MovieChat Forums > The English Patient (1996) Discussion > What's the deal with Caravaggio?

What's the deal with Caravaggio?

posted 13 years ago by gutsarefallingout
5 replies | jump to latest

One of my favorite movies, but I never read the book. So please help.

In the flashback to Tubruk, the British officer tells Moose he's got to stay behind. Then he grouses about the Nazis having British maps, how they're using them to get spies into the Cairo, etc.

Moose starts to look panicky, he blows off the girl who asks if she's gonna see him later, then the next scene he's in a line with the German troops stamping papers, etc.

So what's going on here? Who's the chick? Why was she being smacked around by the Nazi troops and insisting she "didn't have a boyfriend"? Why did that freak out Caravaggio and make him want to get the hell out of there? And what was that standing in line business all about? I get that the Germans thought he was a spy and tortured him for information, but the part with the girl and the standing in line? Was he registering as a foreigner prior to the German occupation?

[–] willwilliamiam 13 years ago

Can someone answer this post? I have the exact same questions!

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Duane505 13 years ago

The girl was a secretary in the British intelligence office where Caravaggio and Geoffrey Clifton worked. Caravaggio had been having an affair with her. When he saw her roughed up, he tried to get away because he knew the Germans would be after him since, as a spy, he'd been stealing documents from them. If I'm remembering right, we see her again at the end of the movie. She's the girl who drives Hannah and some other refugees back into town or wherever they're going.

[–] nolaladyj 13 years ago

I agree with your post up to the point about seeing the girl again. The secretary Caravaggio was having an affair with was named Aicha, and she was in North Africa. The girl who drove the truck was in Italy, and her name was Gioia. Similar looking, though.

[–] beatpoet84 10 years ago

Maybe it's blindingly obvious, but why was Caravaggio so important to the Germans that they snapped pictures of him? Were the German spies (who got into Cairo because of Almasy) just snapping pics outside the intelligence HQ on the off chance that they might be able to uncover someone from allied intelligence and if they captured them, they could get information out of them?

Obviously Caravaggio walking away from the queue was a red flag, but were the Germans already onto him, or did they just see him on the pictures afterwards and figure, "he's in intelligence, so he must be a spy"? It seems like they barely had anything on him, as why else would Caravaggio offer up the adultery story, rather than give names/information?