: a
young Canadian nurse, Hana, almost destroyed by war and the death of
her father, and her last patient, a man burned beyond recognition, who
drifts in and out of his own memories and dreams. Into their lives
comes Caravaggio, a thief who has been tortured and maimed by wartime
inquisitors, and Kip, a young Sikh who has spent the war dismantling
bombs. While events taking place in the outside world prove that
history has reached a definitive turning point, in the Villa San
Girolamo Ondaatje's four protagonists carry on a remote, intensely
personal existence, as they play out their interior drama."
From:
http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/patient/
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Author:
"Michael
Ondaatje, the first Canadian winner of the prestigious
Booker Prize in 1992, is perhaps most famous for the work that won him
that prize, a fictional World War romantic narrative since made into a
film called The English Patient. While it is true to say that he is
the first-ever recipient of the Booker Prize, he is also the first
ever winner born in Ceylon(now called Sri Lanka). Born during World
War II on 12th September 1943, Ondaatje emigrated to Canada at the age
of 19 after spending a spell in England. There he attended the
University of Toronoto where he gained a BA,
after which he obtained a Masters degree at Queens University.
Ondaatje's first published work was a collection of poetry entitled
The Dainty Monsters (1967) which he followed up with The Man With
Seven Toes (1969) and Rat Jelly (1973). His first literary award came
his way in 1970 at the age of 27, when he won the Canadian
Governor General' Award for his collection of poetry, entitled The Collected
Work of Billy the Kid written about the legendary outlaw. He received
a second Governor General's Award in 1979 for an earlier collection of
poetry, There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to do (1963 - 1978).
His work is characterised by a bleakly evocative narrative and
minimalist dialogue, blending documentary and fictional accounts of
real characters, such as his Coming Through Slaughter (1976) about the
life of 1930's jazz cornetist Buddy Bolden and In the Skin of a Lion,
a story about 1930's Canadian Immigrants. Jazz and cinema, in
fact, have been recurring themes in Ondaatje's work and the author himself
has written a number of screenplays and worked on films previously.
Ondaatje's screen credits include The Clinton Special, Sons of Captain
Poetry and Carry On Crime and Punishment. His critical work on poet
and songwriter Leonard Cohen has also been well recieved. Other works
of poetry by Ondaatje include Secular Poems and the Cinammon Peeler.
Perhaps most informative for those looking to obtain an understanding
of Ondaatje's life is his work Running in the Family, a biographical
account of his early life in colonial Ceylon.
Ondaatje now lives in Toronto, gives literary talks and does part-time
lecturing at York University. "
From:
http://mtmt.essortment.com/biographyofmac_rqzo.htm
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Director:
Anthony Minghella
Cast:
Ralph Fiennes (Almásy), Juliette Binoche (Hana), Willem Dafoe
(Caravaggio), Kristin Scott Thomas (Katharine Clifton), Naveen Andrews
(Kip), Colin Firth (Geoffrey Clifton), Julian Wadham
(Madox), Jürgen Prochnow (Major Muller), Kevin Whately (Hardy) and others.
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