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In my imagination, there are two kinds of monks and two kinds of monasteries. The first kind of monastery is a robust community of men who work hard and pray hard and are bronzed by the sun and have a practical sense of humor. They have joined the life of prayer with the life of the hands. The second monastery is a shuttered series of gloomy passages and dank cells where jealous, mean-spirited little men scamper about playing politics. Their prayers are sanctimonious and their nights are long and resentful.

In the first few scenes of "The Name of the Rose," we realize that this will be a movie about a contest between the two kinds of monks.

Here comes the first one now, striding across the open fields of the Middle Ages, his heavy wool habit little protection against the cold winds. His name is William of Baskerville, and he is portrayed by Sean Connery , who plays him as the first modern man, as a scholar-monk who understands all of the lessons of the past but is able to see them in a wider context than the others of his time.

One day, William arrives at a vast monastery, which crouches with foreboding on top of a steep hill. At its base, starving peasants wrestle for scraps of food thrown down from the monk's kitchens. At its pinnacle is a great tower arranged as a labyrinth; you might find anything up there - except the way out.

A series of murders is taking place in the monastery. William has a reputation as something of an investigator, and soon after his arrival he is involved in trying to identify the causes of death and to find the murderer. There are many suspects. Indeed, I cannot remember a single monk in this monastery who does not look like a suspect. The film has been cast to look like a cross between the grotesques of Fellini and the rat-faced devils scampering in the backgrounds of a tarot deck.

What we have here is the setup for a wonderful movie. What we get is a very confused story, photographed in such murky gloom that sometimes it is hard to be sure exactly what is happening. William of Baskerville listens closely and nods wisely and pokes into out-of-the-way corners, and makes solemn pronouncements to his young novice. Clearly, he is onto something, but the screenplay is so loosely constructed that few connections are made between his conclusions and what happens next.

During the central sections of the film, the atmosphere threatens to overwhelm the action. "The Name of the Rose" was shot in a real monastery and on sets that look completely convincing, but unfortunately the film takes the "dark ages" literally and sets its events in such inpenetrable gloom that sometimes it is almost impossible to see what is happening. The large cast of characters swims in and out of view while horrible events take place; a monk is found dead at the base of the tower, and another is drowned in a wine vat.

William of Baskerville moves solemnly from one event to another, deliberately, wisely, but then the plot takes on a crazy rhythm of its own, as the Grand Inquisitor arrives to hold a trial and ancient secrets are discovered inside the labyrinth of the tower.

What this movie needs is a clear, spare, logical screenplay. It's all inspiration and no discipline. At a crucial moment in the film, William and his novice seem sure to be burned alive, and we have to deduce how they escaped because the movie doesn't tell us. There are so many good things in "The Name of the Rose" - the performances, the reconstruction of the period, the over-all feeling of medieval times - that if the story had been able to really involve us, there would have been quite a movie here.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Name of the Rose (1986)

128 minutes

Sean Connery as William Of Baskerville

F. Murray Abraham as Bernardo Gui

Christian Slater as Adso Of Melk

Elya Baskin as Severinus

Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Jorge De Burgos

William Hickey as Ubertino De Casale

Michael Lonsdale as The Abbot

Directed by

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Screenplay by

Andrew Birkin
Gerard Brach
Howard Franklin
Alain Godard

Photographed by

Tonino Delli Colli

Based On The Novel by

Umberto Eco

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Classic Film Review: The Heretical Epic that was “The Name of the Rose” (1986)

A film bathed in fog and Medieval earth tones, “The Name of the Rose” is an M.C. Escher labyrinth populated with Hieronymous Bosch grotesques.

It’s a throwback epic of the quasi-Biblical school, the “El Cid” of the ’80s — grand, ambitious, a huge canvas enfolding big themes and ideas and performed by larger than life actors. And like “El Cid,” it was dismissed and under-appreciated, somewhat justifiably so.

But back then I was one of those annual-pass riders on the Jean-Jacques Annaud train, utterly bowled over by his “Quest for Fire,” a big fan of “The Bear” and someone who was sure Annaud would become The New David Lean — a maker of challenging epics for the masses. His debut feature, “Black and White in Color,” won the best foreign language film Oscar back in 1976. But it wasn’t until he grabbed the big canvas that he made his mark.

Umberto Eco was a famous semiotician whom I first read in grad school, where one was encouraged to view cinema through the interpretation of signs and symbols included on the screen. But he became one of Italy’s most famous novelists the day he plunged into this Medieval murder mystery epic.

“I felt like poisoning a monk,” he quipped, when describing the compulsion to write “The Name of the Rose.”

Annaud took on this project after his breakout “Quest for Fire.” And despite bringing his “Fire” good luck charm, a VERY young Ron Perlman , despite casting a “has-been” former James Bond ( Sean Connery ), a former Bond villain ( Michael Lonsdale ) and newly-minted “Amadeus” Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham as his titanic leads, he had trouble getting this enterprise off the ground.

Even though most of them were willing to commit to the bald-bowl cuts it took to play their roles with accurancy.

The book was too daunting in period piece scale, despite being essentially genre a murder mystery thriller set long before The Age of Reason, before the first “detective” or first detective story.

You’d need a castle ( Castle Rocca di Calascio , in central Italy) to pass for a 14th century abbey/fortress. You’d need a real monastery in Germany ( Kloster Eberbach ) just for the interiors you couldn’t build on a soundstage.

Four screenwriters boiled down the story of serial killing and punishment, faith and heresy, Church dogma and the Inquisition all meeting, debating and wrestling for primacy in a monastery with a great library where books are meant to “preserve knowledge,” not to dissiminate it.

Book burning and “witch” burning and theocratic “law” administered by fanatics make this film of that book as timely today as it ever was.

There’s a gathering of the various Christian orders for a theological debate in the winter of 1327. Our narrator is an old man remembering those days, but then Adso ( Christian Slater , two years before “Heathers”) was but a novice, learning at the feet of a Franciscan thinker and man of reason, William of Baskerville (Connery).

They’re greeted at the abbey by the abbot (Lonsdale). But one look at the lad (check out the Cover Girl makeup on Slater) has another monk pass on a warning.

“Have you not heard? The Devil is hurling beautiful boys out of windows?”

William has an old friend ( William Hickey , nominated for an Oscar for “Prizzi’s Honor” that same year) there who is sure the monastery is seeing The Book of Revelations play out in the deaths among the brothers, with the younger and most “beautiful” particularly vulnerable.

Veteran character actor Feodor Chaliapin Jr. plays the blind and thus most fanatical of the monks, another adherent of “The Evil One’s” influence there, and film fans of the era would have recognized the oft-employed Elya Baskin among the many monks in this “scriptorium” monastery, transcribing and illuminating ancient texts for future generations.

If you’ve ever visited the Book of Kells, or seen the animated delight “The Secret of Kells,” you have an idea of the work and its importance to civilization.

The abbot knows William of Baskerville’s “reason and deduction” reputation. And William, with or without his prototype spectacles, straight away sees problems with the “supernatural” theory of the first death he encounters.

The monastery’s famous library is kept locked away. Those transcribing and illuminating the books are the ones dying. And the abbot and his fellow senior monks are missing obvious clues. “The alternately “foolish boy” or “clever boy” at his side is there for William to explain his version of forensics to, mainly for the benefit of the viewer.

“We are very fortunate having such snowy ground here” he purrs. “It is often the parchment on which the criminal unwittingly writes his autobiography.”

More monks will gather for the Big Debate.

The poor, starving serfs whom the abbey’s walls and gate keep out are treated like illiterate, insensate beasts, which is how the learned Latin speakers regard them, taxed and tithed in their poverty to finance papal luxury.

The Franciscans, at least, will notice. But the Inquisitor Benardo Gui (Abraham) is coming to make sure the Fear of God is put into one and all.

The semiotician Eco no doubt took delight in littering this mystery with suspects as physical “types,” which Annaud visualized via casting — the plump, boy-coveting monk ( Michael Habeck ), the mad “hunchback (Perlman), the fanatic (Chaliapin) whose blindness is both literal and metaphorical.

What stuck in my memory in the many years since I’d seen the film was its climax and the solution to the mystery. What hits me re-watching it now is the level of commitment in the performances.

Connery got a tad fat and happy after his Oscar for “The Untouchables,” even if he never let us see him phone it in. But here he’s wholly engaged, giving a little of the twinkle that would be his late career trademark to a character whose very name says “The game’s afoot!”

Slater, not yet burdened with the snide spin on “cool” that became his 20something trademark, is stumbling innocence personified, especially in the sexual realm.

Lonsdale made “chilly” a post-Bond villain career trademark.

And Perlman, years before his TV “Beauty and the Beast” turn remade him, is as manic and down and dirty as we’ve ever seen him — a mad jumble of languages, tics, hideous makeup with the grooming and damaged soul to match. He even s ings.

Annaud spared no effort or expense in recreating this world, and the result is stunning in frame after snow-dusted frame. But one thing that really leaps out watching “The Name of the Rose” now is Eco’s ahead-of-the-curve assault on the Catholic Church.

From corrupt, whoremongering and even Satan-worshipping monks craving their “unnatural caresses,” to fat, rich Vatican oligarchs, none of whom give “their flock” any consideration, are depicted with all the Bosch-ugliness Annaud could summon and Eco could endorse. I was taken aback by how little agency the starving “serfs” have, how the feral beauty ( Valentina Vargas ) is treated like the dumb and mute “foul being” women are labeled by even the “liberal” William of Baskerville.

It’s “Planet of the Apes” primitive, as savage a takedown of the Church/The Faithful relationship as any I’ve seen.

The film’s unsatisfying climax and anti-climactic ending still merit demerits.

But if ever you want a reminder of what filmmakers used to undertake to create an “epic,” you don’t have to go back to Lean and Kubrick, DeMille and Ford to find examples. Annaud and Herzog and a few others undertook Herculean tasks and made movies in that pre-digital era that awe us to this day, filmmakers who suffered for their art and made sure the cast and the audience suffered right along with them in their pursuit of greatness.

Rating: R, graphic, gruesome violence, explicit sex, nudity

Cast: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, F. Murray Arbraham, Michael Lonsdale, William Hickey, Elya Baskin, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Valentina Vargas and Ron Perlman.

Credits: Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, scripted by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin and Alain Godard, based on the novel by Umberto Eco. A Constantin Films production, released by 20th Century Fox now on Tubi, Youtube, Amazon, etc.

Running time: 2:12

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Twentieth Century Fox

Summary An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.

Directed By : Jean-Jacques Annaud

Written By : Umberto Eco, Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin, Alain Godard

The Name of the Rose

Where to watch.

Sean Connery

William of baskerville, christian slater, adso of melk, helmut qualtinger, remigio de varagine, elya baskin, michael lonsdale, volker prechtel, feodor chaliapin jr., jorge de burgos, william hickey, ubertino de casale, michael habeck, urs althaus, valentina vargas, ron perlman, leopoldo trieste, michele da cesena, franco valobra, jerome of kaffa, vernon dobtcheff, hugh of newcastle, donald o'brien, pietro d'assisi, andrew birkin, cuthbert of winchester, f. murray abraham, bernardo gui, lucien bodard, cardinal bertrand, peter berling, jean d'anneaux, critic reviews.

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The Name of the Rose Reviews

A throwback epic of the quasi-Biblical school, the “El Cid” of the ’80s — grand, ambitious, a huge canvas enfolding big themes and ideas and performed by larger than life actors.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 1, 2023

James Horner provides excellent music, and Dante "Salo" Ferretti does his usual phenomenal job with the production design.

Full Review | May 23, 2022

Umberto Eco seems unduly dismissive of a film that had to excise his postmodern trappings and scholarly sidebars. But it hasn't just been stripped down to a tawdry whodunit. Here, albeit in a streamlined way, the whydunit matters as much, if not more.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 31, 2016

...a misbegotten adaptation that rarely manages to justify its very existence.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 19, 2016

For labyrinth-lovers...a thoughtful and entertaining murder mystery predicated on intellectual debate. [Blu-ray]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 2, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 28, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 29, 2008

It's really a decent exploitation film disguised as a proper art film.

Full Review | May 26, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 1, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 17, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jun 27, 2005

A great mystery until the end. Connery and Abraham throw sparks each time they meet.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 22, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 14, 2004

the window dressing is not enough to buoy the principle acting

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 23, 2004

A spiritual thriller that holds up thanks to its rich themes and great acting

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 1, 2004

How you accept an English monk with a Scottish accent and the mind of a Sherlock Holmes is the question.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 1, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 24, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 9, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 13, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 27, 2003

The Name of the Rose Review

01 Jan 1986

130 minutes

Name of the Rose, The

The first thing to consider with Jean-Jacques Annaud’s frothy and memorable adaptation of Umberto Eco’s wonderful mediaeval thriller, is how he found so many willing grotesques blessed with fine acting talents to populate his movie. The procession of cantankerous monks is like the order of the Hills Have Eyes, a bunch of baldy freaks assailed by the icy air and pummeling medieval deprivation. Their hilltop home a stone outcrop of holy hell allowing the story to drip with an intense near-horror movie mood of impending doom. Finding naked monks in vats of blood helps with the general pessimism.

In one of the roles that came to reinvent Connery as an excellent character actor and not just the man-who-was-Bond, William of Baskerville is a revelation, a transfixing mix of intellect and wit, possessed of the kind of irreligious thinking that would eventually bring about the Renaissance. Part of the purpose of both Eco’s and the host of screenwriters Annaud employed to unearth a workable script from the novel’s dense detail, is to expose the conflict between religion and rationalism. Indeed, as if they didn’t need anymore bad news, the Inquisition is soon to pay a call and start burning fetching kitchen maids as witches.

Seen through the eyes of a perplexed Christian Slater, as William’s innocent apprentice, the plot unravels as an agonizing tease, its various secrets torturously nudged into the cold light as the monk corpses pile up. Annaud is also sly enough to keep the grip of belief front and centre, keenly creating one of the most original whodunits of recent years out of one of those so-called “unfilmmable” books.

Cast & crew
User reviews

Metacritic reviews

The name of the rose.

83 Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty Entertainment Weekly Chris Nashawaty The film’s packed with messages in invisible ink, secret staircases, and corpses in cauldrons of pig’s blood. And since ? Connery’s bald as a cue ball, that means no distracting Hanksian haircuts!
80 Newsweek David Ansen Newsweek David Ansen The Name of the Rose spins a whopping good tale, a medieval murder mystery that only those with seriously damaged attention spans will find hard to enjoy. [29 Sept 1986, p.63]
75 TV Guide Magazine TV Guide Magazine A little slow-moving but ultimately rewarding.
63 Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert What this movie needs is a clear, spare, logical screenplay. It's all inspiration and no discipline.
50 The New York Times Vincent Canby The New York Times Vincent Canby The movie is full of the kind of atmosphere that can be created by elaborate sets, dim lighting and misty landscapes, though it has no singular character or dominant mood.
50 Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson Yes, it is splendid that anyone would take on so formidable a project as Eco’s 500-page chambered nautilus of a novel. Yes, this certainly feels like a 14th-Century Italian abbey, bleak, drafty and forbidding. Yes, it looks like it too--the 14th-Century as cast by Federico Fellini, every face a grotesque. But no, sad to say, it isn’t a perfectly marvelous film.
50 The Associated Press The Associated Press Whether these Hollywood touches will make the film appealing to the Rambo crowd is doubtful. By all means, read the book first. [24 Sept 1986]
40 Washington Post Paul Attanasio Washington Post Paul Attanasio If the style of the film matches the story, that doesn't make it any easier to look at -- it's just too bleak, and in the end, you'd rather see "Ivanhoe." Annaud never finds the right rhythm for the movie, and it's sluggishly paced, even as palimpsests go.
40 Washington Post Rita Kempley Washington Post Rita Kempley It's a richly appointed production that's hard to take seriously since the monks all look vaguely like Marty Feldman.
30 Chicago Reader Pat Graham Chicago Reader Pat Graham You want misery? he gives you misery—dark, drear, suppurating medieval oppressiveness; monotony? he gives you that too, lots and lots of monotony; subhuman grotesquerie and primitive superstition? not to worry: this guy didn't direct Quest for Fire for nothing.
See all 12 reviews on Metacritic.com
See all external reviews for The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

Time out says, release details.

Duration: 131 mins

Cast and crew

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Screenwriter: Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin, Alain Godard
Sean Connery
Christian Slater
Helmut Qualtinger
Elya Baskin
Michel Lonsdale
Volker Prechtel
F Murray Abraham

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Name Of The Rose (1986) Film Review

The Name Of The Rose

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

As thrillers like Angels And Demons explore dark secrets that may be hidden by the Catholic church today, it's interesting to look back at another religious detective story made in 1986 and set in 1327.

