The Name of the Rose Reviews

It has been a while since I have seen this flick and I should definitely check it out again at some point. To be honest, I haven’t read the book this movie was based on but it sounds pretty good and maybe I will check it out at some point. Anyway, back in those days, Jean-Jacques Annaud was definitely one of the best French directors at work and certainly the only one who managed to have such a successful international career. Indeed, 5 years before, he had made the amazing ‘La guerre du feu’ and, now, he was coming back with another ambitious international production. Basically, the whole thing was a well made but still rather straightforward thriller but what made it really stand out was its interesting setting. Indeed, not only was it taking place in the Middle-Ages but also in an isolated abbey and, thanks to Annaud’s solid directing, this odd mix actually did work fine. Eventually, 20 years later, Hollywood launched another massive thriller, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, also with some religious undertones but it didn’t work very well. It worked here because Annaud managed to keep the scale as low as possible and even though you still could spot some Hollywood gimmicks, those were kept to the mininum. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really a masterpiece, it is still a really original thriller and it is definitely worth a look.

The finest piece of literature (Umberto Eco’s eponymous book) gave birth to one of the best thrillers ever directed.

Sean Connery’s performance confirms why he is such an astounding actor. Christian Slater in, I believe, his first role shines here.

But most importantly, the cinematography and set are sublime (and trust me, I am not biased because I personally knew Tonino Delli Colli), it is truly sublime.

Wooo! Hot monk sex!

Well, there is the one scene with Adso (the young monk played by Christian Slater who claims he lost his virginity in this scene) and a peasant girl... It's actually surprisingly very sexy, probably because it's sort of real. It's awkward, strange and kind of weird. I think that's what's sexy about it: it's very different from the usual coreographed love scenes that hollywood often makes.

Otherwise, the movie is OK. I liked the book a lot better and now I want to re-read it. I think the movie focused more on the "mystery" which was less important in the book... Ah well, more stuff to read. :D