Snow Cake is a 2006 independent drama film directed by Marc Evans and starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Hampshire, and Callum Keith Rennie. It was released on September 8, 2006 in the UK.
Filmed in Wawa, Ontario, Snow Cake is a drama about the friendship between Linda, a woman with autism (Weaver), and Alex (Rickman) who is traumatized after a car accident involving himself and Linda's daughter (Hampshire).
The movie was screened and discussed at Autism Cymru 2nd international conference in May 2006 as well as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, among others. It was the opening night screening for the Berlin Film Festival as well.
The screenwriter, Angela Pell, wrote the role of Alex Hughes with Rickman in mind. It was also Rickman who read the script and made sure Sigourney Weaver (with whom he had previously starred in Galaxy Quest) was contacted about the role of Linda. Both Rickman and Weaver were runners-up at the Seattle International Film Festival for the respective prizes of Best Actor and Best Actress.
During the course of making the movie, Sigourney Weaver (Linda) researched the subject of autism and was coached by Ros Blackburn, a woman with the condition who is also an author and speaker about autism and aspergers syndrome. Alan Rickman chose not to research the subject of autism in order to make his character have an impact/shock when facing Linda.
Damage, also known as Fatale, is a 1992 film directed by Louis Malle. It is based on the novel Damage by Josephine Hart. The plot is about a politician who falls in love with his son's girlfriend.
Miranda Richardson was nominated for an Academy Award and won a BAFTA in the category of Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the aggrieved wife of the film's main character.
Dr. Stephen Fleming, a British cabinet minister, lives a pleasant life with wife Ingrid and young daughter Sally. His older son, Martyn, is a rising journalist. At a party, Stephen meets a young half-French woman named Anna Barton, who introduces herself as a close friend of Martyn's; it is immediately apparent, however, that Stephen and Anna are intensely attracted to each other. When Martyn visits his parents in London, he brings Anna with him; they are romantically involved. The sexual tension between Stephen and Anna is clear, though their respective mates are oblivious to this.
Despite her relationship with Martyn, Anna arranges a tryst with Stephen at her apartment. Stephen becomes obsessed with Anna. After an international summit adjourns in Brussels, he travels to Paris to meet her instead of going home. While Martyn is still sleeping in a Paris hotel room, Stephen and Anna have sex in an open doorway in broad daylight. Afterwards, Stephen checks into a hotel across the street from Anna's, so he can spy on her and Martyn through his window. Eventually, Stephen's infatuation with Anna reaches a point where he desires to be with her permanently, even at the risk of destroying his relationship with his son. Anna dissuades Stephen from doing this, reassuring him that as long as she is with Martyn, he will always have access to her.
Gods and Monsters is a 1998 drama film that recounts the (somewhat fictionalized) last days of the life of troubled film director James Whale, whose homosexuality is a central theme. It stars Ian McKellen as Whale, along with Brendan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidovich, and David Dukes. The movie was directed and written by Bill Condon from Christopher Bram's novel Father of Frankenstein. It was executive produced by British horror novelist Clive Barker.
The film won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Ian McKellen) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lynn Redgrave).
The film features reconstructions of the filming of Bride of Frankenstein, a movie Whale directed. The title comes from a line in Bride of Frankenstein, in which the character Dr. Pretorius toasts Dr. Frankenstein, "To a new world of gods and monsters."
What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a 1993 film directed by Lasse Hallström and starring Johnny Depp, Juliette Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. Peter Hedges wrote the screenplay adapted from his 1991 novel of the same name. It was filmed in the Texas cities of Manor, Elgin, and Lockhart.
In a small town of Endora, Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) is busy caring for his mentally challenged brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio) as they wait for the many tourists' trailers to pass through town during their yearly camp ritual at a nearby recreational area. His mother, Bonnie (Darlene Cates) is morbidly obese after years of depression following her husband's suicide. With Bonnie unable to care for them by herself, Gilbert has taken responsibility for repairing their shanty of farmhouse and looking after Arnie, who has a habit of climbing up the town water tower (like Spider-Man) if he is left unsupervised for too long, while his older sister Amy (Laura Harrington) and younger sister Ellen (Mary Kate Schellhardt) slave away in the kitchen. The relationship between the brothers is one of care and protection. In order to cope with his frenetic life, Gilbert has taken on a secret love affair with a housewife, Betty (Mary Steenburgen), whilst her insensitive, unsuspecting husband Ken (Kevin Tighe), is fully intent on selling Gilbert insurance for his family. A new chain supermarket has opened, threatening the small Lamson's Grocery store where Gilbert works, as well as threatening all the other small-time businesses in Endora. The chain supermarket stocks all kinds of goods, rendering many of the local shops redundant. This is a key theme in the film - which constantly portrays the futility of goods made with love in light of ever sweeping corporate greed.