Here Sean Connery stars as William of Baskerville, a Fransiscan friar attending a conference in a remote Italian abbey along with his acolyte Adso (a very young Christian Slater). Upon discovering that a monk in the abbey has met a mysterious end, which has sparked all kinds of superstitious hysteria, William decides to investigate, but what initially seems like simple story leads him onto the track of something much bigger. Meanwhile, more people are dying, a scapegoat is needed, and the Inquisition are approaching. With a complicated past of his own, William has a lot to lose, but if he can't uncover the truth in time, the Inquisition's brutal methods will be put to use instead.

Adapting Umberto Eco's evocative but undeniably dense prose from the book (of the same name) was never going to be easy, but this film manages it well, and it's a great example of how to construct an adaptation successfully. Most of the original story is retained and, whilst it inevitably has to be simplified, great sets and impressive cinematography go a long way to restore the lost depth. Importantly, the theological arguments essential for both plot and atmosphere are still present, and the relationship between William and Adso allows for exposition where necessary without the script feeling clunky.

Unfortunately, the film is let down by its acting. Though Connery is solid and Slater shows a lot of early promise, many of the supporting performances are pure ham. Yes, it is realistic that many men drawn to live in such an environment would be eccentric, but does this need to be conveyed with silly accents and lots of flailing gestures? At times it strays too close to Monty Python territory to be taken seriously, leading its important intellectual discussions to look pretentious and ridiculous. It's a relief that it pulls itself together towards the end, as we need to be reminded that these discussions really did lead to people being hideously tortured and killed.

At an intellectual level, what's interesting about the film is its balance of approaches to morality and virtue. William's passionate search for truth is accompanied by a proud determination to be right which sometimes leads him into folly. Adso, meanwhile, is blindsided by love after an unanticipated encounter with a local peasant girl, leading him to doubt his vocation. His are simpler human failings; he cannot understand why people do not stand up and cry out when they see wrongdoing, even if it would avail them nothing.

Meanwhile, there are monks in the abbey for whom different religious texts have profound meaning, and there is a constant conflict of class. How far should they go to preserve books and knowledge at the expense of the half-starved villagers who must provide for them? It's difficult today to fully understand the value of books in the days before the printing press, so it's probably worth noting that a man with a lifetime's support and training would rarely manage to transcribe more than 12, and that was the most important long term means of preserving and transmitting human culture. When William comes to suspect that a book may be at the heart of the mystery, he is talking about a volume which could have a profound cultural impact. This is very much a battle for the soul of man.

1327. In parts of Europe, the Inquisition would continue to wield power for a further 500 years. The Name Of The Rose presents the Dark Ages at their very darkest, but the issues at its core still resonate today. It's a complex and involving mystery that will keep you guessing; it's just a pity it doesn't fully live up to its potential.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

Writer: Andrew Birkin, based on the book by Umberto Eco.

Starring: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin, Michael Lonsdale, Feodor Chaliapin Jr, William Hickey,Valentina Vargas, Ron Perlman

Runtime: 130 minutes

Country: France, Italy, West Germany

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The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose is a sorrowfully mediocre screen version of Umberto Eco's surprise international bestselling novel.

By Variety Staff

Variety Staff

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The Name of the Rose is a sorrowfully mediocre screen version of Umberto Eco’s surprise international bestselling novel.

Confusingly written and sluggishly staged, this telling of a murder mystery in a 14th-century abbey has been completely flubbed by director Jean-Jacques Annaud and his team of four (credited) screenwriters, as they struggle even to get the basics of the story up on the screen.

Tale has English Franciscan monk Sean Connery and his novice Christian Slater arriving at an Italian abbey in preparation for a conclave. After a series of murders at the massive edifice Connery, in the style of an aspiring Sherlock Holmes, undertakes an investigation of the deaths while more delegates continue to arrive.

One of the latecomers if F. Murray Abraham, an inquisitor who sees Satan behind every foul deed and who threatens to condemn his old rival Connery due to the latter’s insistence on seeking a rational solution to the crimes.

Popular on Variety

Connery lends dignity, intelligence and his lovely voice to the proceedings. His performance, however, along with some tantalizing E.M. Escher-style labyrinths in the interior of the abbey, are about the only blessings.

W. Germany - Italy - France

Production: Neue Constantin/Cristaldifilm/Ariane/ZD. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud; Producer Bernd Eichinger; Screenplay Andrew Birkin, Gerard Brach, Howard Franklin, Alain Godard; Camera Tonino Delli Colli; Editor Jane Seitz; Music James Horner; Art Director Dante Ferretti
Crew: (Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1986. Running time: 130 MIN.
With: Sean Connery F. Murray Abraham Christian Slater Michel Lonsdale Ron Perlman Valentina Vargas

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MOVIE REVIEW : ‘THE NAME OF THE ROSE’ NOT A SWEET SUCCESS

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Watching “The Name of the Rose,” you may find yourself as torn as one of Umberto Eco’s conscience-wracked, 14th-Century monks.

Yes, it is splendid that anyone would take on so formidable a project as Eco’s 500-page chambered nautilus of a novel. Yes, this certainly feels like a 14th-Century Italian abbey, bleak, drafty and forbidding. Yes, it looks like it too--the 14th-Century as cast by Federico Fellini, every face a grotesque. But no, sad to say, it isn’t a perfectly marvelous film. (It opens today at the Egyptian, Westwood and Cineplex Odeon, Fairfax.)

From the moment the credits announce that Jean-Jacques Annaud’s film is “a palimpsest of Umberto Eco’s novel,” you know that you’re in for heavy cultural weather.

(To save a rush for the library in the movie’s first two minutes, my dictionary calls a palimpsest a parchment that has been written on two or three times and improperly erased, so that the first text still remains faintly visible. I know you knew it. I forgot.)

Such a detail does honor to the twinkly, recondite Eco, but it wreaks havoc with a film that must move and remain a beacon of clarity in a deliberately obfuscated story. And it isn’t Eco that shines through, it’s Annaud, and this time “Quest for Fire’s” director has fashioned a soggy, lumpen mystery. (The script is credited to four writers, never a good sign unless three of them are Elaine May. They are Andrew Birkin, Gerard Brach, Howard Franklin and Alain Godard.)

Eco’s playful conceit was to drop an English Franciscan monk (Sean Connery) and his young novice (Christian Slater) into a rich Italian Benedictine monastery on a mission of conciliation from Louis IV, head of the Holy Roman Empire. It is the time when papal delegates are gathering at this forbidding abbey for debates that will determine the future of the Catholic Church.

The story’s kicker is that the monk, William of Baskerville, thinks and acts like Sherlock Holmes. His novice is even named Adso (or, in French, Adson) giving rise to all sorts of little jokes such as, “My dear Adson, it’s elementary.”

Just as William arrives, the first in a series of murders begins. Knowing his skills at detection/deduction, the abbot (Michael Lonsdale) asks him to investigate, as the friars begin dropping like fruit flies, from bell towers, into soup kettles, over their tasks of manuscript illumination.

The final complication is the (very late) arrival of the papal Inquisitor, Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham), no friend of the Franciscans and an old adversary of William of Baskerville. Gui is there to sniff out the devil behind every unexplainable occurrence and to eradicate his traces by some of the Inquisition’s nastier methods.

There are lovely details to “The Name of the Rose,” one of the warmest of which is the relationship between the grizzled William and his downy novice (played memorably by Slater). Unexpectedly faced with the temptations of the flesh in the form of a starving peasant girl (Valentina Vargas), Adson offhandedly asks his master in the privacy of their shared cell if he has ever been in love. Absolutely, William says, “with Aristotle, Ovid, Virgil, Thomas Aquinas. . . .. “

While moments like that cast their own glow, and while it’s thrilling to have an immaculately mounted film in which men would die for the contents of a book, it is almost diabolical how Annaud gets in his own way in the telling of his story.

His pacing is flaccid, with absolutely no sense of urgency and no discernible rhythm. The continuity is so bollixed up that it is sometimes impossible to guess where we are in a scene. Having placed us deep within this cavernous monastery, Annaud suddenly pulls away for a glimpse of the abbey from, what? A circling hawk? Whatever the point of view, it completely shatters the mood.

