The Name of the Rose (1986)
Trivia
Director 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. When he returned to his village, some of the men asked him if he really considered them to be as ugly as the actors, and he said, "Yes."
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Spoilers (6)
Sean Connery's career was at such a low point when he read for the role that Columbia Pictures refused to finance the movie when Jean-Jacques Annaud cast him as William von Baskerville.
According to Ron Perlman, director Jean-Jacques Annaud had purposely not written a lot of the movie's dialogue, in order to more easily secure funding. When they started filming however, he wanted Perlman to talk in all his scenes. Since Salvatore was described as a character who speaks "six languages at once" (among them Latin, Italian, German, English, and French), Perlman got copies of the book in all of those languages. He then composed mixed-language sentences by combining words from Salvatore's sentences from each book.
In his interview and director's commentary on the DVD, Jean-Jacques Annaud said that after 15-year-old Christian Slater was cast as Adso of Melk, he was asked to read with three actresses auditioning for the role of "The Girl". He read with Valentina Vargas first and was scheduled to read with the other two actresses the next day. That evening, Slater sent his mother, casting agent Mary Jo Slater, to tell Annaud that he was so smitten with 22-year-old Vargas that he didn't want the other two women to be considered.
William von Baskerville is amazed when he discovers a book by "Umberto of Bologna", a reference to Umberto Eco, who teaches at the University of Bologna, and is the author of the book on which this movie was based.
Robert De Niro auditioned for the role of William, but Jean-Jacques Annaud changed his mind, because De Niro wanted to have a sword duel between William and Bernardo Gui.
When Ron Perlman, who had worked on Quest for Fire (1981), learned about this film, he contacted Jean-Jacques Annaud because he desperately wanted to play Salvatore. By then, Annaud had cast a dwarf actor with a giant head and a raspy voice. When that actor died prior to production, the Italian government, which co-financed the movie, insisted he be replaced by an Italian actor. That actor was fired for being uncooperative. Perlman was offered the role then, but he had to catch a plane that day to arrive on-set in time.
When Michel Pastoureau pointed out that the pigs used in this movie could not have pink skin, since there was no such variety at the time, the animals were dyed black, as there was no time to find others.
Christian Slater had nothing but praise for his co-star Sean Connery. He described working with Connory "like having a master class in acting, life, all sorts of things. He's an incredible professional, a real gentleman, a man's man." He also said that Connery was extremely involved in every detail of filming, and at one point scolded the on-set horse wrangler for mistreating the animals.
The opening credits describe this movie as a palimpsest of Umberto Eco's novel. A palimpsest is a document written on previously-used parchment or paper that has been erased, but the previous document is still partially-legible below.
Sir Sean Connery lobbied heavily for the part of William of Baskerville, having his agent contact director Jean-Jacques Annaud every two months. However, Annaud was initially not keen on casting Connory, because he associated him too much with his James Bond character. Numerous other actors were considered, including: Sir Michael Caine, Albert Finney, Richard Harris, Sir Ian McKellen, Roy Scheider, Jack Nicholson, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, Max von Sydow, Yves Montand, Vittorio Gassman, and Frederic Forrest. Annaud couldn't find the actor he wanted among them, but he was quickly won over when Connery read for the part: "What I was hearing was what I had heard inside me for almost two years. I stopped him on page 3".
The monastery was constructed as a replica on a hilltop outside Rome, making it the biggest exterior set built in Europe since Cleopatra (1963).
Bernardo Gui's guards speak Swiss German. They seem to be mercenaries in foreign service, which was common for Swiss soldiers in the Middle Ages.
This movie failed at the U.S. box office, grossing only $7.2 million. However, in Europe, it did exceptionally well, contributing to its overall worldwide gross of over $77 million, making it a bonafide hit.
All of the dialogue had to be re-dubbed in post-production, as the location sound was ruined by aircraft noise.
According to the DVD commentary by director Jean-Jacques Annaud, F. Murray Abraham, who had recently won an Academy Award for his performance in Amadeus (1984), was extremely difficult to work with. The actor was apparently an "egomaniac" on the set, always keen to remark that he was an Academy Award winner, while Sir Sean Connery was not. Ironically, Connery won an Academy Award the following year for his performance in The Untouchables (1987).
Nowadays, the only place where manuscripts and books are made with the same techniques and materials depicted in the movie is the abbey of Praglia on Padua (Veneto, Italy). It takes six months to a year to create a single page.
