The mysterious casting surrounding the Oscar-winning film "The English Patient." Was that legendary actor supposed to appear?

A gaping hole, or a world where time has stopped

The original story is `` The British Patient '' by Michael Ondaatje. When I tried to unravel it, I was surprised to find that it was a little different from ordinary novels. Thanks to the fact that Ondaatje was originally a poet, all of his sentences are extremely concise, and the scenes that come to mind are depicted in pointillist style, as if capturing each moment in detail. Some people say, ``It's more like a poem than a novel.''

Once you are drawn to this style of writing, you fall in love with the story itself, as if you are descending deep into the depths of your heart. Minghella also says that when he read it for the first time, he was so engrossed in it that he forgot the passage of time.

Adapting such an original work may seem easy at first glance, but it is actually extremely difficult. Minghella researched all the historical facts, thought back to his parents' roots in Italy, and then tore the world of the original into pieces and rebuilt it from scratch into something ``cinematic.''

At the beginning, a plane flies through the sky and plunges into the desert under heavy attack from the German army. Burning body. The man in the cockpit's entire body is consumed by the flames, but he barely survives. The damage is so bad that I don't know who he is anymore. He can't even remember his name. He was a nameless "British patient" at this aid station.

"The English Patient" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

However, as you interact with them, you may start to understand them. He speaks upper-class English, which suggests a high level of education and a magnetic personality. Looking inward, it appears that he has a deep wound in his heart that will never heal.

We don't have long to go. Hana (Juliette Binoche), a nurse who sensed this, thought it would not be a good idea to move him along with the army's movements. So she decides to take care of him in an abandoned monastery. Even though it was during a war, it felt like a gaping hole, or a world where time had stopped.

They're not the only ones. Before they know it, Canadian Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe) washes up here, and Indian soldier Kip (Naveen Andrews) also joins them. The four of them start living together in a strange way.

How can we give actors the “joy of discovery”?