The English Patient – is it time to revive the epic romance?

27 September 2021

Anna Smith

Features correspondent

Alamy The English Patient — (Credit: Alamy)

It became fashionable to mock The English Patient but, 25 years on, we need it more than ever. Anna Smith re-visits the film in all its lavish, sweeping glory.

Every now and then, a film comes along that sweeps audiences off their feet with its swooning romance, incredible historical setting and swelling score. It happened in 1939 with Gone with the Wind, in 1965 with Doctor Zhivago, and in 1996, with The English Patient. Film critics awarded it five stars, enraptured by the story of the badly scarred hero (Ralph Fiennes) recalling his ionate affair with Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas) while being tended to by nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) – herself enjoying a romance with Kip (Naveen Andrews). The setting was a decoratively dilapidated monastery in the Italian countryside, and the flashbacks took place in the Sahara during World War Two: dramatic both visually and thematically. Like many a romantic epic, it was based on a best-selling novel – by Michael Ondaatje – and it also had a prestige director, Anthony Minghella, whose star was on the rise.

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Critic and programmer Geoff Andrew re reviewing the film for Time Out when it first came out. "I was not alone in being highly impressed – and deeply moved – by the film at the press screening. Its sense of scale – chronological, geographical and emotional – suggested that Minghella had moved up several notches as a director, and that the film would endure as a breakthrough achievement." Andrew's review praised the film as, "a rich, complex, entrancing piece of work", while Jay Carr at Boston Globe claimed that it "out-Zhivagos Doctor Zhivago". Rita Kempley in The Washington Post called it "completely intoxicating" while the BBC's Ali Barclay declared it, "A must-see film for all lovers of cinema on a grand and sweeping scale".

Although The English Patient was initially well received, and won nine Oscars, there was then a backlash against it (Credit: Alamy)

Alamy Although The English Patient was initially well received, and won nine Oscars, there was then a backlash against it (Credit: Alamy) — Although The English Patient was initially well received, and won nine Oscars, there was then a backlash against it (Credit: Alamy)

Audiences agreed: it was a box-office success worldwide, and was nominated for 12 Oscars, nine of which it would go on to win, including best picture and best director. And yet, after a few months of acclaim, it became fashionable to mock Anthony Minghella's lavish period drama.

Why? An episode of Seinfeld in 1997 played a part. Actually called The English Patient, episode 17 of series 8 saw Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) declaring her hatred for the film, exasperated by a sea of praise and even losing her boyfriend, who couldn't bear to be with someone who didn't like The English Patient. "Those sex scenes, please…" Elaine mocked. "Give me something I can use!" It was, and still is, very funny – partly because the film seemed so incredibly popular and untouchable. "At that time, it was being touted as this 'perfect movie', and everyone had to go see it," episode writer Steven Koren told Vanity Fair, 20 years later. "And I just going, 'I have to go">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });