Truly, Madly, Minghella
It’s a very sad morning.
Anthony Minghella’s first film, Truly, Madly, Deeply landed when he was 36. Just five features later, he is gone. Half of them were serious Oscar bait, generating 24 Oscar nominations and 10 wins, including Best Picture and Best Director for The English Patient.
But more importantly, Minghella was a good man with profoundly honorable intentions. As a producer, in concert with Sydney Pollack and Mirage Enterprises, they supported tough-to-make films from Noyce, Tykwer, Eyre, Lonergan, and most recently, Tony Gilroy’s debut, Michael Clayton.
And to tread delicately, Minghella’s partner, Pollack, has been quite ill for months, fighting through illness and rumors. Minghella, who has had health issues along the way, going first is a bit of a shock. And the idea of losing Mirage altogether in a hurry is very sad… the company didn’t always deliver perfect films, but they were always getting behind ambition and ideas and has always been about more than business.
Hearing that he died from a hemmorage after a surgery to remove “a growth” on his neck, it is a reminder of how lucky we are to still have Roger Ebert amongst us, as he has spent the last 20 months or so recovering from a similar injury, caused not by his cancer, but by the weakening of his neck and vascular system in the process of the operation to remove it. (Roger is, fortunately, still moving towards a signficiant recovery after having spent the last year working in spite of it.) And in a similar turn earlier this year, we lost Dusty Cohl, a very close friend of The Eberts, while we were all more focused on Roger’s recovery. It can give you whiplash.
Minghella’s last film, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has been sold off to Brit TV – premiering next week, I believe, while the Weinstein Co owned film has been shelved for the US in favor of being retooled as a HBO series.
I genuinely liked and admired this man. Damned shame to lose him.
At the Gothams last fall, Roger was deliriously enthusiastic. Almost comically. He was like Cary Guffey in Close Encounters: “TOYS!”
I think a large part of surviving things like this is personal outlook.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is one of the most sumptuous, beautiful films of the last ten years. Truly a ballsy studio film as well, with one of best Matt Damon performances. I’ll be watching that tonight.
The Talented Mr. Ripley is truly underrated, and I never felt the English Patient backlash was deserved.
What a sad loss.
Very sad indeed. I met him once, briefly, at a book signing for one of his scripts at Book Soup (I think it was for Ripley) and he just seemed like the nicest, warmest man, taking a moment to chat with everyone who was there.
Was very sad to read this news.
Sydney Pollack has given him a great tribute.
“Anthony was a realistic romanticist. A kind of poet, disciplined by reality, an academic by training, a musician by nature, a compulsive reader by habit, and to most observers, a sunny soul who exuded a gentleness that should never have been mistaken for lack of tenacity and resolve.”
I think The English Patient has brilliance and greatness in it. Cold Mountain had more flaws than virtues so I will agree with the good folks above and opt for Ripley as his best, most complete and satisfying film.
But for those who gripe about The English Patient (and I don’t), I ask them to read the book and see what a wonderful piece of work Minghella’s adaptation really is. It showed what a truly cultured man he was.
It’s a real pity. We have been denied a filmmaker who could have gone on for another 20 years (look at his friend, Sydney).
This really is one of those occasions when the family’s loss is shared by the audience. Not only his own films, but also those that he and Pollack were helping bring to fruition. I only wish those who knew him would have the decency to lie to us, tell us he was horrible person in private just to take some of the sting out of the unfairness of it all.
Its rather apropos I suppose – TRULY MADLY DEEPLY had the same effect on me as his death 17 years later.
Too young for sure, his outlook on life that I encountered in the books and articles surrounding his movies were very intelligent and impassioned.
Sad sad news.
This exchange he wrote from the greatly underrated Cold Mountain is one of my all time movie favorites…
Inman: Give me your gun and ride home, I’m done fighting. I’m sick of it.
Bosie: I give you my gun and you’ll shoot me dead.
Inman: I will not shoot you, but nor am I walking down that mountain looking over my shoulder for you.
Bosie: That’s what you call a conundrum. I tell you what I’ve got on my side.
Inman: What have you got on your side?
Bosie: The confidence of youth.
I’ve never seen Truly, Madly, Deeply, and figured I’d get behind the other 100 people who decided on renting it today. But Netflix doesn’t carry it. WTF?
And yeah, The Talented Mr. Ripley is a beautifully creepy movie. One could argue that Minghella gave Jude Law his career (although Jude certainly made the most of his opportunity in Gattaca as well).
Arthur C. Clarke has died.
Arthur C. Clarke has died.
I had only just rewatched Ripley a few days ago and I was struck by how overtly queer it is. I had always thought of it as such, but couldn’t remember it being so obvious. Really puts a new light on it, actually.
Very sad loss.
I think Ripley is a masterpiece.
And dave, maybe I’m picking holes here but what is the point in saying “they didn’t always deliver perfect films”.
Just a completely redundant statement (unless of course there is a company that always delivers perfect films, which there isn’t, not even Pixar.)
More valid to state how the films they produce stack up far better than films from the majority of other production companies. Which is true.
Anyway, very sad loss indeed.