Ralphs and strays

The English Patient

Monday 22 September 1997 23:02 BST

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For those of you who missed it (unlikely), or have a thing about Ralph Fiennes (more likely), The English Patient is released today on video.

While the Americans love this kind of thing (toffs in the desert), heaping it with Oscars, it is worlds away from the real film winners bursting out of this country today (Twin Town, The Full Monty, Career Girls). How did such a grand-scale drama ever get made in this country post 1946? The scene where Ralph, bawling uncontrollably, carts Kristin Scott-Thomas out of a craggy crevasse, must surely be one of the most overblown man- carries-dead-lover-from-cave scenes ever.

Still, in the tradition of all British romantic epics, this film will make great winter Sunday viewing. Just add tea and toast.

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Ralphs and strays

The English Patient

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