Mister Tee wrote:My take at the time was, it was Out of Africa, but written by Milan Kundera.
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Best description of The English Patient I’ve ever read.
Mister Tee wrote:My take at the time was, it was Out of Africa, but written by Milan Kundera.
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Thank you for your quarter century of service.Mister Tee wrote
I'm so pleased you posted this. I've spent much of the past quarter-century making the same argument. I feel like many male critics (which is to say, most critics) reacted to this film like the Twitter user who never reads the article but responds to the headline. This movie looked, on surface, like a swoony epic romance, so they treated it as such, despite its having incredibly dense characterization and thematics. My take at the time was, it was Out of Africa, but written by Milan Kundera.
Incidentally, even at the time, Julie Louis-Dreyfus said she, in fact, loved the movie. The whole "this is so boring" reaction strictly came from the (wouldn't you bet male?) writers.
I'm so pleased you posted this. I've spent much of the past quarter-century making the same argument. I feel like many male critics (which is to say, most critics) reacted to this film like the Twitter user who never reads the article but responds to the headline. This movie looked, on surface, like a swoony epic romance, so they treated it as such, despite its having incredibly dense characterization and thematics. My take at the time was, it was Out of Africa, but written by Milan Kundera.dws1982 wrote:It's a shame that movie's cultural imprint now is mostly just the punchline of a Seinfeld episode. It may be an Oscar-bait epic, but it's just about the best version of that. I think it's an incredibly smart and an incredibly rich film. BBC was supposed to be doing a new adaptation of this as a miniseries, but I don't know if that's still on the table or not.
The notion of Fiennes, Binoche, and Scott Thomas all being leads is why I started this project in the first place. I think both Binoche and Scott Thomas in supporting probably makes the most sense, but I kind of like the notion that this film is about all of them. One of the most successful parts of it is how in the "present" with Binoche the film feels like it is entirely about her and the effect that Fiennes has on her but in the past all of that goes away and it's about Fiennes in love with Scott Thomas.dws1982 wrote
First, The English Patient ladies:
In my opinion, they go together in Support. If a distinction had to be made, despite the slight screen time difference, Binoche should've been in Lead. She does exist independently from Fiennes, and she does have her own point of view. Not enough, in my opinion, to rise to the Lead level, because hers is essentially a side story, but Kristin Scott Thomas is not seen outside of the flashback and not afforded any point of view outside of the story that Fiennes tells. I get that "not seen out of a flashback" is not a foolproof argument: Leonardo DiCaprio does not exist outside of the flashback structure of Titanic; Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep both does not exist outside of the flashback of The Bridges of Madison County; all of them are unquestionable leads. Those are also essentially framing devices to get the story going whereas The English Patient has parallel narratives.
Had they put Binoche and Scott Thomas both in Lead, I don't know what happens. I think only one gets nominated but I'm not sure which one. Both had been in fairly high-profile art-house hits within the past few years. Both in Support, I think they both get nominated. If they split them both with Binoche in Lead and Scott Thomas in Support, I think they both get nominated and Scott Thomas possibly wins in the sweep.
You raise an interesting point about Noah Taylor and why he wouldn't be considered a lead in Shine for his portion of the film. I would absolutely consider Dev Patel a lead for Lion because he's a continuation of the same character journey. Why should Noah Taylor be any different? I think the chief difference is that Rush is there are the beginning of the film as well as the end while Taylor exists only in the first half of the film. That said, this kind of division between actors playing the same part is pretty subjective and probably warrants an entire post of its own. Why can't Noah Taylor be considered a leading performance?Big Magilla wrote
Why Geoffrey Rush dominated the lead actor race I still don't know but he was his film's lead even if Noah Taylor was his equal if not his better as the younger version of the character. Taylor's lack of a nomination may have been because they didn't know quite where to place him. NBR winner Tom Cruise was my personal choice.