The Name of the Rose (film)
The Name of the Rose | |
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Directed by | Jean-Jacques Annaud |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Narrated by | Dwight Weist |
Cinematography | Tonino Delli Colli |
Edited by | Jane Seitz |
Music by | James Horner |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (Italy) Neue Constantin Film (West Germany)[1] Acteurs Auteurs Associés (France)[1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 131 minutes |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Budget | $17.5 million[2] |
Box office | $77.2 million |
The Name of the Rose is a 1986
This English-language film was an
Plot
William and Adso make the acquaintance of Salvatore, a hunchback who speaks gibberish in various languages, and his handler and protector, Remigio da Varagine. William deduces from Salvatore's
Investigating and keen to head off accusations of
His investigations are curtailed by the arrival of
When the head Librarian succumbs like the others, William and Adso ascend the forbidden library, and come face to face with the Venerable Jorge, the most ancient denizen of the abbey, with the book, which describes comedy and how it may be used to teach. Believing laughter and jocularity to be instruments of the Devil, Jorge has poisoned the pages to stop the spread of what he considers dangerous ideas: those reading it would ingest the poison as they licked their fingers to aid in turning pages. Confronted, Jorge throws over a candle, starting a blaze that quickly engulfs the library. William insists that Adso flee, as he manages to collect an inadequate armload of invaluable books to save; the volume of Poetics, Jorge, and the rest of the library are lost.
Meanwhile, Salvatore and Remigio have been burned at the stake. The girl has been slated for the same fate but local peasants take advantage of the chaos of the library fire to free her and turn on Gui. Gui attempts to flee but they throw his wagon off a cliff, to his death. William and Adso later take their leave of the Abbey. On the road, Adso is stopped by the girl, silently appealing for him to stay with her, but Adso continues on with William. In his closing narration, a much older Adso reflects that he never regretted his decision, as he learned many more things from William. Adso also states that the girl was the only earthly love of his life, yet he never learned her name.
Cast
- Sean Connery as William of Baskerville
- Bernardo Gui
- Christian Slater as Adso of Melk
- Dwight Weist as older Adso (voice)
- Helmut Qualtinger as Remigio de Varagine
- Elya Baskin as Severinus
- Michael Lonsdale as The Abbot
- Volker Prechtel as Malachia
- Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Jorge de Burgos
- William Hickey as Ubertino of Casale
- Michael Habeck as Berengar
- Valentina Vargas as The Girl
- Ron Perlman as Salvatore
- Leopoldo Trieste as Michele da Cesena
- Franco Valobra as Jerome of Kaffa
- Vernon Dobtcheff as Hugh of Newcastle
- Donal O'Brian as Pietro d'Assisi
- Andrew Birkin as Cuthbert of Winchester
- Cardinal Bertrand
- Peter Berling as Jean d'Anneaux
- Pete Lancaster as Bishop of Alborea
- Urs Althaus as Venantius
- Lars Bodin-Jorgensen as Adelmo of Otranto
- Kim Rossi Stuart as a novice
Production
Director Jean-Jacques Annaud told Umberto Eco that he was convinced the book was written for only one person to direct: himself. He was intrigued by the project due a lifelong fascination with medieval churches and a great familiarity with Latin and Greek.[5]
Annaud spent four years preparing the film, traveling throughout the United States and Europe, searching for the perfect cast, focusing on a multi-ethnic cast and actors with interesting and distinctive faces. He resisted suggestions to cast Sean Connery for the part of William because he felt the character, who was already an amalgam of
Christian Slater was cast through a large-scale audition of teenage boys.[5] (His mother, Mary Jo Slater, was also a prominent casting director who consulted on the film.) For the wordless scene in which the Girl seduces Adso, Annaud allowed Valentina Vargas to lead the scene without his direction. Annaud did not explain to Slater what she would be doing in order to elicit a more authentic performance from the actors.[5]
The exterior and some of the interiors of the monastery seen in the film were constructed as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome and ended up being the biggest exterior set built in Europe since Cleopatra (1963). Many of the interiors were shot at Eberbach Abbey, Germany. Most props, including period illuminated manuscripts, were produced specifically for the film.[5]
Reception
The film was very successful in Germany with a gross of $25 million.[6] However, it did poorly at the box office in the United States, where it played at 176 theaters and grossed $7.2 million.[7] At the same time, it was popular in other parts of Europe (including Italy, France and Spain).[6] Decades later, Sean Connery recalled that the film grossed over $60 million worldwide.[8]
The film holds a score of 75% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10.
Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars out of a possible 4, writing: "What we have here is the setup for a wonderful movie. What we get is a very confused story... It's all inspiration and no discipline."[12] Time Out gave the film a positive review: "As intelligent a reductio of Umberto Eco's sly farrago of whodunnit and medieval metaphysics as one could have wished for ... the film simply looks good, really succeeds in communicating the sense and spirit of a time when the world was quite literally read like a book."[13] John Simon stated that The Name of the Rose misfired due to its ending, which was slightly happier than the book's ending.[14]
In 2011, Eco was quoted as giving a mixed review for the adaptation of his novel: "A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese, lettuce. And the movie is obliged to choose only the lettuce or the cheese, eliminating everything else – the theological side, the political side. It's a nice movie."[15]
Ron Perlman has commented that The Name of the Rose is "one of the few films of mine that I admire without qualification... There's only two or three projects I've ever worked on where I thought, 'Okay, I wouldn't change a thing' and Name of the Rose is one of those. A great eye recognizes how great Name of the Rose was, and there aren't that many around; it takes a very sophisticated kind of moviegoer."[16]
Awards
- The film was awarded the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[17]
- The film was awarded two BAFTAs: Sean Connery for Best Actor and Hasso von Hugo for Best Make Up Artist.[18]
See also
- List of films based on crime books
- List of historical period drama films
- Middle Ages in film
References
- ^ UniFrance. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
- ^ Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Scarecrow Press. p. 260.
- ^ Canby, Vincent (September 24, 1986). "The Name of the Rose (1986) FILM: MEDIEVAL MYSTERY IN 'NAME OF THE ROSE'". The New York Times.
- ^ "Der Name der Rose (1986)". BFI. Archived from the original on February 3, 2018. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
- ^ a b c d e f DVD commentary by Jean-Jacques Annaud
- ^ a b "'Rose' Producer Inks Doris Dörrie". Variety. 21 January 1987. p. 33.
- ^ "The Name of the Rose (1986)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "An Oral History of THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986) - memories relayed by Sean Connery during his EFA lifetime achievement award speech"
- ^ "The Name of the Rose". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
- Fandom, Inc.Retrieved June 20, 2023.
- ^ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "The Name of the Rose Movie Review (1986)". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "The Name of the Rose". Time Out. 10 September 2012. Archived from the original on August 8, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2022.
- ^ Simon, John (2005). John Simon on Film: Criticism 1982–2001. Applause Books. p. 646.
- ^ Moss, Stephen (27 November 2011). "Umberto Eco: 'People are tired of simple things. They want to be challenged'". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
- ^ "An Oral History of THE NAME OF THE ROSE (1986) - memories relayed by Ron Perlman"
- ^ "Le nom de la rose". Académie des César (in French). Retrieved 2024-03-02.
- ^ "Film in 1988". BAFTA Awards. Retrieved 2024-03-02.