This motion-picture really IS one definitive "what if" kind of story.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a 2008 American fantasy-drama film directed by David Fincher. The screenplay by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord is loosely based on the 1922 short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film stars Brad Pitt as a man who ages in reverse and Cate Blanchett as the love interest throughout his life.
The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2008, to positive reviews. The film went on to receive thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Pitt, and Best Supporting Actress for Taraji P. Henson. It won three Oscars, for Art Direction, Makeup, and Visual Effects.
This still holds up as a great film of natural love over thirty years later. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. They sould do a new remake.
The Blue Lagoon is a 1980 American romance and adventure film directed by Randal Kleiser. The screenplay by Douglas Day Stewart was based on the novel The Blue Lagoon by Henry De Vere Stacpoole. The film stars Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins. The original music score was composed by Basil Poledouris and the cinematography was by Néstor Almendros.
The film tells the story of two young children marooned on a tropical island paradise in the South Pacific. With neither the guidance nor the restrictions of society, emotional feelings and physical changes arise as they reach puberty and fall in love.
If you watch one FOREIGN film with English subtitles watch this amusing romantic-comedy. You won't be sorry. It features Johnny Depp's wife (Vanessa Paradis) who is magnificent in this one. A great film that offers an escape to MONACO, too.
Heartbreaker (French: L'arnacœur) is a 2010 French romantic comedy film starring Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Julie Ferrier and Andrew Lincoln. The bulk of the story takes place in Monaco.
The plot is centered around Alex (Romain Duris), his sister (Julie Ferrier) and her husband (François Damiens), who operate a business designed to break up relationships, but only where the woman is "not knowingly unhappy." The trio concoct elaborate, custom ruses to deceive the women. After each woman has fallen for his act, Alex tells her she has made him come alive again, but that it is too late for him. The women presumably each leave their relationships to seek men who makes them feel as Alex has. They are hired by a wealthy man (Jacques Frantz), who is a florist and possible gangster, to prevent the wedding of his daughter Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) to Englishman Jonathan (Andrew Lincoln).
The problem is that they only have 10 days to do so before the wedding. The task is further complicated because the couple appear to be in love and absolutely perfect for each other. They also could not find the usual "flaws" in the couple that they are used to looking for in couples to break them up. Alex, massively in debt to a loan shark through his own lavish spending on the business, is pressured into putting aside his honourable principles to complete the seemingly impossible job with only five days till the wedding.
Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of "Everington" in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older brother, and Julie Walters as his ballet teacher. In 2001, author Melvin Burgess was commissioned to write the novelisation of the film based on Lee Hall's screenplay. The story was adapted for the West End stage as Billy Elliot the Musical in 2005; it opened in Australia in 2007 and on Broadway in 2008.
The film is set during the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, and centres on the character of 11-year-old Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell), his love of dance, and his hope to become a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie (Gary Lewis), older brother, Tony (Jamie Draven), and his invalid Nan (Jean Heywood), who once aspired to be a professional dancer. Both Jackie and Tony are coal miners out on strike.
Jackie takes Billy to the Sports Centre to learn boxing like his father's dad, but Billy struggles and dislikes the sport. He then happens upon a ballet class that is using the gym while their usual basement studio in the Sports Centre is temporarily being used as a soup kitchen for the striking miners. Unknown to Billy's father, he joins the ballet class. When Jackie discovers this after the boxing coach mentions Billy's absence, he forbids Billy to take any more ballet. But, passionate about dancing, Billy secretly continues his lessons with his dance teacher Georgia Wilkinson's (Julie Walters) help.
Georgia believes Billy is talented enough to study at the Royal Ballet School in London, but due to Tony's arrest during a skirmish between police and striking miners, Billy misses the audition. Georgia goes to Billy's house to tell Jackie about the missed opportunity. Jackie and Tony, fearing that Billy will be considered a "poof", are outraged at the prospect of him becoming a professional ballet dancer.
