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This paper will discuss Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient transformation and adaptation into Anthony Minghella’s film, reflected on the characters and love stories that arise from the novel and the film.

The source text determines the starting point to analyse the cinematic adaptation, a literary format which has been modified, first to constitute the script of the film by means of an intralingual translation “an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same language” (Jakobson, 1996: 14), and then to generate a different format integrated by many individual systems throughout the process of an intersemiotic translation “an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems” (Jakobson, 1996: 14). That is, to reword the story and to convey this story into a convergence of diverse sign systems (the audiovisual form).

The narration requires adjustments in order to carry out the cinematic format; for example, the transfer from the written story to the oral communication and the representation of the various fields associated with the production of a film such as costume design, make-up, music, photography etc. are the first steps that should be considered with regard to an intersemiotic translation. Besides, the adaptation to the summarizing scenes in the cinematic language involving several descriptive paragraphs in the literary language and the relevance given to determined characters and events in the novel which may differ from the starring roles and events in the film are the elements that will constitute the main difference between them.

Because complete equivalence (in the sense of synonymy or sameness) cannot take place in any of these categories, (…) Only creative transposition is possible: either intralingual transposition – from one poetic shape into another, or interlingual transposition – from one language into another, or finally intersemiotic transposition – from one system of signs into another, e.g. from verbal art into music, dance, cinema or painting (Bassnett, 1996: 15)

The intersemiotic translation gives place to a story developed in the film format and adjusted to the film industry, thus giving the story a different focus of relevance but still preserving the general idea of the original story. Next, I will discuss the facts which were adjusted between the novel and the film, as a resort to provide a less dramatic film, inspired in the romantic aspect of the novel.

In the novel the main characters are Almásy -the English Patient, Hana, the Sikh bomb defuser and Caravaggio, the film maintains these characters but centres its attention on the affair between Almásy and Katharine Clifton. The setting of the novel chiefly elapses in the Villa San Girolamo, interrupted every so often by Almásy’s flashbacks to his experiences in Africa, while the film concentrates in the deserts of North Africa.

The novel opens with Hana, the young nurse who takes care of the English Patient at the villa; shortly after another character is introduced in the story, a man called Caravaggio. Concerning the novel, it can be assumed that Hana and Caravaggio had met a long time ago in their native country but the film indicates that they did not know each other since he introduces himself “My name is David Caravaggio, but nobody ever called me David”. In the second chapter the novel drops a hint that Caravaggio likes Hana “During these days in the hill town near Florence (…) he has no plots to set in motion, is interested only in Hana” (40), however this is not reflected in the film.

The main characters of the novel are Hana and Kip. Ondaatje widely describes the past and present facts in the nurse and the Sikh’s lives. In the novel the reader finds that Hana’s father had died at war “Hana broke in Santa Chiara Hospital when an official walked down the space between a hundred of beds and gave her a letter that told her of the death of her father” (41) and that “she has missed Clara with a woe but is unstable to write to her, now, after all that has happened to her” (92), while the film makes no reference regarding Hana’s father and stepmother. Furthermore, the literary text mentions that Hana had had to lose a child because “The father was already dead. There was a war” (82), a despairing aspect in Hana’s life which was not included in the film. And the painful situations she has experienced at war are not described in the film “soldiers were coming in with just bits of their bodies, falling in love with me for an hour and then dying” (83)

The love between Hana and Kip -the Sikh sapper- occupies a leading role throughout Ondaatje’s novel; she even risks her own life to help him defuse a bomb and tells him “I thought I was going to die. And I thought if I was going to die I would die with you” (103), a fact that was left out during the film. When Hardy dies, Kip returns to the villa seeking her comfort “If he could walk across the room and touch her he would be sane” (113), the film shows an evasive boy hiding in his shelter.

“In Situ” is the chapter dedicated to Kip and his mentors “he stepped into a family, after a year abroad, as if he were the prodigal returned, offered a chair at the table, embraced with conversations” (189), his training as a sapper, and the dramatic death of Lord Suffolk, Miss Morden and Mr. Fred Harts. It also makes reference to Kip’s brother “He refused to agree to any situation where the English had power. So they dragged him into their jails” (200), and mentions that Kip’s father is still alive. This information is not included in the film.

The Atomic bomb influenced Ondaatje’s novel. When Kip hears about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he feels hatred for the English Patient because from his point of view, Almásy represents the Allied Powers that drop their bombs on non-white nations, and he wants to kill Almásy. Caravaggio warns him that Almásy is not an Englishman, but he does not care “When you start bombing the brown races of the world, you’re an Englishman”, “They would never have dropped such a bomb on a white nation” (286) eventually he does not kill the English Patient and leaves the villa. The film does not mention the atomic bombs, exposing as the cause of his departure his posting North of Florence.

As regards the English Patient character, the story and the film share analogies. However there are slight differences; for example, in the novel Caravaggio reaches the villa unaware of the presence of Almásy in that place “I came because of the girl. I knew her father. The last person I expected to find here in this shelled nunnery was Count Ladislaus de Almásy” (252), in the film Caravaggio says “This nurse, Mary, tells me about you and Hana (…) how you came out of the desert… and you were burned and you didn’t remember your name (…) Then I knew it was you”.

In the novel Almásy seems to accept the fact that he works for the Germans “You had become the enemy not when you sided with Germany but when you began your affair with Katharine Clifton”, “I see” (254-255). In the film he claims that he is not a spy “Madox thought I was a spy? No. No, I was never a spy.”

At the end of the film the English Patient asks Hana to poison him with morphine, and she agrees in deep sorrow. The last words dedicated to Almasy in the novel are: “His hand reaches out slowly and touches his book and returns to his dark chest. Nothing else moves in the room” (298). In the novel Hana decides to write a letter to her stepmother where she mentions that she will go home. Instead, the film shows that she leaves the house with Caravaggio and Gioia, they are going to Florence but her final destiny remains uncertain. The novel narrates that some years later Kip is a doctor, he “has two children and a laughing wife” (299), he is in India and he always remembers Hana. Nevertheless the film makes no reference to him after his departure.

Having discussed the main differences between the novel and the film, it can be outlined that while Ondaatje’s novel mainly narrates the effects of the war on the characters’ lives, Minghella’s film is focused on the pre-war period and the romantic love story between Almásy and Katharine. “Translation is relative to the purpose for which a particular translation is intended and to the assumed background knowledge of those who will use it” (Bassnett, 1996: 326) Therefore the film can be considered a translation of Ondaatje’s novel, where the loyalty in the process of translation depends on the cinematic form and the potential public of a different media.