Anthony Minghella: A Novel Approach

Of writing The English Patient, Minghella said, ''The only way I could construct the screenplay was to abandon the book,'' which he accurately called more ''an anthology of thoughts and ideas and feelings'' than a story. The novel's author, Michael Ondaatje, knew he was lucky to have his work in the hands of a writer who knew he had to do more than just transcribe it. Sometimes the leaps Minghella took were daring efforts to reach beyond the range of his source material. The ending of his version of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, in which he attempts to look briefly inside the heart of a killer, bravely risks opening a door that Highsmith herself either wouldn't or couldn't acknowledge was even there.

A couple of years ago, I interviewed the director Sydney Pollack, who became Minghella's producing partner in 2000. Pollack, at that moment, was deeply engaged in trying to fix somebody else's broken movie, looking at the footage and trying to figure out a stronger shape for the narrative. He liked the imperative of problem solving, but he also knew that the problem should have been solved much earlier. We sorely need directors like Minghella and Pollack who respect the craft and complexity of screenwriting. Put as much work into your script as you do into your direction, and you can end up with something like Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton (which Minghella and Pollack produced). Movies are much richer because of directors who understand how much work has to be done before a foot of film is shot.

In 1996, Minghella was speaking to a screening room full of journalists, introducing an early cut of The English Patient that was slightly more leisurely than the 162 minutes it eventually ran. ''It's a long movie,'' he said with great cheerfulness and not an iota of apology. ''So use the bathroom now.'' It wasn't a request: He meant now, the way parents tell a little kid to go before they get in the car, even if they don't think they have to. He wasn't joking. He waited, grinning, as people got up, shuffled out, came back in. And then he started the movie. Was he a control freak? I don't think so. He was a storyteller. And he didn't want anybody to miss part of the story.

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