Annaud has a passion for detail, certainly, and a justly celebrated production designer (Fellini and Pasolini’s Dante Ferretti) and lighting cameraman (Tonino Delli Colli, of “Seven Beauties” and “Once Upon a Time in America,” among others). But the details never blur into a rich backdrop; the editing is so jumpy that each scene stays resolutely separate. In that respect, James Horner’s original and sonorous score is a major help in creating atmosphere and holding fragments of scenes together.

It’s also exhausting to have each face (except for Connery’s and Slater’s) a Grand Guignol masterpiece of decay. Combined with the actors’ Tower of Babel collection of accents (from Paris, Brooklyn, Moscow, London, Manhattan, Edinburgh, Santiago and more), it makes this a four-star monastery of the self-consciously bizarre.

Few actors can fight their way through all this. Connery does, firmly, with intelligence and a notable ring of irony and humanism--he’s one of the few actors who can wear what looks like a gray Army blanket and still be a figure of fascination. Ron Perlman (one of “Quest for Fire’s” more memorable cave men) makes Salvatore, the hunchbacked monk, stirring and pitiful. But Abraham, overacting fiercely--in what feels like a drastically truncated role--shifts his eyes back and forth as though he were following some holy Teleprompter, and William Hickey seems determined to sing his role.

‘THE NAME OF THE ROSE” A 20th Century Fox release of a Bernd Eichinger/Bernd Schaefers-Neue Constantin/Cristaldifilm/Films Ariane co-production in association with ZDF. Producer Eichinger. Executive producers Thomas Schuehly, Jake Eberts. Co-producers Franco Cristaldi, Alexandre Mnouchkine. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud. Screenplay Andrew Birkin, Gerard Brach, Howard Franklin, Alain Godard. Camera Tonino Delli Colli. Production design Dante Ferretti. Art direction Giorgio Giovannini, Rainer Schaper; set decoration Francesca Lo Schiavo. Editor Jane Seitz. Music James Horner. Costumes Gabriella Pescucci. Sound Frank Jahn. Supervising makeup artist Hasso Von Hugo. Production executive Anna Gross. With Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Christian Slater, Elya Baskin, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., William Hickey, Valentina Vargas, Michael Lonsdale, Ron Perlman, Volker Prechtel, Pete Lancaster.

MPAA-rated: R (persons under 17 must be accompanied by parent or adult guardian).

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.

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The name of the rose.

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud

Who, in the name of God, is getting away with murder?

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence – which is considerable.

Sean Connery F. Murray Abraham Christian Slater Helmut Qualtinger Elya Baskin Michael Lonsdale Volker Prechtel Feodor Chaliapin Jr. William Hickey Michael Habeck Urs Althaus Valentina Vargas Ron Perlman Leopoldo Trieste Lars Bodin-Jorgensen Giordano Falzoni Franco Valobra Vernon Dobtcheff Donald O'Brien Andrew Birkin Lucien Bodard Peter Berling Pete Lancaster Franco Adducci Niko Brücher Aristide Caporale Fabio Carfora Francesco Scali Peter Clös Show All… Mario Diano Franco Pistoni Maria Tedeschi Valerio Isidori Luigi Leoni Armando Marra Ludger Pistor Franco Diogene Dwight Weist Franco Marino Kim Rossi Stuart

Director Director

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Producers Producers

Bernd Eichinger Alexandre Mnouchkine Franco Cristaldi Bernd Schaefers

Writers Writers

Gérard Brach Alain Godard Howard Franklin Andrew Birkin

Original Writer Original Writer

Umberto Eco

Casting Casting

Gianni Arduini Sabine Schroth Dominique Besnehard Celestia Fox David Rubin

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Tonino Delli Colli

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Thomas Schühly Jake Eberts

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci Marco Sperduti Antonio Scaramuzza Guido Tosi Vasco Benucci

Production Design Production Design

Dante Ferretti

Art Direction Art Direction

Rainer Schaper Giorgio Giovannini

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Francesca Lo Schiavo

Composer Composer

James Horner

Sound Sound

Frank Jahn Norbert Herzner

Costume Design Costume Design

Gabriella Pescucci

Makeup Makeup

Gerhard Reitinger Margrit Guthmann Friederike Mirus Hans Jürgen Schmelzle Ilona Herman

Cristaldifilm Les Films Ariane ZDF RAI Constantin Film

France Germany Italy

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

German English Italian Latin

Releases by Date

20 feb 1987, 24 sep 1986, 16 oct 1986, 17 oct 1986, 11 dec 1986, 17 dec 1986, 18 dec 1986, 19 dec 1986, 25 dec 1986, 26 dec 1986, 31 dec 1986, 23 jan 1987, 19 mar 1987, 27 mar 1987, 23 apr 1987, 29 apr 1987, 29 may 1987, 18 jun 1987, 11 dec 1987, 05 may 1988, 14 sep 1988, 03 jun 1989, 27 aug 2009, 29 jun 2015, 05 dec 2023, 06 aug 2004, 03 sep 2004, 22 sep 2004, 17 sep 2008, 21 apr 2011, 14 sep 2011, 18 sep 2003, releases by country.

Theatrical 16
Theatrical MA 15+
Theatrical (Gent)
Physical DVD
Theatrical 18A
Physical 15+
Theatrical 15
Theatrical K-16
Theatrical 16 West Germany
Physical 16 DVD (Warner, Special Edition)
Theatrical 16 Munich International Film Festival
Theatrical Best of Cinema
Theatrical 13
Theatrical (re-release)
Theatrical 18
Physical Blu-Ray
Theatrical VM14
Theatrical R15+

Netherlands

TV 16 RTL 5
Physical 16 DVD
Physical 16 Blu ray
Theatrical M/12
Premiere Singapore International Film Festival

South Korea

Theatrical 12
Theatrical R

130 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Flor ★★★★ 4

sherlock holmes and his twink watson

Review by Dante ★★★★

ok so like was Umberto Eco gay or just Italian

Review by Tom's Movies ★★★★

I'm stumped by this bizarre detective story set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. The acting, the casting, the pacing, it's all way off, and yet it never dips below enjoyable. From the very first few moments you know you're in for good time, and that does indeed turn out to be the case. That sex scene, however, has left me a little scarred.

Review by Mister Cap ★★★★★ 2

ENGLISH below

„Der Name der Rose“, der berühmte Roman von Umberto Eco, hat seit seiner Veröffentlichung zahlreiche Leser in seinen Bann gezogen. Ich hatte seinerzeit einen recht progressiven Professor in Deutsch, der uns anlässlich des Kinostarts der Verfilmung, das Buch von Umberto Eco zum lesen gegeben hat. Unser Professor hat dann sogar eine Kinovorführung für uns organisiert.

Mir hat das Buch aufgrund seiner komplexen Handlung, der faszinierenden Charaktere und des reichhaltigen historischen Ambientes zwar sehr gut gefallen, doch ist es aus meiner Sicht der Film, der sich als die überzeugendste Umsetzung des Stoffes erweist.

Regisseur Jean-Jacques Annaud versteht es meisterhaft, die Essenz von Ecos Roman einzufangen und in eine visuell beeindruckende Erzählung zu verwandeln. Seine Darstellung des mittelalterlichen Klosters und…

Review by Sam ★★★

I recently finished reading Umberto Eco's novel, which I loved and really struggled to put down. This adaptation didn't have the same effect on me but its a solid and enjoyable effort nonetheless

Review by MAGE ★★★★½ 10

“Laughter kills fear, and without fear, there can be no faith. Without fear of the devil, there is no need for god.”

Religion, forever the enemy of knowledge. Faith, the antithesis of truth. Unquestioning dogma the refuge of dullards. Burning their heretics and banning their books. Passing their judgements and trying in vain to force the ebb and flow of time to work in reverse. Or at the very least to be halted and calcified, as a carriage wheel irretrievably sank in the mud.

This was goddamn incredible. The locations, landscapes, vistas and sets are of a caliber you simply do not see in motion pictures anymore. To watch The Name of the Rose is to step back in time…

Review by Jordan Beaumont Anderson ★★★★½ 2

I bet she went by Tiffany.

