Crossing Lines

Novel

The English Patient is a 1992 novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje (won the Booker Prize for this novel). The story deals with the gradually revealed histories of a critically burned English accented Hungarian man, his Canadian nurse, a Canadian-Italian thief, and an Indian sapper in the British Army as they live out the end of World War II in an Italian villa. The novel won the Canadian Governor General's Award and the Booker Prize for fiction. The novel was adapted into an award-winning film of the same name in 1996. The narrative is non-linear and the main characters are examined in depth and detail.

Characters

Almásy

Count Ladislaus de Almásy is the title character. He arrives under Hana's care burned beyond recognition. He has a face, but it is unrecognizable and his tags are not present. The only identification they have of him is that he told the Bedouins that he was English. Thus, they call him just the English Patient. Lacking any identification, Almásy serves as a sort of blank canvas onto which the other characters project their wishes. Hana finds in him redemption for not being at her father's side when he died in a similar fashion without anyone to comfort him. Kip finds a friend. The irony in the tale arises in that Almásy is not, in fact, English. Rather, he is Hungarian by birth and has tried to erase all ties to countries throughout his desert explorations.

Because of his complete rejection of nationalism, many of Almásy's actions which would otherwise seem reprehensible are somewhat forgiven. To a man with no nation, it is not wrong to help a German spy across the desert. The German is simply another man. Almásy is portrayed in a sympathetic light. This is partly because Almásy tells his own story, but it is also because Almásy always adheres to his own moral code.

Almásy is also at the center of one of the novel's love stories. He is involved in an adulterous relationship with Katharine Clifton, which eventually leads to her death and the death of her husband, Geoffrey Clifton. Katharine is the figure who leads Almásy to sensuality. He falls in love with her voice as she reads Herodotus. Sensuality—in both the sexual and observational senses—is a major theme to the novel.

Hana

Hana is a twenty-year-old Army nurse. Hana is torn between her youth and her maturity. In a sense, she has lost her childhood too early. A good nurse, she learned quickly that she could not become emotionally attached to her patients. She calls them all "buddy", but immediately detaches from them once they are dead. Her lover, a Canadian officer, is killed. Hana comes to believe she is a curse whose friends inevitably die. Symbolic of her detachment and loss of childhood, she cuts off all of her hair and no longer looks in mirrors after three days of working as a nurse.

In contrast to this detachment, upon hearing of her father's death Hana has an emotional breakdown. Then she puts all of her energy into caring for the English Patient. She washes his wounds and provides him with morphine. When the hospital is abandoned, Hana refuses to leave and instead stays with her patient. She sees Almásy as saintlike and with the "hipbones of Christ". She falls in love with the English Patient in a purely non-sexual way.

The character of Hana is entirely paradoxical. She is mature beyond her years, but she still clings to childlike practices. She plays hopscotch in the Villa and sees the patient as a noble hero who is suffering. She projects her own romanticized images onto the blank slate of the patient, forming a sort of fairytale existence for herself. A strong relationship with sapper, Kip, is also formed during his stay at the villa.

Kip

Kirpal (Kip) Singh is an Indian. Kip was trained to be a sapper officer by Lord Suffolk who also, essentially, made him a part of his family. Kip is, perhaps, the most conflicted character of the novel. His brother is an Indian nationalist and strongly anti-Western. By contrast, Kip willingly joined the British military, but he was met with reservations from his white colleagues. This causes Kip to become somewhat emotionally withdrawn. Kip and Hana become lovers and, through that, Kip begins to regain confidence and a sense of community. He feels welcomed by these westerners, and they all seem to form a group that disregards national origins. They get together and celebrate Hana's 21st birthday, a symbol of their friendship and Kip's acceptance. He leaves and never returns, though later in his life he often thinks of Hana.


Katharine Clifton

Katharine is the wife of Geoffrey Clifton. She has an affair with Almásy which her husband discovers. She is Oxford educated. Almásy falls in love with her as she reads from Almásy's borrowed copy of The Histories around a campfire. Katharine and Clifton met at Oxford. During the context of events told by The English Patient, she had been married to Geoffrey for only a year. The day after they get married, she and Geoffrey fly to the desert to join Almásy's expedition crew. Once the affair begins, she is torn by guilt and eventually breaks off the affair. After Geoffrey kills himself, and they are stuck in the desert, she admits she always loved Almásy.

Movie:

The English Patient movie is based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards. Ondaatje worked closely with the filmmakers. Set before and during World War II, The English Patient is a story of love, fate, misunderstanding and healing.

Plot

The film is set during World War II and depicts a critically burned man (Ralph Fiennes), at first known only as "the English patient," who is being looked after by Hana (Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse in an abandoned Italian monastery. The patient is reluctant to disclose any personal information but through a series of flashbacks, viewers are allowed into his past. It is slowly revealed that he is in fact a Hungarian cartographer, Count László de Almásy, who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman, Katharine Clifton (Kristin Scott Thomas), ultimately brought about his present situation. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), a Canadian intelligence operative and former thief, arrives at the monastery. Caravaggio lost his thumbs while being interrogated by a German army officer, and he gradually reveals that it was the patient's actions that had brought about his torture. In addition to the patient's story, the film devotes time to Hana and her romance with Kip (Naveen Andrews), an Indian Sikh sapper in the British Army. Due to various events in her past, Hana believes that anyone who comes close to her is likely to die, and Kip's position as a bomb defuser makes their romance full of tension.

1996 Academy Awards

    Won, Best Picture (Saul Zaentz)
    Won, Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Juliette Binoche
    Won, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan)
    Won, Best Cinematography (John Seale)
    Won, Best Costume Design (Ann Roth)
    Won, Best Director (Anthony Minghella)
    Won, Best Film Editing (Walter Murch)
    Won, Best Original Score (Gabriel Yared)
    Won, Best Sound (Walter Murch, Mark Berger, David Parker, and Christopher Newman)
    Nominated, Best Actor in a Leading Role: Ralph Fiennes
    Nominated, Best Actress in a Leading Role: Kristin Scott Thomas
    Nominated, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Anthony Minghella)

Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert gave the movie a 4/4 rating, saying "it's the kind of movie you can see twice – first for the questions, the second time for the answers.

Crossing Lines

All the four people in the house were crossing lines: physically, socially or morally.

[[Finished one release and supposed to give self a short vacation, but somehow trapped into WWII and a tragedy  :-(  . You won't fully understand if you didn't read novel and watch the movie.]]