As a romance in the context of war, The English Patient has a lot to tell. There are not only the lingering love between the male and female protagonists, but also the emotional entanglement of the supporting roles, as well as many characters and events surrounding them, such as war, betrayal, espionage warfare, geographical survey, etc. A film has to deal with so much information that even telling the story clearly is very difficult, and improper handling can cause the audience to get bogged down in the details. If it can make the audience feel emotional resonance, it is reasonable to become an excellent classic.
Bringing so much information together and telling the story without being cluttered requires great processing skills. The recurring appearance of Herodotus' "History" in the film is the key to understanding the film. This book is the first historical masterpiece in the West, and its content is all-encompassing, including not only historical and military events, but also myths and legends, various races, customs, anecdotes and even erotic clips. Herodotus is therefore called the father of history.
Herodotus narrative is an important telling mode in ancient Greece, which is characterized by flowing with the flow of logos (that is, the flow of narrative), which is like a language river ready to branch, rewind, rotate, reunite, or adopt Flashbacks, interludes, stories nested within stories. This narrative of History is more suited to storytelling than reading. The frequent switching of shots and the rapid passage of time and space in the film are similar to this Herodotus-style narrative method, and a large amount of information is presented to the audience in an orderly manner in the form of logos.
Herodotus traveled from Italy to Babylon, from the shores of the Black Sea to the banks of the Nile, for his History. The male protagonist Almasy is also wandering the world, from Europe to Asia, and finally to the African desert to wander and investigate, conducting historical archaeological and geographic surveying and mapping.
Another feature of Herodotus’ narrative is telling stories. The most suitable place for the logos flow is the occasion for telling stories. Almasy and Katharine's eyes meet as Katharine tells the story of Gyges in Herodotus' "History" by the campfire. Her graceful demeanor and sharp mind awakened the passion in his soul. The film follows through a series of events that reveal their mutual attraction and insecurity. He followed her to the market, to the hotel, and invited her to dance at the ball.
In fact, the attraction between them was doomed when they first met. As soon as she got off the plane, she told him that she had read a professional paper written by him, which impressed her, and pointed out that he used very few adjectives in the book. This means that she has paid attention to him and admired him before, because women rarely read such a long professional paper, especially such a long one with "no adjectives throughout". Not only did she finish reading the book, but she also properly identified the problems in it. When Almasy argued that the various vehicle names were indistinguishable, her response was strong. She responds with several different types of love, which leaves him convincing and speechless. This language exchange can be said to be their first close contact.
After Almasy's car broke down in a crash in the desert, she insisted on staying. Is he trying to hide his feelings for her by refusing her to put her paintings in his book, or is he hesitant? As the dust storm approached, they cuddled together to talk about the sand from North Africa, and he called Herodotus her friend, but he was also his friend. The next day, he took the initiative to ask for her painting, and she became the K in his book. Their hearts are finally close and they become soulmates.
There is no doubt that Herodotus pointed the guilt at the queen in telling this story. In traditional societies, whether in the West or the East, women are regarded as the root of evil. And Katharine tells this story in front of a group of learned explorers, apparently not to condemn her sins, but to rebel against the possessiveness of men over women. She thought it was up to the queen to choose who would be her husband. Although their affair is unethical, she is unwilling to be bound by tradition and pursues equality and respect. Almasy sees in her a soul that pursues freedom just like herself. In that specific environment, they could not escape the shackles of ethics and morality, and they also had inner entanglements, and they wanted to give up, and finally ended in tragedy.
The use of geography is also Herodotus in this film. The first person who proposed the relationship between man and geography was Herodotus, who generally followed a pattern ranging from natural geography to human customs when telling history. In the film, Almasy, as a historian, participates in the geographic survey of the North African desert by the International Dune Club and the Royal Geographical Society.
