In the Washington Post, Desson Thomson's Anthony Minghella appreciation, "Anthony Minghella, Bringing the Art House to the Mainstream":
"Minghella, famously bald, genial and perpetually clad in black, set his professional destiny with 1990's critically lauded Truly Madly Deeply, a Ghost for the cinephile set, in which a bereaved wife (Juliet Stevenson) finds love after death with her late beloved (Alan Rickman). From that point, he set out to create stories that tested, but also enchanted, the audience.
"He accomplished this by tossing celebrities into the dramaturgical equivalent of white-water rapids. In Cold Mountain, that was star-licious Nicole Kidman playing a city woman forced to live a hardscrabble existence in the Confederate South. And Matt Damon, best known to audiences as the adorable townie in Good Will Hunting, was suddenly the coldly calculating manipulator in The Talented Mr. Ripley. With this intentional disconnect, Minghella led mainstream audiences into terrain they might otherwise never have explored. Moviegoing suddenly felt as risky as it was glamorous. And the stark definitions of art and entertainment no longer really mattered."
***
Thomson then adds that Ang Lee achieved the same feat with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, and that Minghella fared less well with his recent Breaking and Entering.
But he fails to mention that "star-licious" (say what??) Nicole Kidman may have played "a city woman forced to live a hardscrabble existence" but not for a moment did she look or act like one.
Ramon Novarro Photo Montage and THE PAGAN Clip
Edmund Goulding: Q&A with Biographer Matthew Kennedy
CELEBRITIES IN THE 1930 CENSUS: Q&A with Author Allan R. Ellenberger
Marie Dressler: Q&A with Biographer Matthew Kennedy
VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE: STORIES FROM KOSOVO – Q&A with Directors John Ealer and Laura Bialis
Joan Blondell: Q&A with Biographer Matthew Kennedy
Rudolph Valentino: Q&A with Valentino Site Creator Donna Hill
INCORRECT ENTERTAINMENT: Q&A with Author Anthony Slide
THE HOLLYWOOD BOOK OF EXTRAVAGANCE: Q&A with Author James Robert Parish
Anita Page: Q&A with Author Allan Ellenberger
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE – Awards and Nominations
I loved The English Patient. I think it's even better than Lawrence of Arabia. Beautiful scenery, beautiful direction and screenplay, beautiful actors, beautiful acting. A masterpiece.