Umberto Eco:

The Name of Rose

The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”

Adapted from Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, director Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a 14th century murder-mystery thriller starring Sean Connery（肖恩·康纳利爵士，官佐勋章获得者，奥斯卡奖、金球奖和英国影视艺术学会奖得主，他最为人所知的身份或许就是詹姆斯·邦德的第一任扮演者（他一共出演了7部007电影）。1987年，他凭借《铁面无私》获得了奥斯卡最佳男配角奖。他于2000年7月由英国女王伊丽莎白二世授勋为爵。在荧幕上，肖恩·康纳利以保持一口苏格兰腔调而著称，不管他在影片中所饰演角色的国籍为何。尽管较之当代的诸多性感偶像他的年龄偏大，却仍然凭借粗犷的外表和1.88米的身高多次被多家杂志提名为当代最具吸引力的男子） as a Sherlock Holmes-esque Franciscan monk called William of Baskerville. When a murder occurs at a secluded Benedictine Abbey, William is called in to investigate. As he and his apprentice, Adson von Melk (Christian Slater), delve deeper and deeper into the case, more dead bodies begin to turn up. Eventually, Bernardo Gui, an inquisitor played by F. Murray Abraham gets involved, but he may not have the best intentions. Sean Connery's performance earned him the award for Best Actor at the 1988 British Academy Awards.

  http://www.contactmusic.com/movie-review/thenameoftherose 

  Franciscan and Benedictine monks are dispatched to a remote monastery to resolve a dispute over doctrine in The Name of the Rose. When William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his novice Adso (a very young Christian Slater) arrive, they find the discussions have been stalled by the death of a young, talented scribe. The resident monks are all atwitter, wringing their hands and worrying that the murder is a sign of the apocalypse. Their fervor reaches a fever pitch as more of their brethren begin to turn up dead, describing some choice passages of Revelations. So William fires up his logic, ceaselessly name checks Aristotle and begins to piece together a mystery that involves secret secular knowledge, a labyrinthine library, and a struggle between wild religious superstition and cold reason.

   Based on Umberto Eco's dense and demanding bestseller, The Name of the Rose, is basically a love letter to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unfortunately, the film version never passes up an opportunity to remind us of that fact.There is some real detective work going on, and overall it's fun to watch the whodunit at the core of film unfold. But we get a deerstalker full of cheap deductions and observations along the way, laying a thin coating of crap over what is otherwise an effective murder mystery. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud and his staff of writers are too interested in intertextual cleverness to allow the audience to do the some simple sleuthing of its own. Is it too much to ask the audience to connect William of Baskerville with the Sherlock Holmes story that shares his name? Do we really need the awkward "It's elementary," delivered with a veritable wink? William even uses his powers of deduction to solve the mysterious location of the bathroom. Seriously.

  Annaud does a great job, however, conjuring up a godforsaken medieval monastery that is about a appealing as the black plague. And that's the point. We get a slaughterhouse with its steaming buckets of blood and fleshy pig entrails. How about a sluice gate garbage disposal system that doubles as dinner bell for local inhabitants? Foreboding stone buildings set atop misty mountain peaks? Check. The supporting roles are dressed up much the same, presumably by Hieronymus Bosch's casting director. Blind monks watch wits with raving religious lunatics, while in the background a sweaty, bald cleric punishes his flesh with a cat-o'-nine-tails. But the standout here is heretical hunchback Salvatore (Ron Perlman), whose unintelligible pan-linguistic babbling makes him an easy scapegoat when the Inquisition unexpectedly comes calling.

 But the window dressing is not enough to buoy the principle acting. Connery looks like he's having fun throughout, but he's too cavalier to be convincing as a 14th century monk. When Slater's face isn't over-expressing fear and confusion, it settles into a deer-in-the-headlights torpor. And the brief appearance of F. Murray Abraham as Inquisitor Bernardo Gui is limited to fiery glaring and grand proclamations.

  The Name of the Rose has the insight to use the setting and practices of the early Church for creepy effect, but treats the audience too much like Dr. Watson.

   本片改编自意大利符号学大师昂贝托·埃科的同名小说。

　  埃科（Umberto Eco,1932-），意大利哲学家、作家，当代著名的符号学家。1954年毕业于都灵大学，做过文化编辑，先后在都灵大学、米兰大学和佛罗伦萨大学任教，目前为波洛涅大学人文学院院长、符号学教授。主要学术著作有《开放的文本》、《符号学理论》、《符号学与语言哲学》、《阐释的局限》等。另有《玫瑰之名》、《福柯摆》等“严肃的畅销小说”多部。他的对话录《诠释与过度诠释》中译后，曾在国内引起过巨大的反响。

   埃科最初打算将本书以主人公的名字命名为“梅勒克的阿德索”，后来将之命名为“玫瑰之名”。这一名称来自于古老谚语“昔日的玫瑰只存在于它的名字之中”，正切合本书以至埃科一生研究的一个重大主题“符号学和隐喻”。导演将原著探讨宗教哲学的故事进行通俗化处理，增强了娱乐效果，但整个故事编排过于紊乱繁复，不过气氛控制仍较出色，将欧洲黑暗的中世纪宗教派别斗争淋漓细致表现出来，整体风格沉郁阴暗，令人压抑。结局的铺排别出心裁，有讽喻意味。也有评论认为本片过于商业化，减弱了原着中的哲学思辩味道。影片采用阿德索年迈时追忆往事的叙述方法，反映了他年轻时和自己的恩师威廉在意大利修道院中的一段奇异经历，塑造了这个为保护人类文明精神财富而英勇斗争人物形象，揭示出社会动荡和文化变革时期不同阶层和不同人物的心态。创作者以生动逼真的视听形象和大量的隐喻象征手法，表现出深邃的哲学观点和美学主张。片名本身就含有丰富的寓意。《玫瑰之名》是指威廉这一人类文明的缩影，还是指那本已荡然无存但不会遗忘的“怪书”，还是那个纯朴自然，象征整个女性的农村姑娘？观众都可以根自己的理解去判定。该片在西方大受欢迎，并获1987年法国凯萨奖最佳外国语影片奖，联邦德国联德影展最佳外语片奖和1988年英国影视学院最佳男演员奖。