19/03/2008

A wave of tributes and encomiums are pouring in after the tragic death of Oscar-winning British director Anthony Minghella from a fatal haemorrhage (see news) following an operation for cancer of the neck and tonsils.

Jude Law, who starred in three of Minghella’s films, said: “He was a brilliantly talented writer and director who wrote dialogue that was a joy to speak and then put it on to the screen in a way that always looked effortless. He made work feel like fun.”

Fellow Oscar-winning British producer Lord Puttnam (Chariots of Fire) said: “I am shattered. He was a very important person in the film community because not only was he a fine, fine writer...and made the transfer into becoming a really excellent director, he was also a really beautiful man.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was directed by Minghella alongside former Prime Minister Tony Blair for a Labour broadcast, said: “He was one of Britain's greatest creative talents, one of our finest screenwriters and directors, a great champion of the British film industry and expert on literature and opera. He will be deeply missed.”

Actor Kevin Spacey, who is now Artistic Director of London’s Old Vic theatre, said: “He was one of the greats and anybody who loves storytelling will realise that he had much more to do and it’s an incredibly sad moment.”

Ralph Fiennes, who was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Minghella’s The English Patient, said: “Anthony possessed a sensitivity and alertness to the actor's process that very few directors have. He delighted in the contribution of everyone. His films deal with extreme aloneness and the redemptive power of love, even at the moment of death.”

Minghella’s producing partner Sydney Pollack said: “The cliché that you don't know anyone well until you’ve lived through wars with them is an absolute truth. Sometimes making films is a form of war. Having weathered several with Anthony, I will tell you that his dignity never softened, his artistry never suffered, and his mind remained as sharp and clear in wartime as it was in quietude.”