Review by 20oldboy03 ★★★★ 12

Winterzeit ist Klassiker/Kultzeit die Zweite (2/3)

English Version below

Im Jahre des Herren 2022 tue ich Busse im jährenden missachten der auf Zelluloid niedergebrannten Zeilen im sie umspannenden Gebilde einer Welt der Tristesse von Traufen niederfallenden geschwängerten Tropfen, der das Fundament zu ihren Füßen brodelnd von innen nach außen kehrenden Urgewalten der Sünde des 14. Jahrhunderts im Deckmantel des Zölibats. Nicht minder die Verruchtheit in der Kutte der Stigmata zur sich sehnenden Heiligsprechung aufgeplatzten Rückgrads und versengenden Augen sich offenbarenden Schriften.

Gehe in die Knie meines Falles vor dem Werke seiner Zeit sie überdauernd wie ihre daran verbundenen Namen Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Ron Perlman und Jean-Jacques Annaud als die Kette weiterer Zeugnisse des daraus gewonnenen Scheines wie von…

Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★

Extremely appropriate that the book this is based on is much better than the movie.

Review by _Stephan_ ★★★★

If you are looking for an Exciting Crime Thriller with a great Setting and haven't seen it yet then I can Recommend this Film to you.

The Film is about a Mysterious Series of Deaths in a Remote Monastery in the 14th Century. Sean Connery plays a Franciscan Monk who comes to this Monastery with his Student ( Christian Slater) to solve the Mystery behind the Deaths.

The Film has a Dense and Dirty Atmosphere. Sean Connery plays Outstandingly and in Addition to the Crime Story, it is also about the Inquisition and the Competition between the different Faith Groups within the Catholic Church. A really good Film that I enjoy watching again and again.

Review by Lenny ★★★★ 6

The Name of the Rose is my father's absolute favourite film. As the film was being shown again at the cinema for one day, I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some quality bonding time with him.

After the screening, he asked me what I thought of the film. I lied and said it was "okay". The truth is I actually really liked the film, but I couldn't admit that. I can't give the man who fell asleep in the cinema during Barbie and said the film was "trash" the satisfaction of knowing that I seriously like his favourite film.

We may not have come any closer that day, but justice prevailed nonetheless!

Review by fives ★½ 15

Watched for school.

Really don't know how this has such a high average score here. I made a five paragraph review for it, but (as far as I know) none of you are my literature teacher, so none of you actually care. Here's the short version:

The Name of the Rose has some pretty relevant themes, but, filmmaking-wise, absolutely nothing special. I was intrigued by the story (it's a classic murder mystery), but the whole movie is set in one location, and it is pretty uneventful, so it was a really tedious experience. Seeing as it is a book adaptation, and the only thing I liked is the story, all credits goes directly to the book. This adaptation brings nothing to the table, therefore losing even more points at being that. It's simply a boring retelling. Interesting plot, very dull execution. Exactly the type of film your teacher would make the class watch. Was expecting something more substantial.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Name Of The Rose’ On SundanceTV, Where John Turturro Plays A Franciscan Monk Investigating A Series Of Murders

Where to stream:.

The Name Of The Rose

Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel The Name of The Rose was a worldwide hit, but adapting it to the screen has been tough. A 1986 film with Sean Connery and Christian Slater got middling reviews, which likely scared people away from taking a stab at this complex novel. Thirty-three years later, John Turturro has made his attempt, co-writing, producing and starring in an 8-hour miniseries version. Read on for more…

THE NAME OF THE ROSE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: ‘EUROPE, 1327 A.D.’ A battle scene between the army of Pope John XXII and the army of Ludwig of Bavaria, the future Roman emperor whom John XXII excommunicated when Ludwig expressed a desire to separate politics and religion.

The Gist: Adso of Melk (Damian Hardung; Peter Davison narrates the series as an older Adso), the son of a general in the Holy Roman emperor’s army, and after a particularly pitched battle, he quits the army and tries to go back to his studies as a novice in the Benedictine monastery. During his journey back, he falls asleep in a field and wakes up to listen to the teachings of William of Baskerville (John Turturro), an English Franciscan monk whose intelligence and words about poverty and serving God intrigue Adso. The novice follows William around; William tries to rid himself of the novice until Adso’s father orders him to take the 17-year-old under his wing.

The two travel to a remote Benedictine abbey so William can debate his side of the dispute between the Franciscans and the Avignon papacy, whose popes resided in France rather than Rome. The priests that aligned themselves with the papacy, including Grand Inquisitor Bernardo Gui (Rupert Everett) decry the Franciscans vows of poverty and want to keep them from taking over the Catholic church.

Shortly after William and Adso arrive at the monastery, the body of a young monk is found. At first, the monks, including the monastery’s abbot (Michael Emerson), believe the death is a suicide. But William sees evidence that indicates otherwise. As he questions the monks, especially the ones who inscribe the prayer books by hand, about the monk’s death, the pope gets word of William’s inquiry and gets concerned that the highly logical Franciscan will win the debate and the papacy will return to Rome. he sends Gui, with an armed guard, to the remote abbey to make his argument.

Then another body is found in a barrel of pig’s blood, and then everyone knows something is going on.

Our Take: Turturro isn’t only the star of this new version of Umberto Eco’s 1980 novel The Name Of The Rose , but he’s also one of the miniseries’ writers and executive producers (the screenplay was also written by Nigel Williams, Giacomo Battiato and Andrea Porporati). This Italian-German production tries to make Eco’s story of the dispute between the Franciscans and the papacy in the 1300s more complex than it is; but at the story’s heart is a murder mystery that William of Baskerville — with the help of Adso — has to solve.

For heaven’s sake, the “of Baskerville” part should give away the fact that Eco modeled his monk after Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. William has the same tendency to see details others don’t, and to think through evidence to a level of detail that others can’t even fathom. Adso is his Watson, learning and assisting at William’s side, and being told by various Benedictine monks about what a bad influence William will be on him.

While we were watching the first episode, we couldn’t help but notice how low-key everything was, from Turturro’s understated performance as William to the overall pacing of the narrative. It indicated to us that the series was trying to be more than it really is, and it makes us wonder how this mystery will play itself out over eight episodes in a way that would make an audience want to stick with it.

Like we said, this is a pretty straightforward murder mystery, with the high-stakes dispute over the future of the Catholic church as a backdrop. As the episodes drag on, it feels that William’s shtick will grow old, even as he’s challenged by Bernardo Gui. But we were so bored by the first episode, we are likely not going to be around to find out.

Sex and Skin: When Adso confronts his father after a battle, his dad is laying down with a naked concubine.

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Parting Shot: We see the head of a dead monk, dripping with pig’s blood, as his body is taken out of the barrel where he’s been found.

Sleeper Star: Nina Fortas plays “The Girl”, who was burned out of her village by the King of France. She seems like she’s followed William and Adso to the abbey, but for what purpose?

Most Pilot-y Line: The pacing was so slow and sleepy, it’s hard to recall any line that was either good or bad.

Our Call: SKIP IT. We can’t imagine spending 6 hours of our lives slogging through The Name Of The Rose . You’re better off getting a copy of the novel and reading that instead.

Joel Keller ( @joelkeller ) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Stream The Name Of The Rose on Sundance

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Still more lazy thoughts from this one…

The name of the rose film review.

By le0pard13 , March 31, 2014

The Name of the Rose , a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. As usual, the wordy one will examine the novel later adapted to film, which I will review. First published in Italian in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa , the novel was translated by William Weaver to English in 1983. For my part, I’ll review its 1986 film . Rachel’s book review can be found here:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

A brief synopsis of the film : Adso of Melk, looking back on his long scholarly life, recounts his turning point as a young novice. Early in the 14th Century, he and his mentor, the esteemed Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, arrive at a notable Benedictine abbey in Northern Italy for an important theological Church conference. They find a community clearly troubled by a mysterious death that occurred ahead of their arrival. William, widely known for his deductive and analytic mind, confronts the worried Abbot and gains permission to investigate the death of the young illuminator. At first, suicide is suspected. But, over the next few days several other bizarre deaths occur. Everything is not what it seems in the abbey. Then, as an old adversary of William’s arrives, the stakes become more dire for both the teacher and his learner seeking the truth of the matter.

[ spoiler warning : some key elements of the film could be revealed in this review]

“Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith because without fear of the Devil, there is no more need of God.”

It’s with some pride I picked this somewhat obscure movie title (one that thankfully received high-def treatment in 2011 ). Being that I was one of the very few who actually saw it first run in theaters back in the 80s. What can I say? It’s a penchant of mine. Per Wikipedia, “ The film did poorly at the box office in the United States, playing at only 176 theatres and grossing only $7.2 million in return on a $17 million budget .” I enjoyed it then, as I continue to do so now.

