Breaking & Entering

Grade: C-
Cast: Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn, Juliette Binoche
Director: Anthony Minghella
Rated: R for sexuality and language
Runtime: 120 minutes
Release Company: MGM
(no discernable website)

“Baby Steps”

Breaking follows Jude Law, Landscape Architect and emotional teenager, working to eliminate the “unsightly” green from London. When he isn’t at work he’s at home being emotionally distant to his 10-year girlfriend Robin Wright Penn and her one-dimensionally neurotic young daughter. Law cracks wise like a post-collegiate office drone, which after a decade has turned Penn into the emotional equivalent of a cancer victim, their interactions stunted by Law’s mounting singularity within his family unit. As interesting as that dichotomy could be, it comes off as awfully pedantic. Thankfully, or not, this storyline falls to the wayside for an hour as Law becomes tied up with two repeat robberies that have occurred at his office. For evenings, Law waits outside the office in his car like a trap-door spider to pounce on the ambitious burglar, eventually killing time with a Russian street whore (also one-dimensional) who thrusts herself into the scene and sticks around so flagrantly that she may as well say to him, “I’m the character in the story who serves you for [blank] reason.” Looking for solutions everywhere but where he should be, Law catches the 15-year-old Russian émigré burglar in the act and follows him back to struggling mommy homemaker Juliette Binoche, whose life Law weasels into and turns upside down without knowing why. While struggling to make sense of their insides, each character inevitably discovers his/her own impotence in dealing with everyday life, and catharsis is only reached after tantrum-driven melodrama. As Penn’s anxious daughter screams for attention at one point, Law sarcastically remarks “Oh yes, yell, that’s how we get what we want!” If it can work for children, there’s no reason it can’t work for adults.

This is emotionally manipulative filmmaking – one wonders if Minghella isn’t taking pointers from Paul Haggis. The film does resemble Crash in its unabashed moralizing, mock suspense, and lugubrious narrative thrust. In other words, Minghella wanted specific things to happen and when they didn’t come naturally enough, the audience is asked/nudged/forced to sit back while the characters cease acting like themselves to move things along. Minghella is quoted as saying that this may be his “rawest” film. At first this confused me greatly, as the film is rather sedate. What I think he means is that he laid his soul bare...but apprehensively so. We spend two hours watching Law mutter and putter about, a man barely connected to his own emotions, just to watch him finally say what was on his mind. In the stereotyped wisdom of foreigners, Russians Binoche and the hooker lament to Law that, for some reason, the British like to “Talk, and talk, and talk.” Well, they’re right, and Minghella unconsciously makes their point to a T. Exhibit C: Later on Law lays it bare and admits, “I don’t know how to be honest!” Minghella wants to be honest, but perhaps has seen too many movies – he thinks there’s a trick to it, thusly a film is created to explore “how to be honest” – though I’m skeptical as to how effective the result ends up being. In the end Minghella has succeeded in proving that he doesn’t understand his own sensitive side; if he did, he wouldn’t have had to break in.

O concerto, que também incluirá composições de The Moon in the Gutter e Betty Blue (Jean-Jacques Beineix) e The Lover e Wings of Courage (Jean-Jacques Annaud). A interpretação será feita por uma orquestra de câmera e uma soprano - uma decisão de Yared para dar ao concerto um caráter intimista. Abaixo, seguem as principais atrações musicais do Festival: 

15/10/2008
Tribute to Anthony Minghella - Gabriel Yared in concert

17/10/2008
Thats All Folk!

18/10/2008
8th edition World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony

Parte 1

Parte 2

En el mismo blog se puede leer un interesante artículo de Emma Firestone (en inglés) sobre la versión de Minghella, en la que algunos reconocerán a los actores Alan Rickman y Kristin Scott-Thomas. Play se traduce a veces al español como Comedia y el original inglés se puede leer en esta página.

El efecto general es audaz y terriblemente interesante: el purgatorio como una filmación interminable, con los seres humanos como actores de boca reseca condenados a infinitas repeticiones de una historia rijosa pero trivial que dejó de importarles hace mucho tiempo. --E. F.

I’ve always been the traditionalist, refusing to see a movie till after I’ve read the book. For the most part, I think this has served me well. True, I do get disappointed a fair amount of the time when favorite bits from a novel aren’t included in the screen narrative, but I also get to enjoy having some amazing prose brought to life, visually.

