Anthony Minghella

Mar 19 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

HIS parents made fine ice cream the Italian way and they were passionate about their work, but the boy was the teller of stories, the dreamer, who became a master of modern cinema.

He had a round, bald head, a sensitive smile and the consummate skill needed to write about a young widow’s grief, transforming it into a gentle, haunting story, brimful of hope, charm and faith.

Tears fell, tissues filled and the cash tills rolled. Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), with Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson, Michael Maloney and a cast of ghostly eccentrics, secured Anthony Minghella’s reputation as a writer and director.

His films reached deep into the soul of characters, rarely rushing the action, instead presenting studies of the human condition stretched and manipulated by circumstances, which appealed to audiences, delighted to sense again mood and tension on the big screen.

Minghella was born on the Isle of Wight, side-stepping the lure of the family business for Hull University, where he studied drama and English and met the TV scriptwriter, Alan Plater, who encouraged him to write.

Early successes came with scripts for Grange Hill, devised by Phil Redmond, the Daily Post columnist.

In 1981, Minghella’s play, Whale Music, was praised. This was followed by Made in Bangkok, a farce about the sex trade in Thailand.

He contributed to Inspector Morse, winning the 1984 London Theatre Critics’ most promising playwright title.

Mr Wonderful (1993) was Minghella’s first, rather disappointing Hollywood production. Four years later, The English Patient won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella.

Cold Mountain (2003), starring Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger and Jude Law, was nominated for seven Oscars.

In 2005, Minghella made his opera debut directing Madame Butterfly for the English National Opera. It was choreographed by Minghella’s wife, Carolyn Choa, and returned to the ENO earlier this year.

Minghella directed and wrote Breaking and Entering (2006), also starring Law. It was his first self-penned script since Truly Madly Deeply, and was set in modern London.

His adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency is to be shown on BBC1 on Sunday.

Minghella, who had two children, was appointed CBE in 2001.

Anthony Minghella, film director/writer, born January 6, 1954; died March 18, 2008.