Author Umberto Eco was dismayed when he heard that Sir Sean Connery was cast in the part of William of Baskerville. His dissatisfaction with the finished movie was reportedly the reason for his reluctance to sell the movie rights to any of his other novels. However, in 2011, he gave a relatively positive review of the movie: "A book like this is a club sandwich, with turkey, salami, tomato, cheese, lettuce. And the movie is obliged to choose only the lettuce or the cheese, eliminating everything else - the theological side, the political side. It's a nice movie".
Annaud spent five years prepping this movie, travelling throughout the United States and Europe, searching for the perfect multi-ethnic cast with interesting and distinctive faces.
The character of the Venerable Jorge de Burgos, a Spanish monk, is Umberto Eco's tribute to Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, who was also blind, and who wrote "The Library of Babel", which inspired elements of the story. John Huston was cast, but he had to decline due to bad health.
Feodor Chaliapin Jr. was the son of Russian opera legend Feodor Chaliapin. Between the stress of wearing cataract contacts (which made Chaliapin's eyes tear continually), working on cold, damp sets, and doing his own fire stunts, Sr. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud was constantly concerned for his well-being. Chaliapin dismissed Annaud's concerns and performed beyond expectations.
The catacombs that appear in this movie are private, and belong to a small restaurant that the crew frequented during production. Initially, the plan was to shoot in Rome, but filming wasn't allowed.
When filming in the Eberbach monastery, the German police were assigned to protect the manuscripts and books used in the movie. Even with this measures, a key page was stolen. It's the one that appeared in a close-up on the desk of the missing monk, showing a capital "B". The shot used in the movie was made a year after this incident, the time that took to make a new page, two weeks before the release.
In the DVD commentary for this movie, director Jean-Jacques Annaud praised actor Ron Perlman as a professional who is very pleasant to work with. Perlman also played roles in Annaud's Quest for Fire (1981) and Enemy at the Gates (2001).
The Girl (Valentina Vargas) is the only female character in this movie.
When Jean-Jacques Annaud first met Umberto Eco, he told him that he felt that the book was personally written for him to direct, due to his life-long fascination with medieval churches.
From the story perspective, William von Baskerville and Adso of Melk are take-offs of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Hound of the Baskervilles is a well-known Sherlock Holmes story and, particularly in the book, William is presented as master of deductive reasoning from evidence. Meanwhile, Adso is his ignorant sidekick who writes down the stories.
In reference to the sex scene between Valentina Vargas and Christian Slater, director Jean-Jacques Annaud said: "What interested me was not the moment of the act but it was the tenderness after the act. I had placed my cameras for 'the end' so I ask them to make a little connection with a kiss, then to have a moment of rest, where the bodies come off. And I start to turn, they kiss, and I tell them in a soft voice, I'm close to them, to now pull away. And nothing happens. I think then that they need a little more time, a minute later I tell them 'it's fine now we're going to stop', and it doesn't stop ... I say 'good!' in a louder voice, 'now it's good we're going to cut soon'. Nothing happens ... It's been 9'30 minutes, and there Valentina gets up, she sees that I'm there, discovers me in a certain way, she discovers the cameras and she says to me: 'Is it OK?' ... 'Valentina, I've been happy for ten minutes already.' (...) Nothing happened physically, but psychologically everything was there ... "
William von Baskerville takes the philosophical position in the story of William of Ockham. (Ockham gives his name to the famous Ockham's Razor.) The two of them are both English friars involved in a dispute between Pope and Emperor about the roles of monasteries.
One of the actors considered for the role of Salvatore was Franco Franchi, popular low-budget slapstick comedian in Italy, notorious for his rubber-face expressions. He refused the role, in spite of the international acknowledgment it brought, because he wanted to stay faithful to his image as a comedian.
Valentina Vargas replaced Mathilda May as The Girl. May had to turn down the role because she was in a tight schedule with Lifeforce (1985).
This movie had been speculated to be one of George Lucas' influences behind Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999), and that William von Baskerville and Adso of Melk were the influences behind Qui-gon Jinn and Obi-wan Kenobi.