I’m not just talking the characters, either. I’m talking the lyricism of an author’s particular style of writing being faithfully and beautifully adapted to the screen. The example that springs to mind most easily is Michael Ondaatje’s English Patient, lovingly put on celluloid by Anthony Minghella. There were lots of instances where the two narratives didn’t match up, but it was like I was watching the language of the book translated into light.

But then, you’ve got series of books—Harry Potter, for example—where you read the first four volumes, as soon as they come out, go and see the first film when it premieres (which was much too juvenile a reflection of the first book), and from then on out, you are forced to see these young actors as the characters in the books, when before it was left to your imagination. So, read all the books before seeing any of the films?

On the other hand, if I could have waited to read The Golden Compass until after I saw the movie, maybe I wouldn’t have been so heart-wrenchingly disappointed with the adaptation. Granted, waiting to read the book wouldn’t have made it a better film, but maybe I wouldn’t have felt so betrayed.

I haven’t read The Hobbit yet, so maybe I’ll wait to read it until after seeing Guillermo del Toro’s two-movie adaptation of the book (and whatever story is supposed to follow). I trust del Toro as a filmmaker and storyteller (how great was Pan’s Labyrinth?!), and imagine he’ll do his best to faithfully adapt the narrative and the “feel” of the book, especially with Peter Jackson producing. I guess it’s a good book/movie combination to experiment with because, honestly, I can’t think of any examples, off-hand, where I’ve seen the movie first and read the book later. Unless I didn’t know there was a book to begin with …

So, what y’all think? Which is better? Read the book first, or see the movie first?

-Jenn

QUOTE:  "Most of the great directors that I know of were not actors, so I can't tell you it's a requirement.  On the other hand, it's an enormous help" -- Sidney Pollack (Academy Award Winning Director)

Renee's Aside:  I got to "see" Mr. Sidney Pollack, in person, when I walked into his Century City office one day.  I remember that day vividly, I was wearing a "strapless black and white zebra print dress" .  Although I've told this story before I forgot to add that going into the Century City building I saw--I walked by--a $100,000 car.  It was an Excalibur and--it was "purple"....

Disney will distribute Renee Baker Studios'  first motion picture, in movie theatres worldwide, under an "output deal" valued at $73.5 million dollars.  (U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy will co-produce/consult....)

Soothe the smears from your waiting eyes, it's only another sting
seared dream flying swiftly into the catch of hair to be so beloved.
The blazing hum sparked propellors seeking a note for a headlong vista,
one dislodged route in the warm solice of the expanse below. Two
phrases that see over cruel dunes that swam once into open sound
and fear's estranged troubled lipped cockpit. The irony of this last flight
is the sensation of happiness gifted earlier under a disenchanted moon.
Tap on the dials, they move upwards, you're entering the purpose of
enemy height. Now, forget this and caress on my shoulders as before.

Desire and drift towards.

Stay close in tightened arms for the ride is wind barebacked, felt
as the whistles that spin anticlockwise into a war that could be
bitter hateful if it wasn't tender unique. The beginning my love is nearly
distracted in this light expansion now taken before a piano discovered
unguarded in the still literary spaces. Touch the keys and play Bach
without any inkling of the future. With a mind to escape from here,
where you decide to conceal for today. For this is all that matters
in the trill left to echo again after the chords have struck for depth,
cradling death that refuses to tally shadow parts for this simple score.

Contact and fly backwards.

Endearing the marks in the brushes promised to reflect a glimpse of heaven,
they float in the flare of creased eyes, an encasement to sensory freedom
that is being passed unbeknown to the next generation. Within the dark
are dispelled treasures not for the possession but to yield in small beauty
to the lightness of wonder. Paint upon my face your lips' visage, touch
in the connection that only exists before the next overlapped word. Certain
escape is the premise that is not to be uttered for the asking price is more
than lives that could be counted on clumsy hands. Something so fragile
that an egg would shatter minutes later if held as tight. Please just hold me.

Contact and soar as onwards.

Detachments are signals that show impressions ready to be believed in,
a form with movements subtly bringing vivid life to breath. As curious
as a coping child before the talon's grasp that will now come to shiver
fearful dreams into the room from above the promise of safety, disgard this
in an afternoon resembling a curling wet smile. Slumber dance the veils
into close garments that lay loosely upon an unmade bed, before ink
paintings in pages are the captives, before they swim along the memories
that perform in darkened eyes incapable to remember bespoken love today.
Your hands upon my fading chest, they encircle no torch to light the sand.

