The English Patient (1996)

I went back and forth a number of times while watching this one, but in the end I really liked it. It reminded me of the work of David Lean, both in setting and scope, as well as dealing with characters who have obsessions. Here Ralph Finnes has an obsession, and its Kristin Scott Thomas. Finnes character is a cartographer of Hungarian birth but no particular national loyalty, making maps in Egypt in the late 1930's. A quite, closed off man, he’s not one for relationships of any sort, until he meets the wife of a colleague, who at first frustrates, then fascinates, beguiles, and ultimately frustrates again. He’s never loved before and thusly loses all sense of scale, so obsessed he becomes. He drives her husband to his grave, even though in fact it’s the husband who plows a biplane to his death (famous scene spoofed in the Oscar telecast, with David Letterman crashing the plan into the desert, a reference to his generally regarded bomb of a hosting job for the 1995 ceremony). The film is very well constructed, and creates an interesting dynamic in its non-chronological story telling from several perspectives. The framing story of the Canadian nurse (Juliette Binoche, who reminds me of Rachel Griffith) and the Sikh man she falls in love with, simply and elegantly handled as counterpoint to Finnes tragic tale. Four out of Five. Still though Fargo is probably my favorite movie of 1996.