The Name of the Rose

There is a debate about to be had at the high, inaccessible abbey. This debate, according to the leading Franciscan participant, is one that can determine the theology of the church for generations to come. So pivotal was this issue that papal envoys and monastics from around Christendom have gathered to determine the answer to the question - did Christ, or did he not, own the clothes he wore.

This is a play on the kind of theological musings that, then and now, distract the church from its proper functions of being a witness to the world. One could imagine the question of how many angels dancing on the head of a pin being used by Eco, except that that would be far too obvious a silliness.

However 'pivotal' this conference may be to the future of Christendom, it is in fact incidental to the storyline of the film. The real story revolves around the happenings at the hosting abbey, a Benedictine community whose vocation involves the preservation and transcription of a major library (libraries being full of books, written in language, full of signs and symbols). However, two things become immediately apparent - there don't seem to be any books around, and the transcriptionists are dying one by one.

Enter William of Baskerville (the name an obvious homage, a sign of respect, to Sherlock Holmes). William is a Franciscan journeying to the abbey with his novice, Adso, to take part in the upcoming conference. The Abbot enlists William's assistance in discovering how the monks are dying, which he does with Holmesian technique and precision. Analysing data such as footprints, fall-patterns from hillsides, and other such observational information, he comes to a few conclusions, but these distress the head librarian, who has seen it as his task to protect the world from blashphemous books (ironically, while maintaining their existence within the confines of the great library's labyrinth).

While William and Adso do their Holmes and Watson in a scientific manner, one of the other Franciscan visitors decides to apply a different interpretation to the happenings, preferring to see in the murderous environment of the abbey the signs of the apocalypse, particularly worrisome given the nature of the pivotal conference soon to take place.

Unfortunately for William, just as he is getting close to the truth, the Inquisition is called (no one expects the Spanish Inquistition), and in the figure of Bernardo Gui, the Inquisition descends upon the abbey with full force and terror. Gui accepts neither William's rational explanations nor Ubertino's end-times interpretations, preferring a more common staple of Inquisition deciphering - it must be the work of the devil. Finding a black cat and a woman smuggled into the abbey only help confirm this, particularly in an environment that sees little value in either.

Ultimately, however, the interpretation is wrong. William and Adso finally discover a way into the library, and make the further discovery that the key text the librarian is trying to hide is one by Aristotle, his work on Comedy, for he fears that in the Scholastic environment of the church, in which Aristotle is seen as the rational side of God's wisdom, that a book by Aristotle that permits laughter would be the undoing to the world.

In the end, the library burns with few books saved, the conference ends without a resolution, the Inquisition gets a judgement leveled against itself in a very 'just-desserts' fashion, and William and Adso depart.

But what of the name of the rose? We never learn the name of the rose; indeed, the rose is yet one more sign, a symbol for the love of Adso's life, the woman accused of being a witch. As the final credits fall, we learn that in the midst of all the tumult, Adso never learned her name.

The performances here are solid and gripping. Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville with aplomb. A young Christian Slater is a good novice, with still enough innocence to his performance to be believable. The abbot is played by Michael Lonsdale (not too many years off of playing a James Bond villain). Special mention goes to Helmut Qualtinger, who played the librarian Brother Remigio, who died just hours after filming his last scene, and was frequently in pain from the illness he was suffering during filming. William Hickey plays Franciscan Ubertino with an air of strangeness and mystery. Finally, F. Murray Abraham plays the dreaded Bernardo Gui, in every way as psychologically beguiling as in his starring role in 'Amadeus', but unfortunately with a much smaller role in this film.

Despite not making an Oscar bid, this film won numerous awards throughout Europe, including the BAFTA best actor award for Connery. It also was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe award for mystery film.

The sets are dramatic, the costumes are perfect (particularly the contrast between the simplicity of the Franciscans, the durability of the Benedictines, the opulence of the papal envoys, the flair of the Inquisitors, and the rags of the peasants - all signs of a stratified society). The film is done in a cinematographic style that gives an overall feel of isolation; the abbey is isolated from the world, and the people are detached from each other for the most part.

This is a remarkable film in many ways, and one that I frequently turn to again to see what new signs I missed the last time through.


A Winner in Every Way   July 15, 2004
classicmoviefan (Rancho Mirage, CA)
I have seen this fine film 5 or 6 times and each time I see something new and fascinating in it. Umberto Eco's novel was a complex story to adapt to a major film, and this was done with skill and intelligence by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin & Alain Godard. The idea of such a tragic murder solved with only the tools of the time is nothing short of brilliant. I am wondering how much the BBC television series "Cadfael" with Derek Jacobi is based on this motion picture. Both are superb in their own way.

If you enjoy a film with mystery, brilliant performances, gothic photography and magnificent art direction, you will enjoy this masterpiece. Be warned, however... you will require an attention span. This is not a film kids will understand.


Excellent adaptation.   July 15, 2004
Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY)
How do you take a long and very dense book, and turn it into a cohesive and quickly-paced film? The makers of THE NAME OF THE ROSE answered that riddle.

All around, this film has everything going for it. The performances are compelling and right on--no one acts like a 20th Century actor trying to act 14th century. The setting is gorgeous, although the squalor of the less fortunate is vividly conveyed. The intricate almost Escher-like quality of the labyrinth within the monastery is an amazing feat of set design and engineering.

Most of all, it's the script and direction that carry the day. Given how much information had to be siphoned and sifted from Umberto Eco's novel, the screenwriters and director Jean-Jacques Annaud masterfully created a taut and convincing murder mystery without getting bogged down in the details. The only time I thought it did was during the dragged out Inquisition scenes. However, these scenes did represent what was at risk for these characters. All in all, this is a marvelous film which murder mystery fans or fans of period pieces will want to have in their collections.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS.


Dark Rose   July 13, 2004
Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA)
1986's The Name Of The Rose is a dark, deep mystery set in the unusual setting of a medieval Italian abbey and is based on Umberto Eco's bestseller. Sean Connery stars as William of Baskerville, an English monk who is sent to the secluded abbey to investigate a murder. Along with his apprentice Adson von Melk (a young Christian Slater in just his third film), they dive into the case in which more dead bodies start turning up. F. Murray Abraham (in his first film after winning the Oscar for Amadeus) plays Bernardo Gui, an icy inquisitor who gets involved in the case, but whose motives are questionable. William struggles to solve the case against the intense religious fervor of the time and the film tries to show the conflicts between religion and justice. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures the dark and dank feeling of medieval times and captures the period well. The cast gives strong performances, especially Mr. Abraham in yet another menacing role.


moody historical whodunit   July 12, 2004
Denny Vu Quach (California, GG USA)
Faithful to the book by Umberto Eco, this film is a lot of fun -- dark labyrinthine passages and strange characters populate this isolated setting. Sean Connery is terrific as the visiting cleric, and a very young Christian Slater plays his companion. I wasn't sure a film could do justice to the remarkable denoument of the book, but everything here is great, and makes you appreciate the Middle Ages in a less-than-romantic way.

If you like mysteries, this is a good one. If you like history come alive, you will enjoy this.