*

A love story is not about those who lose their heart but about
those who find that sullen inhabitant who, when it is stumbled
upon, means the body can fool no one, can fool nothing-not the
wisdom of sleep or the habit of social graces. It is a consuming
of oneself and the past. 

 "My darling. I’m waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark?
Or a week? The fire is gone, and I’m horribly cold. I really should
drag myself outside but then there’d be the sun. I’m afraid I waste
the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die
rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we’ve
entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we’ve hidden in - like this
wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. Where the real
countries are. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of
powerful men. I know you’ll come carry me out to the Palace of
Winds. That’s what I’ve wanted: to walk in such a place with you.
With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out
and I’m writing in the darkness."

*Sonido en pantalla grande a cargo de Rosa María Oliart (sonidista cinematográfica). Se revisarán películas ganadoras en la categoría de mejor banda sonora.

Días: martes de mayo 2008.

Hora: 6 pm.

*Actores & directores a cargo de Vanessa Saba (actriz).

Días: miércoles de mayo 2008.

Hora: 4 pm.

Organiza: Cine Club Petroperú.
Auspicia: Cine y Televisión de San Marcos.
Lugar: Auditorio de Petroperú (Canaval y Moreyra 150, San Isidro, Lima).

Ingreso libre.

Programación

*Sonido en pantalla grande.

El paciente inglés (Estados Unidos, 1996),
de Anthony Minghella,
martes 6.

Frida (Estados Unidos-Canadá, 2002),
de Julie Taymo,
martes 13.

El secreto de las montañas (Estados Unidos, 2005),
de Ang Lee,
martes 20.

Babel (Estados Unidos, 2006),
de Alejandro González Iñárritu,
martes 27.

*Actores & directores.

La vida es bella (Italia, 1998),
de Roberto Begnini,
miércoles 7.

La habitación del hijo (Francia-Italia, 2001),
de Nanni Moretti,
miércoles 14.

Apocalypto (Estados Unidos, 2006),
de Mel Gibson,
miércoles 21.

Cartas desde Iwo Jima (Estados Unidos, 2006),
de Clint Eastwood,
miércoles 28.

Encontrarán mayor información entrando a la siguiente página.

O outro foi o escritor Arthur C. Clarke, autor de "2001". Dele, li apenas "2010", que não é grande coisa, mas que tem uma passagem com a qual me identifiquei muito, mostrando um futuro em que os humanos vomitam de nojo só em pensar que os homens um dia foram capazes de comer animais. Pessoas como nós sendo vistas como selvagens. Sua morte não me chocou. Porque, na verdade, o que me chocou foi saber que ele não tinha morrido antes...

Charlie Rose -- I have discovered Charlie Rose's interviews late last year when I was looking for old interviews of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi in YouTube. There are loads of Charlie Rose interviews in YouTube and most of them are full length uploads so that's some nice treat in itself. What I found most impressive is how Mr. Rose is genuinely interested in the people he talks to. And he seems to have an affinity to people whose work, profession or careers I sincerely admire. For quite some time now I have saved some of the interviews but haven't had the chance to really watch them. Some of the interviews I've seen Sunday were of:

* John Grisham -- as a teenage fan then, I never really thought I'd see him in an interview. I've always thought that he was a reclusive writer and never really knew much about him as a person other than from whatever I could get with how he wrote his books. During that time the internet was not readily available even to do research on him online so it was a real treat to see how he speaks -- he has a distinctly southern accent and he grew up in Arkansas pala. He was talking about his first non fiction work and I kinda sensed what a real neat person he is. I first thought he seemed like a republican until I saw a clip of him announcing his support for Hillary. Anyway, I should get that book about a wrongfully accused man who was sentenced to life and was later on found not guilty but all in his life had been lost already because of how the US legal system works.

* Ang Lee -- made during the height of Brokeback Mountain's release. He really seemed like a shy and reserved person or perhaps guarded is the more appropriate word. I just didn't feel he was able to really let loose with Charlie during the whole interview. They talked about Hulk, his frustrations (he seemed a bit defensive about the whole Hulk project although you can tell he didn't particularly feel proud of the outcome.) Second half of the show was with...

