Back from the Dead: The Name of the Rose

“Having reached the end of my poor sinner’s life, my hair now white, I prepare to leave on this parchment my testimony as to the wondrous and terrible events I witnessed in my youth.”

So opens Jean-Jaques Annaud’s The Name of the Rose (1986). The words are those of Adso of Melk, a minor character and novice to Franciscan friar William of Baskerville. As a child, watching it on lowly DVD, they captivated me as they could have come right out of any of Lovecraft’s ‘confessional’ stories. Adso is an old man when we hear him, but the young monk we see trailing behind his master on donkey in the bleak Alpine landscape invokes the sense that — in all his long years surviving whatever horrors await — nothing affected Adso so significantly as what he is about to share. As a chronicler, he is every part the Watson to Baskerville’s Holmes. And this is by design. As we watch, he will unfold to us a tale of strange and terrible murders that took place at an unnamed Benedictine abbey in northern Italy. Filmed both on-location at a real 12th Century monastery (the Kloster Eberbach in Germany), and a host of Italian mountain sites and sets, the film is atmospheric from its first to its final breath. 

Starring Sean Connery (in his once-you-hit-max-level-you-stop-leveling, Indiana-Jones-dad prime) and a young Christian Slater (his mom was a casting agent, in case you were wondering), the film draws in a host of co- and guest-stars. With F. Murray Abraham, Michael Lonsdale and even a young(-ish) Ron Perlman, the film tells the story of William of Baskerville (Connery), a 14th Century monk charged with finding out who is responsible for the aforementioned string of grisly murders at the aforementioned medieval Abbey.

Though arguably not a horror film in its purest sense, the film leans on so many of the tropes of the genre (seemingly-supernatural murders; pagan religion and devil worship; corrupt priests; an Old Dark House level of secret rooms and things that go bump in the night), and has so many powerful performances and memorable characters (“pentitenziagite”) that I would challenge any ardent horror fan to watch it and say they hated it. 

I came to it through the lens of Scooby Doo (yes, really), as the film is more frequently placed in the detective genre. Connery’s William of Baskerville is at once a reference to Sherlock Holmes’ most famous case, but also to William of Ockham (of Ockham’s Razor fame). Baskerville, like both his historical and literary forbears, brings his sharp mind and principle of simplicity to bear on the case, resulting in an ending that feels at once entirely genre-appropriate and yet also heart-wrenchingly relevant in this age of censorship and control. 

The film is based on the award-winning book by Umberto Eco (1980; 1983, English translation). The 1986 film version also won two BAFTAs (acting for Connery, and make-up for Hasso von Hugo). Though there has been a string of other adaptations (most of them, perhaps surprisingly, as video games), it is Annaud’s film that sticks so firmly in the memory, for its exploration of the themes of power, corruption and authority. 

The story is set against the backdrop of a period of unrest between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, with the debate over who gets to interpret the Bible for the common man at the heart of the story. In this age of social media, big tech dominance of the internet, and fake, AI-driven news, the themes of authority (in the ‘who has authorship’ sense of the word) couldn’t be more universally relevant. 

The 4K (and special edition 4K) will be released on 10th August and includes new interviews with the director, the screenwriter and two of the actors (Slater and Perlman). It’s a worthy addition to any permanent-storage medium collection. So buy it (before Sony acquires the rights and pulls it from the shelves). 

~ Secret Geek