The Name of the Rose
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Short description
In 1327, a Franciscan friar named William of Baskerville arrives at a Benedictine abbey in northern Italy with his young novice, Adso of Melk, who narrates the story. William has been asked to help arrange a meeting between Franciscan representatives and papal envoys, but the abbey is unsettled by a series of monks' deaths. Asked to look into the killings, William applies his powers of observation and reasoning while facing resistance from the abbot and other monks, and the arrival of the papal delegation turns suspicion on William himself. The investigation points toward the abbey's library, which is said to be among the largest in the Christian world and is kept strictly off limits. Adso records both the inquiry and his own encounters within the monastery as the deaths continue.
Jean-Jacques Annaud directed the film, his second feature after Quest for Fire (1981), working from a screenplay by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach and Howard Franklin. Sean Connery plays William, with Christian Slater as Adso and supporting turns from Michael Lonsdale, Helmut Qualtinger, Elya Baskin and Volker Prechtel. The production, a German-Italian-French co-production, cost about 18 million dollars and took roughly 77 million dollars worldwide.
Audience response has been positive: on IMDb the film holds 7.7/10 from around 127,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5/10 from more than 3,400 votes. The critics' rating stands lower, at 6.3/10 from 25 reviews, so viewers have generally rated the film more highly than reviewers did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Sean Connery's career was in such a slump at the time that Columbia Pictures refused to finance the project when Connery was chosen for the role of William of Baskerville by Jean-Jacques Annaud.
- Sean Connery's robe for the film was commissioned in Morocco, and it was made according to all the rules, just as they did in the Middle Ages, from undyed sheep's wool.
- The director initially wanted to cast John Huston for the role of Jorge.
- The film's screenwriter, Andrew Birkin, played the role of Monk Cuthbert of Winchester in the film.
- Umberto Eco disliked the film so much that he refused to authorize further adaptations of his novels. For example, he turned down Stanley Kubrick's request to adapt 'Foucault's Pendulum'.
- The main source of income for the Eberbach Monastery was the production of grape wine. In one of the stone halls, giant presses have been preserved, which, according to legend, inspired Johannes Gutenberg with the idea of printing he later implemented. How true this legend is is difficult to say, but another fact is real: it was with the invention of printing that the monks of Eberbach lost their traditional work – copying books, after which winemaking became the monastery’s main source of income.
- Actor Helmuth Költinger (Remigio da Varagine) was seriously ill during the filming. He died just hours after finishing the scenes he appeared in. The actor was often forced to interrupt his lines due to relentless pain.
- In search of locations, the filmmakers visited over three hundred monasteries in Western Europe.
- William of Baskerville finds a commentary in an ancient manuscript made by someone named Umberto of Bologna. This is, of course, a reference to Umberto Eco, who teaches at the University of Bologna.
- In one interview, Jean-Jacques Annaud said that actors Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Robert De Niro, Michael Caine, and Ian McKellen were also considered for the role of William Baskerville.
- Christian Slater was only 17 years old when he filmed a love scene with Valentina Vargas, who was 22.
- The monastery interiors were filmed at one of the oldest monasteries in Germany – Kloster Eberbach, located in the Rhine Valley near Wiesbaden. Eberbach Monastery (which translates to “Boar Creek”) was founded in 1116 by Augustinian monks, and 20 years later it passed into the hands of the Cistercians, who managed it until 1803.
- Filming took place in a specially built and very cold monastery and lasted almost nine months.
- The role of the scriptorium – the room where the monks copied books – was played by the dormitory – the monastery bedroom.
- Fyodor Shalyapin Jr., the son of the famous opera singer Fyodor Shalyapin, played the monk Jorge of Burgos.
- The monastery walls served various purposes – throughout its history, it functioned as a prison and a military hospital. Only in 1998 did this monument of the early Middle Ages become a museum.
- During the filming of the library fire, a real oak beam fell on Fyodor Shalyapin Jr.
- Working on the screenplay for 'The Name of the Rose' took almost five years. Seventeen script drafts were made, with four screenwriters contributing.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
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