Viva Las Vegas (Aka: Love in Las Vegas) is a 1964 American romantic musical movie starring music icon Elvis Presley and actress/dancer Ann-Margret. This movie is regarded by many fans of these actors and by film critics as one of Presley's best movies, and it is noted for the apparent on-screen chemistry between Presley and Ann-Margret. It also presents a strong set of ten musical song-and-dance scenes choreographed by David Winters and featuring his dancers, and a reasonably interesting story. Viva Las Vegas was a hit at movie theaters, becoming the number 11 movie in the list of the Top 20 Movie Box Office hits of 1964.
The Notebook is a 2004 romantic film directed by Nick Cassavetes, based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love during the early 1940s in their country town of Seabrook. Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man played by James Garner, telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident, played by Gena Rowlands.
Allie and Noah break up, but immediately regret the decision. Allie's family leaves Seabrook the next day and Noah, devastated, writes her one letter every day for a year. Allie's mother intercepts and hides them. When Allie does not reply to the letters, Noah moves to Atlanta, Georgia. When Pearl Harbor is attacked, he enlists in the army for World War II while Allie attends college.
While in college, Allie volunteers as a nurse's aide for wounded soldiers and meets the injured Lon Hammond, Jr. (James Marsden). He is handsome, charming, and from a wealthy family. Lon and Allie get engaged; meanwhile, Noah returns home. Noah's father tells him that he is selling out so that Noah can purchase the Windsor Plantation (the abandoned Antebellum house, which Noah had promised Allie he would restore for her). While visiting Charleston, South Carolina, Noah sees Allie in the street. He watches her and sees her kissing Lon. Noah restores the old house, believing that if he keeps his promise to her, Allie will come back. Once he is finished, he tries to sell it, but cannot bear to part with it.
In the present, it is evident that the elderly woman is Allie and the storyteller is Noah. She does not recognize their children and family due to Alzheimer's disease.
The Heartbreak Kid is a 1972 dark romantic comedy film directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon, and starring Charles Grodin, Jeannie Berlin, and Cybill Shepherd. It is based on the short story "A Change of Plan", written by Bruce Jay Friedman.
Jeannie Berlin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and Eddie Albert was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
It is #91 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs, a list of the funniest movies ever made.
It was remade in 2007 as The Heartbreak Kid starring Ben Stiller and Malin Åkerman.
Sliding Doors is a 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Peter Howitt and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah, and featured John Lynch, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Virginia McKenna. The music was composed by David Hirschfelder. The film has elements of alternate history, though on a minor level, affecting only the personal lives of the (fictional) characters and not the world at large.
I love this film. It makes you wonder what might have been in your own life. It's funny in parts and quite dramatic in others. Outstanding.
The likeable innocense of Reese Witherspoon shines in this film (her very first film).
The Man in the Moon is a 1991 American drama film, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Sam Waterston, Reese Witherspoon and Jason London. It was Mulligan's last film and Waterston's last theatrical movie before he moved to Law & Order, as well as Witherspoon's first film.
The story, set in 1950s Louisiana, tells of a 14-year-old girl named Dani (Reese Witherspoon) who falls in love with a boy three years older than she is, a senior named Court Foster (Jason London). Just as Court begins to reciprocate Dani's feelings, even giving her her first kiss, and their relationship begins to develop, he meets and becomes more attracted to Dani's older sister, Maureen (Emily Warfield). Unbeknownst to Dani, Maureen and Court begin to see each other and fall in love. However Court still cares for Dani, and Maureen loves her sister and neither can bring themselves to reveal the relationship.
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American computer-animated family film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin (Albert Brooks) who, along with a regal tang called Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), searches for his abducted son Nemo (Alexander Gould).
Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and to let Nemo take care of himself. The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It was the 2nd highest-grossing film of 2003, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, earning a total of $868 million worldwide.
Finding Nemo is also the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006 and it was the highest-grossing G-rated movie of all time, before Pixar's own Toy Story 3 overtook it. It is also the 4th highest grossing animated film of all time. It is currently the 25th highest grossing film of all time.
In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest animated film ever made during their 10 Top 10.