Probably the one chief aspect of a good historic period piece is that it’s immersive. The author Umberto Eco accomplished that with a very descriptive story using a medieval setting on the page. And director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Quest for Fire, Enemy at the Gates) may have done it one better with this film adaptation. I don’t say that lightly because The Name of the Rose was more agreeable on the big screen, at least for me. Usually, it’s the other way around, but here not.

Translating the book’s setting, the cold mountainous region of Italy (with Germany’s Eberbach Abbey standing in for some striking interiors) was never better captured than here. Some of the largest sets since Cleopatra , built just outside of Rome, were constructed for the motion picture. They paid off. The monastery centers the film like none other. It dominates those all around the film, part of the real reason they were built that way.

To withstand weather, and people’s doubt in the church.

Immense buildings dedicated to God, which represent his power and importance in the world, and the puny stature of man dwarfed by it all. The cruel and capricious nature of Eco’s story never far away, especially within the walls of the abbey. In a location and setting that was just another formidable character in The Name of the Rose . And there are a load of them throughout the film.

“Who was she? Who was this creature that rose like the dawn, as bewitching as the moon, radiant as the sun, terrible as an army poised for battle?”

For the wordless scene in which the girl seduces Adso, Jean-Jacques Annaud didn’t explain to Christian Slater what his co-star Valentina Vargas would be doing so as to elicit a more authentic performance from him. ~ IMDB

By the way, their initial greeting, when Sean and Drax, one of the better Bond villains of the Roger Moore era, give each other lip salutation, it sent all OO7 fans hearts aflutter.

Doesn’t take much to discern this tale of mystery was another variant of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed character of literature. William of Baskerville 1 (Sean Connery portraying the antithesis of his most famous role) was an amalgam of Sherlock Holmes and William of Occam (who is readily known to those of us who’ve watched Contact ). Add in Michael Lonsdale, F. Murray Abraham, William Hickey, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Ron Perlman, and a 15-year-old Christian Slater 2 , and you had quite a cast to fill out Eco’s earthy roles.

Though it takes some patience, along with the usual clue watching, The Name of the Rose remains a more than worthy film to take in and enjoy. Primarily, through its fitting and most permeable attribute. Realism. It built an atmosphere where you feel the cold, the poverty, and the absolute and stern belief of its characters. Be they the poor or the clergy, whether Franciscan, Benedictine, or Dominican. The irony of this adaptation, and lack of immediate box office success, was the book it’s often compared with, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Both related to mysteries tied to biblical reference and context, but only Brown’s (and Ron Howard’s) film caught fire.

The author’s unique and thoughtful plot, which introduced a portion of the enlightenment coming that would pull the dark out of the Dark Ages within its 600+ pages, as well as sui generis dialogue, were handled better than well by screenwriters Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin, and Alain Godard in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s wonderful production.

Parallel Post Series

I Am Legend
The Right Stuff
– 2013 posts
– 2012 posts
– 2011 posts
– 2010 posts
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901) being one of Doyle’s better known works of Sherlock Holmes. ↩
The latter two enjoyed their big screen film debuts with The Name of the Rose . ↩

32 Responses to “The Name of the Rose Film Review”

I never knew the film didn’t initially perform all that well at the box office – interesting. I always liked this movie, and I agree the sets and the atmosphere they create is a big part of this. Connery is excellent too and I thought he gave a lovely performance.

In the U.S., for sure. I sat in a vacant theater, with only a few others for company, when it debuted (and died out quickly). Europe basically saved it from obscurity. Great to hear you’re a fan of this, Colin. Many thanks. 🙂

Yes, you are right. I remember when this came out in the 80s–I was struck how well Connery acted and the story line creepy and interesting. Nice review 🙂

Thank you very much, Cindy 🙂

Awesome write-up! I really don’t remember ever seeing it. I definitely remember it though.

A thoroughly underrated film, Keith. Thank you, my friend.

I too was one of the few who ventured to the theaters in 1986 to see this film. I remember liking it, but that was the last time I saw it and I have virtually no memory of the story. The write up is great and it encourages me to return to it. Thanks for the analysis, I never read the book because it was huge and it’s reputation was that it was dense without being plot driven. I’ll have a look at the book review later.

We might have been in the same theater! Oh, yes. Please give this one another go. It stands up to repeated viewings, Richard. Let me know if you want to see it on Blu-ray. Thanks, my friend.

Surprised this did badly at the box office. I thought it had been quite successful. I do recall it finding a good home on rental though. Maybe that’s where I’m attributing it’s success to.

Only in the U.S. did it do poorly. Doesn’t say much for us. Certainly, its reputation has gained on rental, thankfully. Thanks, my friend.

Hiya, I have the movie at home now but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Even though I’ve read the book I’m still going to wait to read the review until I’ve seen it (you never know what will get changed:)). Will be back soon to do some actual commenting.

I did give a little sneak peak to the beginning and I’m glad to hear the movie is better than the book. As you’ll see, I was not a big fan of the book.

So jealous your winter is ending. I’m in denial that ours will be starting up soon.

Looking forward to your thoughts on the film, Rachel. I’ll be heading over to your book review, shortly. And we had the driest winter on record here in SoCal (and I say that even if it rained over night). Thanks, Rachel.

Worth pointing out that the film did extremely well at the box office (just not in the US) ESPECIALLY in Europe (no surprise after all, this is in every sense a European movie) – but then, given the emphasis on torture, grotesquery and a pretty explicit sex scene, this was never going to be a broad hit in the US

It is indeed, Sergio. The film captures something that I would imagine registers well in Europe and history.

“but then, given the emphasis on torture, grotesquery and a pretty explicit sex scene, this was never going to be a broad hit in the US”

You nailed it. Many thanks 🙂

I didn’t see this one until it came to home video (via VHS). I remember watching it with my Army buddies in Germany. Pretty much everyone really enjoyed it, me included. Nice review, Michael.

Thank you very kindly, John 🙂

It’s been ages since I saw this but I remember being quite impressed w/ Slater’s character as it’s one of his earlier roles. But yeah Connery is great indeed, and yeah I also remember the atmospheric and gritty atmosphere which made it so realistic.

Thanks, Ruth. Glad to hear you’ve seen this one.

I didn’t expect it to take me this long to get to this but time just flies sometimes, huh?

I thought this was a really good adaptation. It took all the good stuff and left the dull stuff behind (if I do say so myself, and I do:))! Wonderful atmosphere, genuinely creepy (even grosser than gross at times) and discomforting. I found that discomforting bit to be the best of all. I was never at ease watching it and I think that was definitely deliberate of the director. Admittedly, it should have been called the Abbey of Creeps but, aside from that, there were very few scenes in which a viewer could feel any degree of calm.

I thought Slater played Adso a little too vacant but otherwise really enjoyed the acting. Oh, wait, one huge exception. That scene with “the girl” is pretty bad. It was the only place in which I didn’t think the film made it better. I am quite interested in the tips given to the actress. In my head it goes something like this: “Oh, no, no, no, way too much like a human being. I’m going to need a bit more stupidity on your face and certainly those moans/sighs/grunts need to sound a lot more like a very small pig rooting around in the mud.” I get that in this story WOMAN = TEH DEVIL (ugh!) but, at the very least, this woman was a survivor and resourceful. It’s implied that she allows herself to be used in this way so that she can provide for a family. The idea that her motivation is anything other than survival is just plain dumb. I almost threw the book/movie player across the room when the suggestion was “Oh he’s just so darn cute I’d like to give it away for free.” Please! I’m think it would be more like an investment in which she’s hoping to get good return. Again, ugh!

While I found the book a bit of a chore I’m so glad you suggested this one. I had certainly heard of the novel but really didn’t know a lot about it and so was very glad to give it a try and learn more about this classic.

We’ve in agreement. Good ;-). Yeah the grit, and ahem, rest, really added to authenticity and atmosphere. Ha! Love those tips, Rachel. Yeah, this lot of men looking, and acting, toward the young girl as a receptacle of The Devil was a gist the filmmakers wanted to make. Still, it was the DARK AGES.

Good point, too, that she was a survivor and therefore, resourceful.

“Oh he’s just so darn cute I’d like to give it away for free.”

