A Personal Comment On The Passing Of ANTHONY MINGHELLA (1954 - 2008)

“A rather unoriginal greatest hits compilation of other over-used moments from sports movies and not necessarily the good ones.”

That’s how Anthony Minghella described one of my scripts. He was right. The thing is even if he hadn’t of been right, I would have still coaxed myself into believing he was because he was such a charming and likeable man. He was also selfless and completely without ego. He had to be minus any ego or pomposity for me to have met him. You see, I was an aspiring screenwriter attending a workshop for aspiring screenwriters and Mr Minghella was one of the speakers and ‘guest tutors’.

He didn’t have any reason to be there – he was an Academy Award caliber writer and director, the man who can develop a project with Tom Cruise (Cold Mountain) and still get it made when the big Hollywood star walked away from it, he was close and personal friends with one of the most consistently brilliant directors/powerful producers in the business, Sydney Pollack, and he could be, at that given moment thanks to the staying power of movies like The English Patient and the awesome Talented Mr Ripley, at the helm of probably any friggin multi-million dollar production for any studio.

But he wasn’t. He was sat in a dank portacabin-style building on a chair far too small for his frame, with a temperature that would have made even Sir Ranulph Fiennes feel a bit of a chill, and drinking questionably tasting hot beverages which he got himself without the rush and bustle of a sycophantic hanger-on or a harassed PA. He was enormously intelligent, funny and patient. He was a great storyteller and what become very much apparent throughout the day was that if he didn’t know something about writing or structuring screenplays then it wasn’t something that you needed to know. His patience in explaining, many times over to one particular workshopper who just didn’t seem to grasp it, that a film can be non-linear and still maintain a solid three-act structure was impressive for someone with enough credentials just to walk over the “silly little aspiring writer”.

He talked about originality being of enormous importance in writing and creating a film – whether it be a unique story or the original voice you’re telling it in – and when we each took it in turns to discuss our specific projects we were currently working on, he would quietly write down as many already established movie titles that he thought were similar or in the same vein as. “No film is without comparison” was one thing I remember him saying, but any description discussed with under two similar titles noted was on to a good thing. I got eleven famous films noted against my project. So, not on to a good thing at all! The films he highlighted as bearing similarities were pretty eclectic within the sports movie genre and I remember thinking “Jesus, I thought he was a prissy theatre-going, classical type but he knows what Major League and Breaking Away are? Cool!”

Anthony Minghella made Truly, Madly Deeply and The Talented Mr Ripley, films which I adored, and he made Cold Mountain and Breaking & Entering, films which I didn’t. Regardless though you couldn’t help but acknowledge what an astounding talent he was and whatever you thought of him as a director (one friend of mine only refers to him as “Harvey Weinstein’s bitch” even when making me aware of his death, via text) you couldn’t argue that he was an exceptional writer with a great ear for dialogue. He died at far too young an age and the best of his work was yet to be made.

Mr Minghella could well have been a horrible ‘Hollywood Tyrant’ outside of the eight hour period in which I encountered him during that workshop (I doubt it though!) but during the course of that eight hour period he made every single one of his in that room feel so talented and appreciated and he treat us with respect and patience. He blew me away at just how relaxed, open and down-to-earth he was. And every single obituary that’s being put out there would indicate that the guy I encountered during that workshop was the same guy he was throughout his life.

Minghella died on 18 March 2008 of a haemorrhage in Charing Cross Hospital, London, following an operation the previous week to remove cancer of the tonsils and neck.My heartfelt condolences go out to his friends and family at this horrible time.

Posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 1:04 pm under Movie News by Gazz.
Tags:Movie News

Think we're full of shit? Agree, disagree or just want to share your opinion? Then leave a comment.
Trackback.