Anthony Minghella's ice cream

'Gelato for tonsils'.

Ice cream for a tonsil operation.

It's a phrase in the early pages of Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, a fine novel made more famous by the multi-Oscar-winning film of Anthony Minghella, the ice-cream seller's son from the Isle of Wight who died from an operation for tonsil cancer today.

The news bulletins in Britain and America show the shock at an early and unexpected death.

Minghella was one of the great British artists of our time, that very rare thing, a writer who set Hollwood records as a director and was still a writer first.

I did not know him. I met him only once.

But we long-time cancer-survivors still get superstitious about this sort of thing.

I'm left tonight with those words which he must have read so long ago when he was well.

'Gelato for tonsils'.

Bizarre? Yes.

Bad loss? Yes too.

Comments

[Susan Balée]

A tragedy! I was in Paris last week, but finally saw Minghella's death noted when I glanced at a paper. For me, stunned doesn't half say it -- at 54, he had many adaptations and original works left in him. I loved his "English Patient" because it was as good as the novel and I loved his "Cold Mountain," because his adaptation was actually *better* than the novel (I was not as impressed with Frazier's writing as so many folks were; I felt A.M. gave elliptical, remote -- albeit lyrical -- prose a 3-D energy with the movie version). Perhaps my favorite of A.M.'s, though, was the film he directed that first showed the world the incredibly talented Alan Rickman: "Truly, Madly, Deeply." I'm going to miss Minghella, a LOT.

[Clayton Burns]

I would be interested in a running list of the best book and movie combinations: I suggest that "No Country for Old Men" should be at the top of the list right now. Certainly "The English Patient" deserves to be a close second, and perhaps "Atonement" would be a good choice as well. I used to think that films might detract from reading the books, but now I do not think so at all. It would be valuable to have a fiction and film curriculum composed of such exceptionally good pairings of novel and film as "The English Patient."

[Dion Per Sona]

I recall being gobsmaked by the advanced average age of the people queueing to see this film in the France. These were the very folks who really don't get out much.

[ricardo moraes]

How sad, sir Peter, very sad. Here in Brazil, when I was a kid ( long time ago...) all doctors recommended the tonsils surgery. Now it is exactly the contrary. The best part of the post-surgery was the gelato...Minghella , a very talented director, gone so young...

[Candadai Tirumalai]

A purely personal recollection. More than 40 years ago I had my tonsils taken out. The surgeon said that eating would be painful for a few days but I could have all the ice cream I wanted. The only trouble was I found ice cream as painful as more solid food.
It is sad when someone dies at the height of his powers, somone of refined taste who could produce films with wide appeal.
Italian ice cream has always been considered something special.