The Name of the Rose | Patreon watch along

Hey, Deasha! Umberto Eco was an Italian symbology professor much like Dan Brown's Robert Langdon played by Tom Hanks in Ron Howard's trilogy of films. He wrote a handful of novels some of which were period pieces but, even though "The Name of the Rose" naturally lends itself to a medieval mystery franchise starring William of Baskerville and Adso, it was a one-and-done adventure that whets one's appetite for more! It was an international best-seller that accrued an impressive array of literary accolades. Sean Connery's William of Baskerville was inspired by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes who uses deductive reasoning and keen observation of details to solve seemingly insoluble crimes as well as 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Ockham, a rationalist known for the precept of Occam's Razor which proposes that the simplest solution is the likeliest. Feodor Chaliapin's blind villain Jorge of Burgos was inspired by Jorge Luis Borges, a blind Argentine writer and director of Argentina's National Library whose work was a major influence on Eco as it often involved secret libraries, labyrinths, mirrors, codes, forbidden knowledge and hidden books. F. Murray Abraham's Bernardo Gui was based on a real historical Inquisitor whose interrogatory methods were lifted verbatim from the Inquisitor handbook known as the 'Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis'. William Hickey's Ubertino of Casale, the outspoken proponent of apostolic poverty who left the monastery hidden in a barrel, was another historical character. Aristotle's book on Comedy is a real lost book of antiquity whose contents Eco speculates upon in the story. The unnamed abbey was inspired by the actual Saint Michael's abbey towering in mountainous Piedmont in northwest Italy which Eco visited. The meaning of the Latin quote at the end from which the title "The Name of the Rose" is derived has been debated. The quote is as follows: "Stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus" which translates as "Yesterday's rose stands only in name, we hold only empty names". It is a verse attributed to 12th-century monk Bernard of Cluny. The general consensus is that all precious things fade until all that remains is the name of what once was much like the lost wisdom of the book, the magnificence of the library and the beauty of the peasant girl. Jean Jacques-Annaud lobbied hard to direct the film as he was passionate about medieval churches and adored the novel. He prepped for five years and auditioned almost every major star for the role of William but none matched his mental image of the character. Despite repeated interest from Connery, he felt the perception of him as James Bond would contaminate the role until he finally relented and heard him read a scene. Connery's reading so matched what Annaud had in mind that he stopped him before he finished to welcome him to the production. Ron Perlman had worked with Annaud before on "Quest For Fire", a prehistoric adventure. Since Salvatore the hunchback spoke six languages at once, Perlman purchased six copies of the book in six different languages. An impressive polyglot, he then found the lines in the books that corresponded to his dialogue and composed mixed-language sentences by taking bits from the different editions! He was cast at the last minute because the first choice performer died suddenly and the second choice performer was fired for showing up to work drunk! For the love scene between 21-year-old Valentina Vargas and 17-year-old Christian Slater, Annaud gave Vargas free rein to do what she pleased and provided no guidance whatsoever to young Slater! She begins by smelling his hands and hair which are clean and soft in contrast to the vile squalor to which she is accustomed in a clever turnabout of a male lover savoring the fragrance of a perfumed female. The two actors got so caught up in the moment that neither heard Annaud call "Cut" and he continued shooting allowing Vargas to play the scene out as she wished. When they finally came up for air and she sought direction, Annaud told Vargas the scene had ended ten minutes earlier! Rumor spread that the scene was actually real but Slater debunked that years later saying he thought Annaud took so long waiting for him to get an erection which he never achieved! Lol. AmazonPrime heavily cut the love scene and other graphic violence for fear of offense at ecclesiastical impropriety and Slater's underage status during filming.

Alex Vazquez