The Name of the RoseCorruption flourishes in darkness of ignorance and deception, and enlightenment only springs forth from the light of wisdom and mercy. The Name of the Rose is a gothic horror film adapted for the screen by director Jean-Jacques Annaud from the novel of the same name by Umberto Eco. Set in the early 14th century, Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his young protegee, Adso (Christian Slater), come to a remote abbey in the cold hills of northern Italy to debate papal doctrine, only to discover that the mysterious death of a monk requires him to put his deductive expertise to use and solve a mystery that spirals into a full-blown conspiracy.
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The Name of the Rose is narrated by an older Adso (voiced by Dwight Weist) many years later, and it is largely through his perspective that the Benedictine abbey and its idiosyncratic monks are represented. A key ideological difference between William and the Benedictine monks--aside from their black robes--is represented in a proclamation by the venerable Jorge de Burgos (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.), who decries laughter as being equivalent to sin, which William heartily contests. The monastery raised up at the top of the snow-covered hills is emblematic of its denizens' demeanor--cold, aloof, unnatural, and as unfeeling as the stone that makes up its tower. Their interpretation of "charity" amounts to dumping scraps from the side of a refuse gate to the unwashed peasants below, who claw and fight to claim the offal. The tower is an imposing fixture at the abbey, and as William suspects, is the secret vault where a vast library of books are hidden, as if out of some greedy desire to withhold knowledge from the rest of the world. The Name of the Rose is set during the Dark Ages, and is named for the intellectual darkness that consumed Western civilization before the Renaissance. It is a time when the Inquisition--represented by the grandstanding and self-righteous inquisitor, Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham)--runs rampant with unchecked power, persecuting people for crimes of heresy which are punishable by death and torture, and where to question an inquisitor's authority leads to the same deadly fate. In these dark times, men like William represent something radical--someone unafraid to call on his own powers of reason and the knowledge of the wise men who came before him to uncover a mystery; others falter because they are blinded by ignorance, or are in fact a part of the conspiracy. The abbey is a manifestation of the evil that comes from men who prize power over wisdom and are content to subjugate others for their whims. It is a place filled with dark corners, mysterious secret passages, and creepy sculptures that evokes images of death and devils--as Williams puts it, hardly a place "God would feel welcome". The dark atmosphere and the underlying question about the presence of God in the monastery in The Name of the Rose recalls Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal; both are set in the Dark Ages, where "death" is afoot, threatening to strike at any moment.
Adso is introduced to the abbot Remigio da Varagine (Helmut Qualtinger) as the youngest son of the Baron of Melk (in Austria), but there is little explanation as to why Adso became a monk in the first place. It is suggested that it is due to his interest in pursuing knowledge--as the youngest son, he would have been an unlikely heir to the barony, and is a naturally inquisitive young man. In William, he finds a mentor who stimulates his intellect, and encourages him to think for himself. William is observant, and helps Adso see beyond what is presented at face value, teaching him about empirical evidence and helping him reach logical conclusions. But what William cannot teach him emerges when he finds himself in the company of an unnamed, beautiful peasant woman (Valentina Vargas). The two share an immediate and passionate sexual encounter in a barn in an episode which is both earthly and primal. It represents a worldly knowledge that runs counter to the monastic vow of celibacy, but proves to be an enlightening experience for young Adso all the same. Adso recalls at the end of the film that for all of the faces he should recall in this story, it is that of the girl who remains the most vivid and haunts his dreams. Adso believes himself to be in love with the girl after the encounter, and William encourages him to try to determine whether it is truly love or lust which plucks at his heartstrings. The act of intercourse represents an act of maturity for the boyish Adso, even if it is not immediately visible. Like William, he has discovered a form of knowledge that has been declared to be unacceptable by the church. William avoids moralizing to the young man, because he recognizes that his protégé's passion has enriched his life, which is not too different than the "love" William feels for his philosopher idols like Aristotle. One of the more intriguing scenes in The Name of the Rose comes when William and Adso have made their way into the labyrinthine secret library in the abbey's towering fortress, becoming lost as their voices echo throughout the vast structure. This is a metaphor for the overwhelming and awe-inspiring discovery of "forbidden knowledge" in the form of the vast tomes that comes from the wisdom of the learned men who have come before them.
The Name of the Rose is at its core a gothic detective story. William is a "Sherlock Holmes" type of detective, with Adso as his Dr. Watson; William is even described as being "of Baskerville", a nod to "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and describes his logical conclusions to Adso as "elementary". From the first moments when William and Adso ride into the Benedictine monastery, a haunting and percussive musical score by James Horner intimates that there is something sinister at work in this house of God. A refugee Franciscan monk, Ubertino da Casale (William Hickey), proclaims that the "Devil" walks through the abbey, and makes claims that the deaths are a sign that the Book of Revelation is coming to fruition. The first few deaths share some similarities with the apocalyptic final book of the Bible, causing panic and spiritual distress among the monks, which is why Remigio da Varagine solicited William's aid in containing this chaos before the arrival of an envoy of the Pope into his monastery. Nearly all of the resident monks in the abbey exhibit some kind of neurosis or unorthodox disposition, from the hunchbacked and maladjusted Salvatore (Ron Perlman)--described as a former member of a heretical sect of monks--who speaks in a hodge-podge of languages, to Berengar (Michael Habeck), a corpulent assistant librarian who lasciviously eyes Adso and flagellates himself in the middle of the night. In a way, these monks are more victims of the Catholic Church, and The Name of the Rose calls attention to the dangers of an institution exploiting an ethos (like religion) by using fear to pervert the benevolent qualities in man, like laughter, and where that road ends. Just as the audience observes the hypocrisy of men like Bernardo Gui, the peasants become cognizant of this, like when a group of criminals are being prepared to be burned at the stake. Adso recalls in his memoirs that he became a Franciscan monk in part to uplift the common people, who learn that men like Gui are little more than cruel despots and murderers, and not the defenders of goodness as they claim to be. As it is with Adso and William in their pursuit of wisdom, this is a "revelation" to them; they discover truths about the world, and those who claim power do so by depriving them of the bread of knowledge--the true signature of tyranny.
