- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: 'THE ENGLISH PATIENT' PREMIERES IN LONDON
- Date: 2nd March 1997
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 2, 1997) (REUTERS) GUEST ARRIVING AT POST SCREENING PARTY BIANCA JAGGER ARRIVING
- Embargoed: 17th March 1997 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
- City:
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA4ALKQET2WY15915XGZQ8TNNS9
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- Story Text: Britain's brightest Oscar hopes have turned out in force for the premiere of the much nominated film "The English Patient".
The film's stars Ralph Fiennes, Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche joined director Anthony Minghella at the premiere in London's Curzon Cinema on Sunday, March 2.
Novelist Michael Ondaatje and producer Saul Zaentz were also there, as were Bianca Jagger and model Marie Helvin.
"The English Patient" is adapted from a Booker Prize winning novel.
It has received 12 Oscar nominations and a record 13 Bafta nominations.
Both its star and director said they were surprised by controversy about the main character, mysterious Hungarian Count Almasy, a Nazi collaborateur who historians have said was not torn by fate as much as depicted in the film.
"It was a bit difficult researching anything about the real Count Almasy because very little was known," said Minghella, adding he had to fight to stop Hollywood studios making the character more sympathetic.
"He betrayed his friend and you see him suffering for that." Minghella said they were lucky that the Miramax film group had rescued them when they had financial problems. He said there had been a great deal of reservation about the cast and the vision of The film, and they felt vindicated by its success.
Scott Thomas said that the film was a wonderful love story moving from past to present.
Describing the character she plays, Binoche said the role was about compassion and healing, things which she felt were important.
For his part, Fiennes, who arrived with actress partner Francesca Annis, said: "I loved the part. It was a complex and difficult journey to make, because he's a complex human being." Fiennes said he had been attracted to the film because of the writing, the character and by Anthony Minghella, both as a person and as a director.
He said he was delighted not only by his Oscar nomination for Best Actor, but also for all the others, especially that of Scott Thomas, who Minghella insisted should be cast rather than a bigger Hollywood name.
The premiere was held on a Sunday because it is Fiennes' night off from performing in Ivanov at the Almeida Theatre in north London.
His next project will be to play Steed in the feature-length version of television series the Avengers.
The English Patient is a desert-and-wartime romance, flashing backwards and forwards between 1930's Egypt and Italy amid the chaos of retreating armies at the end of World War Two. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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