Anthony Minghella Dies

Sad news, Anthony Minghella died suddenly at the very young age of 54.

Minghella was one of my favorite directors working today. I have to admit that I hadn't yet seen Breaking and Entering, and wasn't a huge fan of Cold Mountain (I admired it more than I liked it), but it was plain to see he was a clearly masterful director.

By all accounts Minghella was thoughtful, gentle, intelligent, funny, and (perhaps most surprisingly) kind. Even though he worked on large Hollywood movies, he was not given to exercising the kind of dictatorial hubris common to most directors. He worked in opera and theatre (apparently Samuel Beckett was his favorite) and his work as chairman of the British Film Institute will be felt for generations to come. He did not start directing until he was well into his 30s, but he had already built a solid foundation as a writer, musician, and TV director. It was perhaps this maturity that allowed him to have such a fine career right from the start.

I suppose he will always be best known for The English Patient. Unlike other pretenders (and yes, I am talking about you, Atonement), the epic worked on both a majestic, large-scale level, as well as at the intimate, human drama level. This is why his films were always heartfelt and sincere and never felt forced, or pretentious. Apparently the Michael Ondaatje novel was complex and layered that was supposedly unfilmable. Yet, Minghella brought it to vivid, cinematic life that despite the Seinfeld jokes, was an almost rapturous experience at the movie theatre.

I will always be partial to his first film, Truly, Madly, Deeply. On paper it sounds like a bad Hollywood movie (a woman's boyfriend dies suddenly, only to come back as a ghost), but in his hands it became a sweet, good-natured, funny little film that touched you without piling on the treacly sentimentality one would have expected from the usual Hollywood dreck.

The sing-along to The Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" remains one of the most uplifting moments I have ever seen on film. This is what movies are all about. For a few, all-too-brief moments you are transported away from your humdrum life and are allowed to completely give in to the raw emotions often kept in check by a mediocre, oppressive society; even though it is this emotionality which makes us distinctly human.







Filmography

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency [2008]
Breaking and Entering [2006]
Cold Mountain [2003]
The Talented Mr. Ripley [1999]
The English Patient [1996]
Mr. Wonderful [1993] Truly, Madly, Deeply [1990]


LINKS


NYT Obituary
The Guardian Appreciation