There is a very romantic scene in the movie where Almasy points to the soft hollow under Katharine's throat, between the collarbones, and names it "Almasy Bosphorus" (referring to the Bosphorus in Turkey, which is the The natural dividing line between the two continents of Asia and Europe. In medicine, this part is called the Suprasternal notch), and is claimed to be his possession. In the Age of Great Discovery in the West, explorers named the territory they discovered, which meant that their country occupied the place. This is true of the country, and it is also true of lovers. Despite Almasy's opposition to possessing and being possessed, he has a strong possessiveness towards Katharine's body, as he believes that the desert is the "notch in the ridge" of Africa, and whoever possesses it controls the whole of Africa. In the footage of looking down at the desert from an airplane at the beginning of the film, the sand nests on the dunes are really a bit like "notches on the ridges".
The reason why Herodotus' "History" is very influential in the West is that it opened the precedent for the rational spirit of cosmopolitanism. Herodotus was a Greek, but he did not simply stand in the framework of the confrontation between the Greeks and the Persians. In his book, he respected and appreciated the Persian culture, and he made no secret of the many contradictions between the Greek city-states. He just states the facts, the description is neutral and objective, leaving the right and wrong to the audience. This also seems to hint at why Almasy gave the Germans their map of Africa. Almasy is wild by nature. His home country is Hungary, an ally of Germany during World War II, but he joins scientific expeditions and historical archaeology at the Royal Geographical Society and the International Dune Club. He doesn't like to label things with adjectives, hates possession and being possessed, and regards human nature and the power of love above all else, and everything else, including country, nation, is irrelevant to him. As Almasy said to Caravaggio, "Thousands of people did die. Just different people". All the British did to him was to make him feel that the British saw him as an enemy, and the enemy of the enemy could help him fulfill his promise. In fact, at that time, both the Allies and the Axis powers were fighting to seize the colonies on the African continent. Objectively speaking, it is difficult to define which side represents justice. The film does not give a right or wrong answer to all of this, but leaves it to the audience to think and judge independently.
Katharine's epic writing in the Swimmer's Cave is also quite Herodotal: "We will all be mortal. After our death, many things can be seen everywhere, there are lovers and people in the tribe, and we once The taste that I tasted, the body I once melted into, the swimming like in a river, and the fear we hid in this cave. I hope all these things will leave their mark on my body after I die." She finally said Her ideals and aspirations after her death, "That is our real country, where there are no boundaries named after the powerful on the map. I know you will come back and take me to the temple of the wind. There, I can be with you, and Having friends roaming freely in a world without a map. That's what I want."
Katharine's first verbal encounter with Almasy lists the words of love: Romantic love, Platonic love, Filial love (children's love for their parents), as well as her husband Jeoffery's Uxoriousness, which are all shown in the film. The love between Katharine and Almasy should be Romantic love; and the love between Katharine and her husband Jeoffery is Uxoriousness. Female nurse Hana's feelings for Almasy can be said to be Platonic love and Filial love. In addition, there is Hana's skin-to-skin relationship with Kip, a Sikh Indian.
For Hana, her favorite man died in battle, her best best friend died in front of her eyes, and the successive blows made her emotional world collapse. At this time, Almasy, who was mistaken for the British patient, comforted her spiritually, or became her emotional substitute. As Caravaggio told her, she saw him as a saint and developed a strong spiritual attachment to him, a mixture of Platonic love and Filial love. She took great care of Almasy, changing clothes, scrubbing her body, and frying him with poached eggs. Her joys and sorrows were eager to share with him. To fulfill his wish, she carried him in the rain with Kip and Caravaggio, such an emotional sharing only between intimate men and women.
Compared with the love at first sight between Almasy and Katharine, the relationship between Hana and Kip is built gradually. Their first meeting had nothing to do with each other. Perhaps it was their shared nostalgia for their far-flung homeland, and Hana gave Kip a bottle of olive oil while washing his hair. When Kip reads to Almasy, Almasy points out their mutual affection. Later, Hana is brought into the room by a conch fire lamp placed by Kip; they go to the church together and let her view the frescoes high in the church through the rope; finally they fall in love. Of course, there is more of a physical attraction between them.
At the end of the film, Hana walked out of the monastery and started a new life, holding the book of Herodotus' "History" that recorded the diary of Almasy and Katharine's love. As Herodotus said at the beginning of his "History", he published these research results in order to preserve the achievements of mankind, so that they will not be forgotten due to age.
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