Recommended for: Fans of a gothic detective story set in the Dark Ages. Like any detective story, it is full of suspects and twists, and encourages the audience to guess "whodunit". The Name of the Rose deals with themes about wisdom versus ignorance, and how that knowledge can be twisted by those in power to keep others servile to their selfish whims.
Adso is introduced to the abbot Remigio da Varagine (Helmut Qualtinger) as the youngest son of the Baron of Melk (in Austria), but there is little explanation as to why Adso became a monk in the first place. It is suggested that it is due to his interest in pursuing knowledge--as the youngest son, he would have been an unlikely heir to the barony, and is a naturally inquisitive young man. In William, he finds a mentor who stimulates his intellect, and encourages him to think for himself. William is observant, and helps Adso see beyond what is presented at face value, teaching him about empirical evidence and helping him reach logical conclusions. But what William cannot teach him emerges when he finds himself in the company of an unnamed, beautiful peasant woman (Valentina Vargas). The two share an immediate and passionate sexual encounter in a barn in an episode which is both earthly and primal. It represents a worldly knowledge that runs counter to the monastic vow of celibacy, but proves to be an enlightening experience for young Adso all the same. Adso recalls at the end of the film that for all of the faces he should recall in this story, it is that of the girl who remains the most vivid and haunts his dreams. Adso believes himself to be in love with the girl after the encounter, and William encourages him to try to determine whether it is truly love or lust which plucks at his heartstrings. The act of intercourse represents an act of maturity for the boyish Adso, even if it is not immediately visible. Like William, he has discovered a form of knowledge that has been declared to be unacceptable by the church. William avoids moralizing to the young man, because he recognizes that his protégé's passion has enriched his life, which is not too different than the "love" William feels for his philosopher idols like Aristotle. One of the more intriguing scenes in The Name of the Rose comes when William and Adso have made their way into the labyrinthine secret library in the abbey's towering fortress, becoming lost as their voices echo throughout the vast structure. This is a metaphor for the overwhelming and awe-inspiring discovery of "forbidden knowledge" in the form of the vast tomes that comes from the wisdom of the learned men who have come before them.
The Name of the Rose is at its core a gothic detective story. William is a "Sherlock Holmes" type of detective, with Adso as his Dr. Watson; William is even described as being "of Baskerville", a nod to "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and describes his logical conclusions to Adso as "elementary". From the first moments when William and Adso ride into the Benedictine monastery, a haunting and percussive musical score by James Horner intimates that there is something sinister at work in this house of God. A refugee Franciscan monk, Ubertino da Casale (William Hickey), proclaims that the "Devil" walks through the abbey, and makes claims that the deaths are a sign that the Book of Revelation is coming to fruition. The first few deaths share some similarities with the apocalyptic final book of the Bible, causing panic and spiritual distress among the monks, which is why Remigio da Varagine solicited William's aid in containing this chaos before the arrival of an envoy of the Pope into his monastery. Nearly all of the resident monks in the abbey exhibit some kind of neurosis or unorthodox disposition, from the hunchbacked and maladjusted Salvatore (Ron Perlman)--described as a former member of a heretical sect of monks--who speaks in a hodge-podge of languages, to Berengar (Michael Habeck), a corpulent assistant librarian who lasciviously eyes Adso and flagellates himself in the middle of the night. In a way, these monks are more victims of the Catholic Church, and The Name of the Rose calls attention to the dangers of an institution exploiting an ethos (like religion) by using fear to pervert the benevolent qualities in man, like laughter, and where that road ends. Just as the audience observes the hypocrisy of men like Bernardo Gui, the peasants become cognizant of this, like when a group of criminals are being prepared to be burned at the stake. Adso recalls in his memoirs that he became a Franciscan monk in part to uplift the common people, who learn that men like Gui are little more than cruel despots and murderers, and not the defenders of goodness as they claim to be. As it is with Adso and William in their pursuit of wisdom, this is a "revelation" to them; they discover truths about the world, and those who claim power do so by depriving them of the bread of knowledge--the true signature of tyranny.
Recommended for: Fans of a gothic detective story set in the Dark Ages. Like any detective story, it is full of suspects and twists, and encourages the audience to guess "whodunit". The Name of the Rose deals with themes about wisdom versus ignorance, and how that knowledge can be twisted by those in power to keep others servile to their selfish whims.