The Name of the Rose (1986)
Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud

Film Review

This distinctive work from acclaimed French film director Jean-Jacques Annaud was inspired by Umberto Eco's best selling intellectual thriller Il nome della rosa  (a kind of The Da Vinci Code for those who have progressed beyond the Harry Potter level of English literature).  With its brooding cinematography, austere, shadow-draped sets and sinister ensemble of ghoulish characters, The Name of the Rose is a film unlike any other.  The dark, stifling atmosphere is suggestive of mankind's ignorance at a time that was steeped in fear and superstition, and this is contrasted effectively with the reason and humanity of the story's main character, William of Baskerville (played beautifully by Sean Connery).

Stylistically, the film can hardly be faulted.  Annaud creates a world quite unlike anything anyone of us has ever experienced, and his approach readily draws the spectator straight into the drama and the period in which it is set.  Unfortunately, this sense of wonder is barely sustained for more than thirty minutes or so, because by this stage it is more than apparent that there isn't much beneath this remarkable surface impression.

Visually stunning the film may be, but this cannot disguise the fact that dramatically it is pretty vacuous.  Apart from William of Baskerville, none of the characters is drawn with any great depth, and most come across as caricatured, totally unsympathetic grotesques (rather like the creations in Annaud's previous film, La Guerre de feu).  As in so much of Annuad's work, the brilliance of what we see on the surface is not matched by what lies beneath it.  Whilst the film manages to hold our attention (in spite of some uneven pacing which makes some sequences very confusing), there's little in the way of emotional depth and real human feeling.   This is surprising when there is so much meaning and psychological maturity in Eco's original novel, and it's somewhat disappointing that so little of this made its way into the film.  In spite of this, The Name of the Rose is an extraordinary work - not perfect, but one that offers a cinematic experience that is refreshingly strange and uncomfortable.

Film Synopsis

In the 14th Century, a travelling monk William of Baskerville undertakes a pilgrimage to a remote North Italian monastery to attend a theological discussion between the local monks and senior representatives of the Church.  He is accompanied only by his young acolyte, Adso.  William's arrival is overshadowed by the death of one of the brethren.  The monks believe it is the work of the Devil, but William quickly concludes that the man committed suicide.  Another death follows and it becomes apparent that some great evil is at large.  Whilst William tries to learn the truth through rational investigation, the monks become increasingly certain that witchcraft is involved and the Inquisition are invited to take charge of the proceedings.  Can William resolve the mystery before innocent men and women are condemned to a brutal death?