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Requiescat in Pacem: Anthony Minghella
March 18, 2008

This is so sad.  Anthony Minghella was just 54 years old. The director, who won an Oscar in 1996 for his film version of Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" and had just finished filming the telepic of Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," had a particular talent for adaptations. 

As this Time magazine obituary notes, Minghella "could translate the feel of a book onto the screen without making the viewer feel like they were reading a book." While my book-loving heart cringed a bit on reading that sentence, I realize its power. You wouldn't want to read a book and feel as if you were watching a movie, would you? In fact, I become quite annoyed when reading a book that I can tell has been written with a film screen in mind. 

It's not often that someone like Minghella comes along: an artist who cares so much about the stories in books that he remains faithful to them while also making them come alive to an entirely new audience. He will be missed.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on March 18, 2008 | Comments (1)