R.I.P. Anthony Minghella

Anthony Minghella, the brilliant director with sweet and focused eyes, has died. He was only 54 years old and I just hate it: Too young, too talented, too beautiful in spirit (I didn’t know him personally, but feel he is among a handful of directors whose inner-heart and very personal dreams and desires are on the screen as you’re watching their films). In films like The English Patient (for which he won an Oscar for Best Director), The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain, Minghella treated broad stories and themes -- love, isolation and faith -- with uncomplicated yet specific care; encouraging the characters to grow in difficult, unknown ways inside the safety of easy, known worlds. I’m glad for his work and sad there won’t be more.