* Heath Ledger -- three words: what a loss! Heath seemed like a really intense actor whose career's longevity could have rivaled that of Tom Hanks's.

* Ian McEwan -- it was almost a vicarious experience when I imagined that I was Charlie Rose asking those questions. Let me paraphrase a line from Catcher in the Rye, you know that feeling when you had just read a really splendid book and you wished that the author was terrific friend of yours?... Ah, I just wished that I'd be able to sit with him and interview him so it kinda works too that Charlie Rose was asking the questions that I would have asked. It was apparent that Mr. Rose was also a fan of Ian McEwan's. There are three episodes with him on the show but I watched the one where he was talking about Atonement.

* Anthony Minghella -- 2 episodes. For Cold Mountain (with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law -- who seemed bobo) and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Now I admire Anthony Minghella's work after seeing The English Patient. His adaptation of Michael Ondatjee's Booker Prize winning novel was just AMAZING! What I discovered during the interview was that he seemed like he was a fun person to hang with plus he spoke very well and he is no doubt very intelligent and adores his craft.

* Leonardo DiCaprio -- from whom I got the phrase "profound waste of time" which I laughed at realizing how guilty I am of that a lot of times. This interview was done during the promotion of Aviator. Filmmaker na rin pala sya na ma co-consider! He was executive producer of the movie and he seemed really devoted to filmmaking and has a real relationship with Martin Scorsese -- another director that I admire!

For fans of Mariah Carey's there is also an interview with her during her "Rainbow" promo pre nervous breakdown time. I also got to see interviews of George Michael's and Robbie Williams' albeit non Charlie Rose. I now declare myself a fan of both no matter how f*cked up their lives seemed. Their music are just great! English musicians R-O-C-K!

And then I also watched Annie Hall on DVD. Man, you just gotta love Woody Allen's work. Timeless talaga and yet another love story set in New York that I fell in love with. See, I've always maintained that New York is the center of the universe of romance.

I also re-read parts of Atonement and also T.S. Eliot's Waste Land. Love it! I also love of course re-reading The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and man, I can do a neat reading of that but I preserve that during the first post union nights with my real special someones! But that book of mine is now with an ex-lover though.

Roger also seemed to be back in form although he lost to Rafa in the finals! All in all not too shabby for a Sunday. Spent just the way I would have always wanted. I guess this is where I really thrive and where I feel most comfortable in. I loved this Sunday!

Il film sarà composto da una serie di cortometraggi incentrati su diverse storie d’amore ambientate nella Grande Mela. Lo staff di registi per questo New York I Love you si presenta stellare. Come registi infatti figureranno, oltre a Shekhar Kapur, anche Scarlett Johansson e Natalie Portman, che tra l'altro sarà anche interprete di uno degli episodi. In più vedremo anche registi affermati come Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Allen Hughes, Fatih Akin, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Wen Jiang e lo stesso Shekhar Kapur, al quale è stata affidata la regia dell'episodio scritto da Anthony Minghella come scritto in precedenza.

Le riprese del film dovrebbero cominciare proprio ad Aprile per un lancio previsto per la fine del 2008. nel cast del film, oltre che Natalie Portman, ci saranno anche Kevin Bacon, Maggie Q e Ethan Hawke.

I'm currently reading Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith, the seventh book in his No. 1 Ladies' Detective series.

As regular visitors to my blog know I've read a few of the books in the series, and was looking forward to returning to his rose-tinted world of adventure in the lovely southern African country of Botswana.

I was particularly spurred on by BBC One's Easter Sunday TV adaptation of the first book starring American Grammy Award-winning soul singer Jill Scott (whose music I absolutely love), directed by the now late Anthony Minghella.

Since I was 'in the zone', I thought I may as well get down with another of Smith's books!

So, what cases are Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi investigating this time around?

She's faced with a particularly baffling case of blackmail, odd goings-on at Mokolodi, Mma Makutsi's broken engagement and - horror of horrors! - the prospect of having to diet!

As always, McCall Smith portrays the beauty of the African continent and its people through Precious Ramotswe and her family and friends, her pride in Botswana, her empathy and unquenchable desire to help others...

...and her love of good food and redbush tea!