The inspiration for Nemo was made up of multiple experiences. The idea goes back to when director Andrew Stanton was a child, when he loved going to the dentist to see the fish tank, assuming that the fish were from the ocean and wanted to go home. In 1992 shortly after his son was born, he and his family took a trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (which was called Marine World at the time). There he saw the shark tube and various exhibits he felt that the underwater world could be done beautifully in computer animation.Later, in 1997 he took his son for a walk in the park, but found that he was over protecting him constantly and lost an opportunity to have any "father-son experiences" on that day. In an interview with National Geographic Magazine, he stated that the idea for the characters of Marlin and Nemo came from a photograph of two clownfish peeking out of an anemone:
"It was so arresting. I had no idea what kind of fish they were, but I couldn't take my eyes off them. And as an entertainer, the fact that they were called clownfish—it was perfect. There's almost nothing more appealing than these little fish that want to play peekaboo with you."
Excalibur is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Great Britain. Sometimes Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. The sword was associated with the Arthurian legend very early. In Welsh, the sword is called Caledfwlch.
In 1981 dramatic fantasy film of EXCALIBUR was directed, produced and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. Adapted from the 15th century Arthurian romance, Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory, Excalibur features the music of Richard Wagner and Carl Orff, along with an original score by Trevor Jones. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Helen Mirren as Morgana, Liam Neeson as Gawain, Nicol Williamson as Merlin and a relatively unknown Patrick Stewart as Leondegrance. The film is named for the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature.
Shot entirely on location in Ireland and employing Irish actors and crew, the film has been acknowledged for its importance to the Irish filmmaking industry and for helping launch the film careers of Neeson, as well as Gabriel Byrne, Neil Jordan and Ciarán Hinds.
Excalibur achieved moderate box office success while receiving mixed reviews. Although film critics Roger Ebert and Vincent Canby criticized the film's plot and characters, they, along with other reviewers, praised it visually. Excalibur opened at number one in the United States, eventually grossing $34,967,437 on a budget of around USD $11 million, to rank 18th in that year's receipts.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, also known as Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper, The Graphic. It is Hardy's penultimate novel, followed by Jude the Obscure. Though now considered an important work of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day. The original manuscript is on display at the British Library, showing that it was originally titled "Daughter of the d'Urbervilles.
The 1979 "TESS" film directed by Roman Polanski, as an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles tells the story of a strong-willed, young peasant girl who finds out she has title connections by way of her old aristocratic surname, who is raped by her wealthy cousin, whose right to the family title may not be as strong as he claims. The screenplay was by Gérard Brach, John Brownjohn, and Roman Polanski.
Polański made the film because the last time he saw his wife Sharon Tate alive (before she was murdered by Charles Manson's family), she had given him a copy of Tess of the d'Urbervilles and said it would make a great film. The dedication at the opening of the film reads simply: "to Sharon".
Although the film is set in England, it was filmed in Locronan, Brittany, France. Polanski was wanted as a fugitive in the United States, and he could have been extradited from the United Kingdom.
On 28 October 1978, cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth died of a heart attack during the third week of shooting. Most of the scenes he shot were exteriors in the first half of the film and can be distinguished by their use of fog and slight diffusion. Ghislain Cloquet shot the remainder of the film, including most of the interior scenes, without diffusion. Unsworth and Cloquet were both named in the successful nomination for Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Cloquet alone was nominated for and won the César Award for Cinematography. This is the perfect film for a rainy afternoon or night.
Summer of '42 is a 1971 American coming of age drama film based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman Raucher. It tells the story of how Raucher, in his early teens on his 1942 summer vacation on Nantucket Island, off the coast of New England, embarked on a one-sided romance with a woman, Dorothy, whose husband had gone off to fight in World War II.
The film was directed by Robert Mulligan, and starred Gary Grimes as Hermie, Jerry Houser as his best friend Oscy, Oliver Conant as their nerdy young friend Benjie, Jennifer O'Neill as Hermie's mysterious love interest, and Katherine Allentuck and Christopher Norris as a pair of girls whom Hermie and Oscy attempt to seduce. Mulligan also has an uncredited role as the voice of the adult Hermie. Maureen Stapleton (Allentuck's real life mother) also appears in a small, uncredited voice role (calling after Hermie as he leaves the house in an early scene, and after he enters his room in a later scene).
Raucher's novelization of his screenplay was released prior to the film's release and became a runaway bestseller, to the point that audiences lost sight of the fact that the book was based on the film and not vice-versa. Though a pop culture phenomenon in the first half of the 1970s, the novelization went out of print and slipped into obscurity throughout the next two decades until a Broadway adaptation in 2001 brought it back into the public light and prompted Barnes & Noble to acquire the publishing rights to the book.