In spite of the original book's commercial and critical success, writer Umberto Eco was irked by its popularity compared to his other novels, which he regarded as much superior but never achieved the same level of fame. A few years before his death, Eco called Il Nome Della Rosa "his worst novel" and claimed: "I hate this book and I hope you hate it too. I have written six novels, the last five are better but [...] the most famous is always the first one." As of 2019, none of Eco's other novels has received a movie adaptation.
Hundreds of teenage boys were scouted before the production settled on Christian Slater.
Final theatrical movie of Helmut Qualtinger (Remigio de Varagine).
In the middle of the sex scene between Valentina Vargas and Christian Slater, the actress is seen putting a patch on her vagina, to avoid direct contact with actor's genitals. It proves that Jean-Jacques Annaud probably wanted real penetration in the scene, but that Vargas didn't agree. In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Slater said that during that scene he thought that "they were waiting for me to get an erection. They wanted to see the consummation. But there was no way. I couldn't perform while the camera was rolling."
Second-billed star F. Murray Abraham's first appearance is 81 minutes and 20 seconds into the film.
Christian Slater, who has the most screen time, is credited as "...and Christian Slater" as the last actor on the credits. He'd been an actor for some time, but this was his only second feature film role.
Christian Slater, who has the most screen time, is credited as "...and Christian Slater" as the last actor on the credits. He'd been an actor for some time, but this was his only second feature film role.
Amongst the other actors considered for the movie were John Huston (Jorge), Jack Palance (Malachia), Adolfo Celi or Philippe Noiret (the Abbott), Jean Rochefort (Bernardo Gui), and Michel Galabru (Remigio).
Adso's narration states that this movie took place in 1327. Pope John is mentioned during the debate. In 1327, the Pope was John XXII.
The cloak worn by Sir Alec Guinness in his role as Obi-wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) may have been used to costume one of the monks in this movie. The cloak was owned at the time by Bermans, a British costume supply house that was one of several such companies from which costumes for this movie were sourced.
After shooting ended, Jean-Jacques Annaud returned to his Munich headquarters to find it deserted and emptied. When he finally tracked down producer Bernd Eichinger, he was informed that Eichinger, to fund the movie, had sold the entire building.
English goth rock band The Fields Of The Nephilim use many samples of this film in between the tracks of their dark and atmospheric goth rock album The Nephilim.
Sir Sean Connery's co-star in this movie, Michael Lonsdale, played Drax, James Bond's archvillain in Moonraker (1979) opposite another Bond, Sir Roger Moore. Vernon Dobtcheff previously played Max Kalba, a spy selling a submarine tracking system, in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), also opposite Sir Roger Moore. Finally, both Christian Slater and Elya Baskin had brief roles in the James Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997). Lonsdale and Connery died only a month apart in 2020 (Lonsdale in September, Connery in October)
The cast includes two Oscar winners: Sir Sean Connery and F. Murray Abraham; and two Oscar nominees: Andrew Birkin and William Hickey.
The same year, Sir Sean Connery starred in Highlander (1986), in which he played the 2,437-year-old immortal Egyptian warrior Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, who is mentor to immortal sixteenth century Scotsman Connor McLeod (Christopher Lambert).
Spoilers
During the scene when the library is on fire, and William is telling Adso to leave, Sir Sean Connery caught on fire for real, and was only saved due to the quick thinking of director Jean-Jacques Annaud, who jumped on top of him and rolled him around on the ground.
For the wordless scene in which the girl seduces Adso, Jean-Jacques Annaud allowed Valentina Vargas to improvise. He didn't explain to Christian Slater what his co-star would be doing, to encourage a more authentic performance.
Christian Slater was 15 years old when he did his nude scene with Valentina Vargas, who is five years older.
A mix-up in the shooting schedule almost led to Feodor Chaliapin Jr. being killed for real. When director Jean-Jacques Annaud arrived on set to begin shooting Jorge de Burgos' death scene, the crew hadn't been told about it. Effects were set up hastily, and some safety precautions were bypassed. At one point during filming, part of the set's roof gave way, and a large flaming oak beam fell on top of Chaliapin, knocking him to the ground and cutting his head. The shot appears in the movie. Afterward, Annaud immediately raced over to make sure Chaliapin was okay. The actor replied, "I'm 81 years old, I'm going to die soon. Is the shot okay?" Chaliapin lived another 6 years.
Bernardo Gui was an inquisitor at the time this story is set. During 15 years in office, he sentenced about 900 people, and executed at least 42. In real life, he died in 1331, at the castle of Laroux.
