Name Of The Rose (DVD)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

The supporting cast is no less formidable. Slater, for instance, was only fifteen at the time of production, and this was but his second big-screen appearance (having done several years of television work previous). He is remarkably innocent in appearance, no doubt the reason for his being chosen for the role, and restrained in his delivery, yet as the story progresses we see him mature immeasurably. It's a good performance for a young lad.

As the High Inquisitor, Abraham is evil incarnate. Moreover, he is all the more evil for seeing himself as doing the upstanding work of God. He is no hypocrite. He simply believes he's right. Scary guy. There is nothing more dangerous than a closed mind, and in this medieval world the closed mind is the norm. I will resist the temptation to extend that argument to the present day, but it was certainly one of Eco's intentions. The only trouble with Abraham is that he isn't on screen long enough. He merely shows up and leaves before we can really get to hate him.

Valentina Vargas as the Girl is gorgeous, but she's mystifying as well, never saying a word. Although in Eco's book she is only one of several references to the title, the beautiful rose without a name, in the movie she becomes almost the whole show. She is like a wild and sensuous beast, but it remains unclear if she is dumb as in mute or dumb as in stupid. Certainly, she represents the ignorant peasant of the day, but it doesn't explain her quiet, impulsive, lascivious behavior.

William Hickey, bizarre as always, plays an old monk, Ubertino de Casale, accused of heresy and hiding out in the abbey. Just listening to him speak in his exaggerated vocal tones is an occasion either for wonder or embarrassment. You never know if the guy really does talk this way or whether he's putting us all on. Michael Lonsdale's Abbot is a model of bureaucratic efficiency. He seems less concerned about the death of his monks than with what the Church will think of him as a consequence. And Ron Perlman plays a hunchback, Salvatore, straight out of Victor Hugo, complete with a prosthetic hump and putty face; a single, dangling tooth in his head; and a penchant for eating rats and talking gibberish.

The rest of the cast, mostly bit players filling in as monks, have distinctive faces, to say the least. What's more, they have the goofiest haircuts since Larry, Moe, and Curly. The director tells us the haircuts, like the costumes, are faithful to the era. I'll take his word for it.

OK, the worst for last. If you don't take to the star, the atmosphere of the old abbey, or the strangeness of the characters, you probably won't like the film. It's a gloomy affair for the most part and moves at a relatively slow pace. To be generous, however, one might think of this tempo as deliberate rather than slow, the director suggesting that in an earlier period, life, especially in a monastery, moved far less quickly than it does for most of us today. Taken in this light, and disregarding what I consider a ludicrous resolution to the mystery, the movie can be quite absorbing. In fact, I was more than a little moved by the closing scene. I just wish the director had placed more emphasis on the book's themes about truth and light, societal differences, and Man's place in the world. So, for the third time, a reluctant "Oh, well."

Video:
The film is, as I've said, very dark, both literally and figuratively. This darkness does not always provide the best detail in the dim, naturalistic lighting the director insists upon using throughout the monastery sets. There is also a light grain that appears to be a part of the original film stock; it comes and goes, sometimes rendering the picture quite noticeably gritty. Other than that, the transfer holds up very nicely in a widescreen anamorphic image that measures about 1.74:1 in ratio across a standard television. Thanks to a healthy bit rate, the clarity and definition are mostly outstanding, again considering the director used a good deal of natural lighting.

Audio:
At first I wasn't sure how good the Dolby Digital reprocessing was working out on the soundtrack, but as the film progressed I become more and more impressed with the subtlety of the audio. The stereo spread is not particularly wide, but it does convey some pleasing noises left and right when occasion demands. More to the point, I didn't hear much from the rear speakers for the first few minutes, but when the old abbey came to life with the chants and choirs of monks, the resonance richly filling my room, I had to concede the DD 5.1 was doing its job. Equally as effective were the sounds of footsteps, running water, wind, and night birds. Add to the delicate rear-channel ambience a clear, clean midrange, a robust bass, and a strong dynamic impact, and you get an aural experience worth hearing.

Extras:
I enjoyed the extras almost as much as the feature presentation. The audio commentary with director Jean-Jacques Annaud is thoughtful and informed. There's a forty-three minute making-of documentary, made at the time of the film's production, "The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose," that is more than the usual extended promo and actually provides some insight into the making of the film. And an all-new, sixteen-minute photo video journey with Annaud shows the lighter side of the French director. The bonuses wrap up with thirty-three scene selections and a widescreen theatrical trailer. The only spoken language provided is English, but subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish. No booklet insert came with my disc.

Parting Thoughts:
I have to admit that "The Name of the Rose" is rather more impressive in its atmosphere than in its ideas. The book went a lot further in developing character relationships and enriching our understanding of the medieval mind. Director Annaud's vision of the novel spends so much time on the authenticity of its costumes and settings, it rather forgets to get on with its thoughts.

This said, I enjoyed the look and feel of the movie, and I especially liked Connery's charismatic monk. It was enough to entertain me this second time around a bit more than I was entertained the first time I saw it. Having forgotten much of the book by now, I was able to look at the movie with a less biased attitude. "The Name of the Rose" is an unusual film, to be sure, yet at the same time it may connect with a modern sensibility. People are still afraid of the truth, which is what the substance of this film is all about.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---