Available on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shoes-Happiness-Ladies-Detective-Agency/dp/1904598633/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209302128&sr=8-2

Who can forget his "The English Patient" which won 9 Oscars back in 1997 (which is still a record to date). The way he portrayed the beauty of women is just ravishing (remember how he used the part between a woman's throat and collar bone to represent a map of men's desire?) It was poetry.

]]> http://asianwindow.wordpress.com/?p=1092 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:52:12 +0000 asianwindow http://asianwindow.wordpress.com/?p=1092 In his blog, Shekhar Kapur recalls his last conversation with film director Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain, The English Patient) who died on March 18 aged 54 of cancer

On Sunday, two days before Anthony Minghella went in for an operation on a tumour they had just discovered, Anthony called me to see if I would direct a short he had written as part of a film a called 'New York - I love you', where a bunch of directors make short love stories based in NY. Anthony was supposed to direct it himself but given his sudden illness could not do so. He told me his film was about the value of life, and how people sometimes just throw away their lives unable to look beyond into the real beauty of it.
Anthony was completely alert and aware of his own mortality at this time, and as long as I had known him, he had valued life in a creative and compassionate way.

more

If you look at his filmography, it's jarring to see how few films are there. At least in my mind, he was so prominent a director that I expected to see more than eight films. Maybe he seemed so prominent a director because of those eight films (one of which, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, has not yet been released), there was not a dog in the bunch. His writer's resume is longer than his director's because he got his start writing for television, primarily in a British family series called "Grange Hill" (which I never saw), and as a writer for Jim Henson's The Storyteller series (which I did see, and which was magnificent).

While Minghella won his well-deserved Oscar for directing The English Patient and was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for that movie as well as for Cold Mountain, it is for his first film, Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) -- which was his original creation and his directorial debut -- that I admire him the most. Truly, Madly, Deeply is a gorgeous, moving film that had me bawling on the first viewing and still moves me to tears each time I watch it. It is absolutely one of my favorite films ever (as well as the origination of my deep crush on Alan Rickman). The movie begins with Nina (Juliet Stevenson), who is grieving the loss of her love, Jamie (Alan Rickman). When he reappears to her as a ghost, her joy is tempered with the growing realization that her life must move on, whether she wants it to or not. But threaded throughout the film, and what saves it from being too sentimental or maudlin, is a wry humor that undercuts the sadness.

Some of my favorite lines:

Nina (to Jamie): You're dead and you're still into party politics?

Jamie (on his coming back): ...But, the pain. Your pain. I couldn't bear that. There's a little girl I see from time to time - Alice, who's three. Well, three and a half. Oh, she's great. Everyone loves her, but she's not spoiled - Well, wasn't spoiled. She was knocked over and she died. Her parents, and family, and friends from kindergarten... She used to go to this playground. See, they made an area in the park. Gave 'em money for swings, and little wooden animals, and there are these plaques on the sides of the swing, bottom of the horse: 'From Alice's mom and dad. In Memory of Alice, who used to play here'. And of course, Alice goes back there all the time. And when you see the parents take their child from the swing, and see the sign... They hold on to their son and daughter, so tightly, clinging on for dear life. And yet... The capacity that people have to love... Where does it go?

Goodbye and Godspeed, Anthony Minghella. You will be missed.

Some key words

Sokwanele

Yes! And I found an excellent link to blogging in Africa.  Certainly follow if you are interested in Africa and blogging.  But no pictures.

Solwanele have published and  interactive map of the election in Zimbabwe.

And I found a tribute to the director of No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Anthony Minghella.  It comes up in a block below.  I'll link it too, just in case I lose it as I play around.  Oh that is easy, you can turn it on and off on the right bar with just a click.

So I feel a bit better.  It's a great search engine for those of us who live in obscure parts!  Better than google!

And now the Article list has updated to provide a lot of related links.  I'll add them for anyone want to follow up;

Take Cold Mountain, for example; based on the novel by Charles Frazier. It’s an American Civil War story. A rich girl and a quiet man fall in love in a place named Cold Mountain, North Carolina. War breaks out and they are separated. They hardly know each other, yet their love is epic, adamantine, infallible. There’s a hint of Wuthering Heights about their story; something reinforced by Minghella’s decision to include Cathy’s quote: “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath---a source of little visible delight, but necessary.”