I saw this film at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City in May 2004 (where it had its PREMIERE) and I met Gerard Butler after the film. I knew then that he was a great actor. This is a very heartwarming, dramatic film.
Dear Frankie is a 2004 British drama film directed by Shona Auerbach. The screenplay by Andrea Gibb focuses on a young single mother whose love for her son prompts her to perpetuate a deception designed to protect him from the truth about his father.
Lizzie Morrison, her opinionated, chain-smoking mother Nell, and nine-year-old deaf son Frankie frequently move to keep one step ahead of her abusive ex-husband and his family. Newly relocated in the Scottish town of Greenock, she accepts a job at the local fish and chips shop owned by a friendly woman named Marie, and enrolls Frankie in school.
Through a Glasgow post office box, Frankie maintains a regular correspondence with someone he believes to be his father Davey, who allegedly is a merchant seaman working on the MS Accra. In reality, the letters he receives are written by his mother, who prefers maintaining this charade to telling her son the reason she fled her marriage.
In the UK, Radio Times awarded the film four out of a possible five stars and commented, "This simple story is rich with precise observation and it tugs at the heartstrings without being maudlin or manipulative . . . With its sincere and perceptive script, the beautifully shot film vividly captures the raw emotions of its complex characters . . . Despite occasional flickers of a fairy-tale ending, Auerbach ultimately resists the temptation, maintaining the realism and integrity that give this thoughtful feature its bittersweet charm."
I was so mesmerized by the cinematography in this film. The romantic tale really captures the viewer. What a GREAT film!
House of Flying Daggers is a 2004 wuxia film directed by Zhang Yimou. It differs from other wuxia films in that it is more of a love story than a straight martial arts film.
The use of strong colours is again a signature of Zhang Yimou's work. Several scenes in a bamboo forest completely fill the screen with green. Near the end of the film, a fight scene is set in a blizzard. The actors and blood are greatly highlighted on a whiteout background. Another scene uses bright yellow as a colour theme. The costumes, props, and decorations were taken almost entirely from Chinese paintings of the period, adding authenticity to the look of the film.
The film opened in limited release within the United States on December 3, 2004, in New York City and Los Angeles, and opened on additional screens throughout the country two weeks later. The film is set in 859 AD. The once great Tang Dynasty is now in decline. Numerous rebel groups have formed, the largest of which is the House of Flying Daggers, based in Feng Tian county. The Flying Daggers steal from the rich and give to the poor, gaining the support of the locals.
The local deputies have managed to kill the leader of the Flying Daggers, but the rebel group only becomes stronger, due to a mysterious new leader. Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and Leo (Andy Lau), two police captains, are ordered to kill the new leader within ten days.
In order to accomplish this, they arrest Mei (Zhang Ziyi), a blind dancer who is suspected of being the daughter of the old leader of the Flying Daggers. While Mei is incarcerated, Jin and Leo decide to let her go to track the mastermind; Jin will pretend to be a lone warrior called Wind, and break her out of prison. This will gain her trust, and hopefully, Jin will be led to the headquarters of Flying Daggers. The plan works, but Mei and Jin fall in love on the way. They are followed at a distance by Leo; Jin and Leo meet secretly to discuss their plans. Jin jokes about his seduction of the girl; Leo warns him sternly against getting involved.
To add authenticity to the deception, Leo and his men ambush the pair: the fight is, however, a fake. Further on, they are attacked again, but this time their assailants are apparently for real: Jin and Mei battle for their lives, being saved only by the intervention of an unseen knife-thrower. Furious, Jin confronts Leo: Leo explains that he has reported the matter up the chain of command and his general has taken over the pursuit. Jin realizes that he is now expendable.
The film features the theme of a beautiful woman who brings woe to two men. This theme is borrowed from a famous poem written by the Han Dynasty poet Li Yannian.
This film has a personal significance for me because my mother called me one day to say she saw such a good move. It was this one...
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film 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, including Best Picture. Ondaatje worked closely with the filmmakers.
The film is set during World War II and depicts a critically burned man, 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 geographer, Count László de Almásy (Ralph Fiennes), 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.
In his book The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film (2002) Michael Ondaatje records his conversations with the film's editor and sound designer Walter Murch, who won two Academy Awards for the film. Murch describes the complexity of editing a film with multiple flashbacks and timeframes; he edited and reedited numerous times and notes that the final film features over 40 time transitions.
The movie was filmed on location in Tunisia and Italy.
