50 Fun Facts About The English Patient

Who directed The English Patient?

He also wrote the screenplay himself, adapting a novel many considered unfilmable.

Who wrote the 1992 novel the film is based on?

The Sri Lankan-born Canadian author worked closely with the filmmakers during production.

Who plays the burned title character?

He and his co-star were both nominated for Oscars for their performances.

Which actress plays Hana, the nurse who cares for the patient?

She won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role.

Who plays Katharine Clifton?

The role brought her Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.

How many Academy Awards did The English Patient win?

It had received twelve nominations, the most of any film that year.

The patient's only possession is a copy of which ancient work?

The book is stuffed with personal notes, pictures and mementos that anchor the flashbacks.

What is Hana's nationality in the film?

She serves as a Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps nurse in Italy in 1944.

What is Kip Singh's job in the British Army?

He is a Sikh lieutenant posted with Sergeant Hardy to clear German mines and booby traps.

Which body parts did Caravaggio lose under German interrogation?

He later kills the interrogator responsible and the spy who betrayed him.

Who plays Caravaggio?

Colin Firth plays Geoffrey Clifton and Naveen Andrews plays Kip.

What is Almásy's nationality in the story?

The film ends by stating it is a fictionalized account of the real László Almásy.

What ancient site does Almásy discover in the desert?

The real rock shelter, with paintings of people who look like they are swimming, is in the Gilf Kebir plateau of Egypt.

What gift does Almásy buy Katharine in Cairo?

She is still wearing it when he finds her injured in the plane wreck.

How does Geoffrey Clifton try to kill Almásy?

It was an attempted double murder-suicide after Geoffrey uncovered the affair.

How many days does Almásy walk across the desert to reach El Tag?

Instead of getting help, he is detained on suspicion of being a spy.

What does Almásy trade to the Germans in exchange for fuel?

This is the betrayal Caravaggio has been hunting for: the maps let the Germans infiltrate Cairo.

Where had Madox hidden his plane before returning to Britain?

The Germans take Almásy there after his escape from the train.

How does the patient die at the end of the film?

As he drifts off, she reads him Katharine's final letter from the cave.

Where does Hana go with Caravaggio at the very end?

She leaves clutching Almásy's book.

In which two countries was the film shot on location?

A Seinfeld character is punished with a trip to the Tunisian filming location.

Which studio pulled out three weeks before production, leaving Miramax to step in?

Harvey Weinstein acquired the worldwide rights for $27.5 million.

Which star did the original studio reportedly want cast in Katharine's role?

The producer resisted, and Minghella's own choice for Katharine was honored once Miramax came aboard.

How much did the cast and crew defer in salaries to get the film made?

Some were still waiting for their money more than three years after release, and Zaentz sued Miramax in 2006.

Who edited the film, winning Oscars for both editing and sound?

He remains the only person to win Oscars for both sound mixing and film editing on the same film.

The film's editing Oscar was a landmark because the cut was made how?

Murch cut it on the Avid system, weaving dozens of transitions in time.

Roughly how many temporal transitions does the finished film contain?

The editor initially dreaded the multiple flashbacks and time frames.

Which two biplane types appear in the film?

The camp crash was filmed with a half-size scale model.

Which folk song, performed by Muzsikás with Márta Sebestyén, features in the film?

The folk song plays over some of the desert flashbacks.

Who composed the Oscar-winning score?

The Beirut-born composer went on to score every subsequent Minghella film.

Which producer won his third Best Picture Oscar with the film?

His earlier winners were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus, both directed by Miloš Forman.

With nine wins, it was the first film to take nine Oscars since which movie?

The Last Emperor's sweep came at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988.

Who hosted the 1997 Oscar ceremony where the film swept?

One critic said the inevitable sweep sucked the energy out of even his performance.

Which film finished second in nominations that year, tied with Shine at seven?

Fargo went home with two awards on the night.

Binoche's Oscar made her only the second French actress to win one, after whom?

Signoret had won for Room at the Top in 1960.

The novel won which major literary award in 1992?

In 2018 it was named the Golden Man Booker, the best of the prize's first 51 winners.

The novel is a sequel to which earlier Ondaatje book?

It continues the stories of Hana and Caravaggio from the 1987 novel.

The real Almásy discovered the rock shelter with its 'swimming' figures in what year?

He devoted a chapter to it in his 1934 book The Unknown Sahara.

What was the codename of the real Almásy's mission smuggling two German spies across the desert?

He was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross and promoted to major for it.

The real Almásy was born in which country?

His birthplace, Borostyánkő, is now Bernstein im Burgenland in Austria.

In Seinfeld, which character is shunned for hating the movie?

Her boss J. Peterman fires her, then sends her to live in a cave in Tunisia instead.

The Seinfeld episode aired how many days before the film won Best Picture?

It was the 151st episode of the series, in season eight.

The film became the highest-grossing in Miramax history with a worldwide gross of about how much?

Not bad for a film Fox thought needed 'bigger' stars to be viable.

How many Academy Award nominations did The English Patient receive at the 69th ceremony?

Nine of those nominations converted to wins, while Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas were nominated but did not win.

Which earlier Minghella film persuaded Saul Zaentz to work with him?

Zaentz saw the 1990 ghost romance and was keen to collaborate; Minghella then brought the Ondaatje novel to his attention.

For roughly how much did Harvey Weinstein acquire worldwide rights for Miramax after Fox pulled out?

The deal also let Minghella keep Kristin Scott Thomas as Katharine, the casting Fox had resisted.

In the novel, the patient is nursed at a bomb-damaged church in which Tuscan town?

The Church of San Girolamo outside Florence is where Hana, a troubled young Canadian Army nurse, cares for her burned patient.

In the novel, which historic event does Kip learn of through his headset near the end?

Kip is so shocked that he nearly shoots Almásy, then leaves the villa, estranged from his Western companions, and returns to India.

Which 2018 one-off prize did Ondaatje's novel win, on top of its 1992 awards?

The Golden Man Booker was a public vote to crown the best winner from the prize's first 50 years; the book had also taken the 1992 Governor General's Award.

Which company has distributed The English Patient since acquiring the Miramax library in 2020?

ViacomCBS bought a 49% stake in Miramax from beIN Media Group, picking up around 700 titles including this one.