Is Inman (the quiet man) a Heathcliff substitute? Maybe so, at least in Minghella’s mind. The thing with Cold Mountain (with my view of it, at least) is that it isn’t the movie it wants to be, but it has admirable aspirations. It’s the sort of movie that knows parallels between books (and movies) don’t necessarily have to be direct. If it had worked as Minghella intended, it would have been brilliant. As it is… Here’s how I see it: Inman (the quiet man) is Heathcliff, in as much as he possesses Heathcliff’s stoicism and his tragic fate. And Ada (the rich girl) is Cathy, in as much as she has Cathy’s spirit and her undying devotion. The parallel doesn’t work if you think too much of plotlines, but if you think of Cold Mountain’s heart – its idea of a love that lasts for years, despite the lovers sharing only one kiss – then it’s Wuthering Heights you think of, not North and South. No-one’s ever going to confuse the Yorkshire Moors with North Carolina, but to the lovers in these stories: earth is heaven, wherever they call home.

Jude Law is very mannered as Inman. He just about gets away with it, but in his most emotional scene (where he confesses, of Ada, “She’s the place I’m goin’!”) he strains so hard to find the right facial expression, you fear his eyebrows are going to fall off. He means well. You and I know it. But he’s got Robert Redford’s problem: he’s too pretty to play anguished. The part needs someone… rugged-er.

Nicole Kidman, as Ada, fights a battle for authenticity… and loses, as she has ever since she started freezing her forehead. One cannot convincingly play a 22 year old 19th century minister’s daughter when one is: a) 36, b) regularly receiving Botox injections. Part of the problem is that Kidman takes roles based on profile (the “Gimme! Gimme!”-paradigm); the other part is her accent. Neither is suitable.

Lots of things about Cold Mountain don’t work. The casting is at fault (Ray Winstone?); the love story doesn’t rise to match Wuthering Heights… But what does shine through is Anthony Minghella’s contribution. Could anyone else have made a movie of this book? Do other directors even read? In a world where the Wayans Brothers aren’t publicly executed for Little Man – Don’t we need Cold Mountain, just to reassure us there are alternatives… that all hope isn’t lost? I’ll miss Anthony Minghella. In a business where illiterate troglodytes rule, he stood up for books. Juliette Binoche called him “my friend of art”. He was a good friend to art, to her, to us.

In Faber's Minghella on Minghella, he is very clear about his approach: he would read the novel several times, then put it away and never look at it while writing his screenplay. The screenwriter's responsibility, he argues, is to the film, not to the novel: "I don't think the filmmaker has any responsibility whatsoever to the novel". On the other hand, he also says that the adapting screenwriter should be "the perfect reader" of the book, "the enthusiastic messenger ... remembering the best bits, exaggerating the beauty, relishing the mystery ... probing the moral imperative of what he or she has read".

This is where things get confusing. The Talented Mr Ripley is an outstanding movie. It's exquisitely acted, beautifully shot, and is one of the finest screenplays of the past decade. But it does, by any standards, entirely contradict the moral imperative of the novel. Patricia Highsmith's Ripley is cheerfully amoral, literally a psychopath in that he has no sense of other people's feelings. Tom is pure super-ego, behaving according to human nature, not human civilisation; he murders not because of his tormented soul, but because someone has interfered with his dinner plans. And that's why we love him — and secretly envy him. Minghella, on the other hand, gives Tom what Sidney Lumet calls a rubber ducky: "Somebody once took his rubber ducky away and that's why he's a deranged killer". Poor Tom, in the movie, just wants to be loved. To which Highsmith would undoubtedly say, well, boo hoo. The moral imperative in Highsmith is we are who we are: deal with it, whereas Minghella's is everyone deserves to be loved. 

Minghella was a romantic, and an optimist: he once wrote that he wanted to make films that "insist on a dog fails to eat dog world". His last work, a hugely enjoyable adaptation of The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency, is a perfect example of that spirit. What's harder to explain is what drew him to either Ripley or The English Patient, both of which are far less morally forgiving, or optimistic for humanity. It's as if he didn't so much wish to adapt these novels as to fit them to his own purposes. But does this invalidate them as movies? I don't think so. After all, the film doesn't change the novel; the book on the shelf is exactly what it always was. What Minghella teaches is not fidelity to the novel, but fidelity to ourselves:  the job is not to rewrite someone else's novel, but to create a film that's all our own.