Germany/Italy/France co-production with interesting and suspenseful screenplay by Andrew Birkin , Gérard Brach ,Howard Franklin and based on novel "Il Nome Della Rosa" by Umberto Eco . Set in 1327 , when after a strange death in a Medieval Abbey, the Benedictine monks are convinced that the four riders of apocalypse are coming ; many of the monks fear that there can be only an evil, supernatural explanation . The abbey is in fear over the recent death of one of their young monks, a brilliant illustrator who was found killed by an impact at the base of a cliff outside . With the Abbey to play host to a council on the Franciscan's Order's belief that the Church should rid itself of wealth, William of Baskerville(Director Jean-Jacques Annaud was not keen on casting Sean Connery in the role of William of Baskerville, and a large number of actors were considered prior to Connery being cast. Some of those actors include: Michael Caine, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Ian McKellen) an intellectually nonconformist and respected Franciscan monk investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey. The Abbot (Michael Lonsdale) asks William to help solve the mystery as he is known to be a man of great intellect and a former investigator for the inquisition. As he is asked to assist in determining the cause of the untimely death, and is accompanied by a novice (Hundreds of teenage boys were scouted before the production settled on Christian Slater who was only 15 years old ). Meanwhile , there happens several murders and the young monk finds a mysterious girl (Valentina Vargas is the only female character in the film).
This is an acceptable screen rendition of Umberto Eco's bestseller and the movie took 5 years of preparation . The picture contains thrills , suspense , mystery , sexual scenes , intriguing issues and results to be quite entertaining . Very fine acting by Sean Connery as a monkish Sherlock Holmes trying to solve a series of murders , he is fun to watch . Good support cast plenty of uglies , such as Elya Baskin as Severinus ,Michael Lonsdale as The Abbot , Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Jorge Burgos , William Hickey as Ubertino Casale , Michael Habeck as Berengar , Urs Althaus as Venantius , Ron Perlman as Salvatore , Leopoldo Trieste as Michele Cesena , Vernon Dobtcheff as Hugh of Newcastle , Donald O'Brien as Pietro d'Assisi and F. Murray Abraham as Inquisitor. Jean-Jacques Annaud admitted to casting the ugliest actors he could get because he wanted the characters to appear "real", based on the men in the village where he lived . Colorful and luxurious cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli , filmed on location in Bruzzo , Rome, Lazio, Italy and Taunus Mountains, Hessen, Germany . Impressive and spectacular production design by Dante Ferreti , as the monastery was constructed as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome, making it the biggest exterior set built in Europe since Cleopatra. Many of the inside shots were taken in the monastery Eberbach, which lies close to the Rhine. The catacombs that appear on the movie are private and belong to a small restaurant that the crew frequented on production. Evocative as well as thrilling musical score by James Horner .
The motion picture was well directed by Jean Jacques Annaud . He spent four years preparing the film, traveling throughout the United States and Europe, searching for the perfect multi-ethnic cast with interesting and distinctive faces. The magnificent filmmaker Annaud creates yet another picture excellently directed and stunningly produced . Annaud directed particular films with almost no human dialogue such as ¨Quest for fire¨ and was an expert on animal movies as proved in ¨The bear¨ , ¨Running Free¨ about horses and ¨Two brothers¨ dealing with tigers . His most successful pictures were ¨The lover¨ , ¨Enemy of the gates¨,¨Seven years in Tibet¨ and of course ¨The name of the rose¨. It was 4th highest grossing movie of its year in France , though failed at the US box office, grossing only $7.2 million. However, in Europe it did exceptionally well, contributing to its overall worldwide gross of over $77 million
This is an acceptable screen rendition of Umberto Eco's bestseller and the movie took 5 years of preparation . The picture contains thrills , suspense , mystery , sexual scenes , intriguing issues and results to be quite entertaining . Very fine acting by Sean Connery as a monkish Sherlock Holmes trying to solve a series of murders , he is fun to watch . Good support cast plenty of uglies , such as Elya Baskin as Severinus ,Michael Lonsdale as The Abbot , Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as Jorge Burgos , William Hickey as Ubertino Casale , Michael Habeck as Berengar , Urs Althaus as Venantius , Ron Perlman as Salvatore , Leopoldo Trieste as Michele Cesena , Vernon Dobtcheff as Hugh of Newcastle , Donald O'Brien as Pietro d'Assisi and F. Murray Abraham as Inquisitor. Jean-Jacques Annaud admitted to casting the ugliest actors he could get because he wanted the characters to appear "real", based on the men in the village where he lived . Colorful and luxurious cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli , filmed on location in Bruzzo , Rome, Lazio, Italy and Taunus Mountains, Hessen, Germany . Impressive and spectacular production design by Dante Ferreti , as the monastery was constructed as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome, making it the biggest exterior set built in Europe since Cleopatra. Many of the inside shots were taken in the monastery Eberbach, which lies close to the Rhine. The catacombs that appear on the movie are private and belong to a small restaurant that the crew frequented on production. Evocative as well as thrilling musical score by James Horner .
The motion picture was well directed by Jean Jacques Annaud . He spent four years preparing the film, traveling throughout the United States and Europe, searching for the perfect multi-ethnic cast with interesting and distinctive faces. The magnificent filmmaker Annaud creates yet another picture excellently directed and stunningly produced . Annaud directed particular films with almost no human dialogue such as ¨Quest for fire¨ and was an expert on animal movies as proved in ¨The bear¨ , ¨Running Free¨ about horses and ¨Two brothers¨ dealing with tigers . His most successful pictures were ¨The lover¨ , ¨Enemy of the gates¨,¨Seven years in Tibet¨ and of course ¨The name of the rose¨. It was 4th highest grossing movie of its year in France , though failed at the US box office, grossing only $7.2 million. However, in Europe it did exceptionally well, contributing to its overall worldwide gross of over $77 million