Hadn’t thought about that, but yeah, in this desperate time, the ‘squee’-like motivation for jumping in the hay with the cute Slater may have called for a bit of suspension in belief. Or should I say, faith? 😉

The book was a chore. Glad to hear you felt it was worth it. Many thanks 😉

cant say this Middle Ages version of Columbo is my favourite Connery movie

I can see that. Sean does have so many great others. Thanks for the read and comment.

[…] The Name of the Rose […]

[…] entire underground complex, like the monastery in The Name of the Rose, dominated the subsurface landscape onscreen. The sterile quality of the set purposeful for the […]

..Hi.I am searching for the movie sets..can somebody tell me exactly the places?..and where they do the shots in the very last scene..when the boy goes with William away with the donkey.. Thanks and God bless

Nicholas [email protected]

Like Liked by 1 person

Greetings and welcome, Doctor. Looks like this was split between locations in Italy and German, as evidenced here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091605/locations

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/n/Name_Of_The_Rose.html#.VrLoGMe-3AY

Outside of these listings, I’ve very little to offer. Sorry about that. Wish you well on your quest. Thank you for stopping by, though.

[…] Aliens – Yes, the second time here a sequel registers when its original didn’t quite. Arguably, it shouldn’t happen, but I still love this. Especially, when we’re talking about its Director’s Cut. Stands tall even against Michael Mann’s take with Manhunter, Reiner’s Stand by Me, or the surprising Big Trouble in Little China and The Name of the Rose. […]

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‘The Name of the Rose’ (1986) – Movie Review

Jean-Jacques Annaud directs Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose (Der Name Der Rose), the film version of the novel by Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose is a great adaptation of the most important work by Umberto Eco. A mystery story set in an era of supersitions (Fourteenth century) with the Inquisition in the middle.

Orson Welles said that one should adapt lesser literary works (if not, you ran the risk of being ridiculed in the comparisons with the literary masterpieces). This time, the director and the entire team do a great job by focusing on the detective story part of the literary work.

Brother William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his disciple Adso de Melk (Christian Slater) arrive at an abbey where one of the monks died recently, where the abbot hopes that Brother William will be able to solve the crimes.

Our erudite friend is a man far removed from superstition and he tries to find a logical explanation for everything, which goes against the firm convictions of some of the monks.

If we have read Aristoteles or know he wasn´t a football player, all the better.

To start with: this is a great literary adaptation, I have seen few better ones. Those who love the novel surely didn´t feel let down when they saw it (well, yes they did, we will explain that now). However, Eco´s novel has many more things and the historic theme of the Franciscans, heresy and other issues is barely mentioned. In its day, people had a lot to say about that.

Our humble opinion: this is a movie, not a documentary and the film has a good rhythm and manages to bring us to the main theme of the novel (the detective story part) in an effective way. It is not possible to summarize a book wioth 700 pages in two hours because we would commit a serious mistake and, always, one needs to summarize and… this is an adaptation.

The actors. Sean Connery was at his best and there was no better actor for the role of the Franciscan friar. There are some other actorrs that would go on to become famous like Ron Pelman and an Oscar winner like F. Murray Abraham (who won the award for Amadeus). So great.

The plot. What we will say about this will not surprise anyone. This novel changed the course of modern publishing at a time in which historic novels were not at all fashionable. Eco states a plot like Sherlock Holmes and Watson (for more information about his passion for the character you can take a look at his essay Apocalipticos e Integrados) and it works out great, also Jean-Jacques Annaud does a great job in this film.

Our Opinion

If you haven´t seen the movie or read the book, I envy you because you have a great cult piece to discover.

We give four stars to this fantastic movie.

And, by the way, we add: Umberto Eco deserved the Nobel prize just with this work alone that changed literature.

Jean-Jacques Annaud

Sean Connery / William of Baskerville	F. Murray Abraham / Bernardo Gui
Christian Slater / Adso of Melk	Helmut Qualtinger / Remigio da Varagine

Elya Baskin Michael Lonsdale Volker Prechtel Feodor Chaliapin Jr. William Hickey Michael Habeck

See full credits >>

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The Blue Rose Release Date Confirmed for Surreal Noir Movie

By Neil Bolt

George Baron’s debut feature, The Blue Rose , finally has a release date. We’ll soon be able to see the Olivia Scott Welch -starring surreal noir.

Dark Sky Films has revealed The Blue Rose will have a limited theatrical and VOD release on July 12, 2024.

The Blue Rose plot details, cast, and trailer

The Blue Rose is set in the 1950s and follows the one-night journey of two rookie detectives as they set out to solve a seemingly clear-cut homicide. Instead, they find themselves in an alternate reality of their worst nightmares.

You can check out the trailer for the film below.

The detectives are played by Olivia Scott Welch (Fear Street, The Sacrifice Game) and director George Baron (formerly known as George Dalton -2 Broke Girls, Wet Hot American Summer).

The cast also includes Danielle Bisutti (Curse of Chucky), Nikko Austen Smith (Queen Sugar), Glüme Harlow (Hollywood Scandals), Jordyn Denning (Pam & Tommy), Evee Bui (Love, Victor), Sophie Cooper (Two Goats in a Trench Coat), Logan Miller (Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse), and Ray Wise (Twin Peaks).

Neil became a horror fan from just a nightmare-inducing glimpse of the Ghoulies VHS cover and a book on how to draw ghosts. It escalated from there and now that's almost all he writes and talks about.

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Review: ‘Rose’ is a heart-warming drama with a stellar cast

‘Rose' is the story of a group of Danish holidaymakers who take a coach-trip to Paris in the weeks following the death of Princess Diana.

Inger (Sofie Gråbøl) is a woman with mental health issues, including schizophrenia, who is convinced by her sister, Ellen (Lene Maria Christensen), to leave the security of her residential care-home and join her and her husband, Vagn (Anders W Berthelsen), on the journey – much against their over-protective mother’s wishes and advice.

Also on the coach-trip are the uptight Andrea (the fabulous Søren Malling), his down-trodden wife Margit (Christiane G Koch) and their 12 year-old son, Christian (Luca Reichardt Ben Coker).

Inger’s condition means she has no filter and often says exactly what she thinks – and that outspokenness causes, at various stages throughout the journey, embarrassment, shock and – often – a gentle humour. For example, she happily chats to young Christian, who befriends Inger and her family almost immediately, about oral sex.

Inger also has a tendency to self-harm, encouraged by a fictional influence she calls “Goldensun” – the name of which becomes apparent later in the film (as does the name “Rose” – there is no character of that name in the film). She is also very aware of her frailties when it comes to hurting herself, so she’s constantly reminding poor Ellen and Vagn about what ill-fate could befall her, such as walking into traffic or hurling herself off a balcony, if precautions aren’t put in place.

Ellen and her long-suffering husband, Vagh, hope that escaping the shackles of their mother and allowing Inger to experience a world outside of the home will be good for her, and improve the quality of life. But what they don’t realise is that Inger has an ulterior motive for wanting to visit Paris, and she enlists the help of Christian to achieve her purpose.

Sofie Gråbøl is Scandinavian royalty when it comes to Nordic drama. Her CV includes such stellar dramas as ‘The Killing' and ‘Fortitude', as well as appearances in everything from ‘Absolutely Fabulous' to ‘Gentleman Jack'. But this might be her most challenging and extraordinary role to date. She nails it, obviously. Her performance is bewitching to watch.

The film is directed and written by another Danish legend, Niels Arden Oplev, director of the original ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo', who based on story on his own experiences with his schizophrenic sister. And it feels very personal.

There are times when it is in danger of becoming a bit too schmaltzy and overly sentimental, but for the most part it stays on the right side of the line. The earthy humour that runs through the film rescues it from being too sweet. And Gråbøl’s presence assures you are always going to get nothing but the best in quality.

Cast: Sofie Gråbøl, Lene Maria Christensen, Anders W. Berthelsen Director: Niels Arden Oplev Writer: Niels Arden Oplev Certificate: 12A Duration: 106 mins Released by: Bulldog Film Distribution Release date: 28th June 2024 (select cinemas and on-demand)

Sofie Gråbøl

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Martin Mull, 80, Dies; Comic Actor Found Fame on ‘Mary Hartman’

An artist and a musician as well, he had a long list of credits that included the sitcoms “Roseanne” and “Veep.”

A bearded man wearing glasses and a cap dressed in a blue shirt and sweater vest looks at the camera.

