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The Name of the Rose
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by Embassy/Nelson Ent. - O.B.
Sales Rank: 12615
Price: $14.99
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Jean-Jacques Annaud's <I>The Name of the Rose</I> is a flawed attempt to adapt Umberto Eco's highly convoluted medieval bestseller for the screen, necessarily excising much of the esoterica that made the book so compelling. Still, what's left is a riveting whodunit set in a grimly and grimily realistic 14th-century Benedictine monastery populated by a parade of grotesque characters, all of whom spend their time lurking in dark places or scuttling, half-unseen, in the omnipresent gloom. A series of mysterious and gruesome deaths are somehow tied up with the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition, sent to root out suspected heretical behavior among the monastic scribes whose lives are dedicated to transcribing ancient manuscripts for their famous library, access to which is prevented by an ingenious maze-like layout. <p> Enter Sean Connery as investigator-monk William of Baskerville (the Sherlock Holmes connection made explicit in his name) and his naive young assistant Adso (a youthful Christian Slater). The Grand Inquisitor Bernado Gui (F. Murray Abraham) suspects devilry; but William and Adso, using Holmesian forensic techniques, uncover a much more human cause: the secrets of the library are being protected at a terrible cost. A fine international cast and the splendidly evocative location compensate for a screenplay that struggles to present Eco's multifaceted story even partially intact; Annaud's idiosyncratic direction complements the sinister, unsettling aura of the tale ideally. <I>--Mark Walker</I>
Viewer Reviews
While a bit slow moving, this midevil thriller was quite good despite its flaws. The flaws, I think, were brought on by the fact it occured in midevil times and the world is a very, very different place. Still, this was a great movie in its challenge to the subject matter and the thinking of the time.
Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville who has recently arrived at a remote abbey with his young novice Adso, played by a young Christian Slater. Some strange events at the monestary have the others convinced that they have been touched by the devil, in that some monks have met some mysterious ends. In a midevil Holmes and Watson crime solving (if Connery's moniker is not the dead give away then what is?), William determines that these monks did not meet their ends so easily and that there is a very human force behind their deaths rather than the work of the devil. Eventually representatives from the Inquisition come and single out the odd or trouble makers, in the traditional witch hunt mentality.
The make up jobs they did on the monks are reason enough to give it such high marks (have you ever seen such ugly people on screen?!), but this movie succeeds in that it tackles such a foreign world to us. Imagine living back then with only a small percentage of the popultion literate, having people really believe in witches and the forces of the devil having a direct effect on their lives, and without modern technology. The movie portrays how monks lived in religious communities very well from their spiritual needs to their mundane. This might seem odd to movie goers, but it was a truly unique experience.
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The Name of the Rose
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