By Trip Gabriel and Orlando Mayorquín

Martin Mull, the deadpan comic actor, singer-songwriter and artist who won widespread attention in the 1970s on television shows like “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” and “Fernwood 2-Night” and remained active in television and film over the next half-century, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 80.

His wife, Wendy Mull, confirmed the death. No cause was given.

Mr. Mull, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, broke into show business as a singer and songwriter with a satirical bent. He embodied the hip, cerebral humor that ran through the anti-establishment comedy of the 1970s and ’80s.

His persona — both the way he presented himself when he performed music and, later, the kind of roles he usually played in movies and on television — was droll, understated and often sardonic. Much like Steve Martin, with whom he was sometimes compared, he presented an outwardly buttoned-down image that belied an often absurdist sense of humor.

Mr. Mull’s first acting role was on “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” Norman Lear’s satire of soap operas, which debuted in 1976. He was cast in the supporting role of Garth Gimble, a domestic abuser who meets his demise by being impaled on an aluminum Christmas tree.

The next year he starred in the show’s spinoff, “Fernwood 2-Night,” a parody of talk shows. He played the show’s host, Barth Gimble, Garth’s twin brother.

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‎The Name of the Rose (1986) directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud • Reviews

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COMMENTS

The Name of the Rose movie review (1986)
In my imagination, there are two kinds of monks and two kinds of monasteries. The first kind of monastery is a robust community of men who work hard and pray hard and are bronzed by the sun and have a practical sense of humor. They have joined the life of prayer with the life of the hands. The second monastery is a shuttered series of gloomy passages and dank cells where jealous, mean-spirited ...
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Name of the Rose. R 1986 2h 10m Mystery & Thriller. List. 76% Tomatometer 25 Reviews. 85% Audience Score 25,000+ Ratings. In the 14th century, William of Baskerville (Sean Connery), a renowned ...
Classic Film Review: The Heretical Epic that was "The Name of the Rose
A film bathed in fog and Medieval earth tones, "The Name of the Rose" is an M.C. Escher labyrinth populated with Hieronymous Bosch grotesques. It's a throwback epic of the quasi-Biblical school, the "El Cid" of the '80s — grand, ambitious, a huge canvas enfolding big themes and ideas and performed by larger than life actors.
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The Name of the Rose: Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. With Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin. An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
The Name of the Rose (film)
The Name of the Rose is a 1986 historical mystery film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the 1980 novel of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery stars as the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville, called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval abbey. Christian Slater portrays his young apprentice, Adso of Melk, and F. Murray Abraham his Inquisitor rival, Bernardo Gui.
The Name of the Rose (1986)
The film is basically a murder mystery with religious overtones. The Name of the Rose is set in 1327 and takes place in an Abbey. A man has been found dead and the monks have called in Franciscan monk, William of Baskerville, in order to uncover the person that committed the murder.
The Name of the Rose
Kai82. Feb 22, 2021. A murder mystery set in a medieval abbey with a great cast and of a lot of religious and philosophical motives. It is based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco and it is his most known work. Because Umberto Eco is a medievalist, philosopher and great novelist it is a great book but definitely not for everyone.
The Name of the Rose
Full Review | May 23, 2022. Nick Rogers Midwest Film Journal. Umberto Eco seems unduly dismissive of a film that had to excise his postmodern trappings and scholarly sidebars. But it hasn't just ...
The Name of the Rose Review
130 minutes. Certificate: 18. Original Title: Name of the Rose, The. The first thing to consider with Jean-Jacques Annaud's frothy and memorable adaptation of Umberto Eco's wonderful mediaeval ...
The Name of the Rose (1986)
What this movie needs is a clear, spare, logical screenplay. It's all inspiration and no discipline. The movie is full of the kind of atmosphere that can be created by elaborate sets, dim lighting and misty landscapes, though it has no singular character or dominant mood. Yes, it is splendid that anyone would take on so formidable a project as ...
The Name of the Rose
Although The Name of the Rose is primarily a gripping murder mystery tale, it can also be appreciated as a film that is thematically relevant to our times. Consider the perennial clash between the authority of Rome and the free-thinking individuality of believers. Think about the connections between the apocalyptic fervors of the Middle Ages ...
The Name of the Rose 1986, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
In addition, 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, with impressively claustrophobic sets ...
The Name Of The Rose (1986) Movie Review from Eye for Film
This is very much a battle for the soul of man. 1327. In parts of Europe, the Inquisition would continue to wield power for a further 500 years. The Name Of The Rose presents the Dark Ages at their very darkest, but the issues at its core still resonate today. It's a complex and involving mystery that will keep you guessing; it's just a pity it ...
The Name of the Rose
The Name of the Rose is a sorrowfully mediocre screen version of Umberto Eco's surprise international bestselling novel. Confusingly written and sluggishly staged, this telling of a murder ...
Film: Medieval Mystery in 'Name of The Rose'
ASSASSIN IN THE ABBEY - THE NAME OF THE ROSE, directed by. Jean-Jacques Annaud; screenplay by Andrew Birkin, Gerard Brach, Howard Franklin and Alain Godard, a palimpsest of Umberto Eco's novel ...
Movie Review : 'The Name of The Rose' Not a Sweet Success
Sept. 24, 1986 12 AM PT. Times Film Critic. Watching "The Name of the Rose," you may find yourself as torn as one of Umberto Eco's conscience-wracked, 14th-Century monks. Yes, it is splendid ...
"The Name Of The Rose"
The Name Of The Rose "The Name Of The Rose", was one of the biggest blockbusters from the 1980's, based on the Umberto Eco 1980 novel "Il nome della rosa", this thriller is set back in the 14th Century and it's plot circles around a group of murders committed at an Italian abbey.
‎The Name of the Rose (1986) directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud • Reviews
Synopsis. Who, in the name of God, is getting away with murder? 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy ...
'The Name Of The Rose' Sundance Review: Stream It or Skip It?
The Name Of The Rose. Umberto Eco's 1980 novel The Name of The Rose was a worldwide hit, but adapting it to the screen has been tough. A 1986 film with Sean Connery and Christian Slater got ...
The Name of the Rose Film Review
The Name of the Rose , a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327. As usual, the wordy one will examine the novel later adapted to film, which I will review. First published in Italian in 1980 under the title Il nome della rosa, the novel was translated by William Weaver to English in 1983.
The Name of the Rose
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.DO NOT CLICK THIS - http://bit.ly/DONTDOITISAIDMovie Re...
'The Name of the Rose' (1986)
The Name of the Rose (1986) Jean-Jacques Annaud directs Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose (Der Name Der Rose), the film version of the novel by Umberto Eco. The Name of the Rose is a great adaptation of the most important work by Umberto Eco. A mystery story set in an era of supersitions (Fourteenth century) with the Inquisition in the middle.
"The Name of the Rose" (1986) Movie Review with Barkey Dog
In this one, the Barkster takes a look at a film that bombed hard in the US, but has became a classic anyway. Namely, "The Name of the Rose" (1986), starring...
The Blue Rose Release Date Confirmed for Surreal Noir Movie
The Blue Rose plot details, cast, and trailer. The Blue Rose is set in the 1950s and follows the one-night journey of two rookie detectives as they set out to solve a seemingly clear-cut homicide.
The Tale of Rose
Huang Yimei is the main character in The Tale of Rose, which chronicles her journey. Huang Yimei was born into a well-educated family and was raised in a safe environment. She showed artistic skill at a young age. As soon as she starts working, Huang Yimei becomes well-known and starts to feel something for her coworker Zhuang Guodong.
Review: 'Rose' is a heart-warming drama with a stellar cast
'Rose' is the story of a group of Danish holidaymakers who take a coach-trip to Paris in the weeks following the death of Princess Diana. Inger (Sofie Gråbøl) is a woman with mental health ...
Martin Mull, 80, Dies; Comic Actor Found Fame on 'Mary Hartman'
Martin Mull, the deadpan comic actor, singer-songwriter and artist who won widespread attention in the 1970s on television shows like "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Fernwood 2-Night ...

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Classic Film Review: The Heretical Epic that was “The Name of the Rose” (1986)

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The Name of the Rose

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Name Of The Rose (1986) Film Review

The Name Of The Rose

The Name of the Rose

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MOVIE REVIEW : ‘THE NAME OF THE ROSE’ NOT A SWEET SUCCESS

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