Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1502 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: English, Latin
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 123 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose is a flawed attempt to adapt Umberto Eco's highly convoluted medieval bestseller for the screen, necessarily excising much of the esoterica that made the book so compelling. Still, what's left is a riveting whodunit set in a grimly and grimily realistic 14th-century Benedictine monastery populated by a parade of grotesque characters, all of whom spend their time lurking in dark places or scuttling, half-unseen, in the omnipresent gloom. A series of mysterious and gruesome deaths are somehow tied up with the unwelcome attention of the Inquisition, sent to root out suspected heretical behavior among the monastic scribes whose lives are dedicated to transcribing ancient manuscripts for their famous library, access to which is prevented by an ingenious maze-like layout.

Enter Sean Connery as investigator-monk William of Baskerville (the Sherlock Holmes connection made explicit in his name) and his naive young assistant Adso (a youthful Christian Slater). The Grand Inquisitor Bernado Gui (F. Murray Abraham) suspects devilry; but William and Adso, using Holmesian forensic techniques, uncover a much more human cause: the secrets of the library are being protected at a terrible cost. A fine international cast and the splendidly evocative location compensate for a screenplay that struggles to present Eco's multifaceted story even partially intact; Annaud's idiosyncratic direction complements the sinister, unsettling aura of the tale ideally. --Mark Walker

Synopsis
Based on Umberto Eco's best-selling novel, THE NAME OF THE ROSE is a medieval whodunnit set in a 14th-century Italian monastery. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and a young novice (Christian Slater) arrive for a conference to find that several monks have been brutally murdered. In his attempt to solve the crimes, bizarre murders attributed to the devil--he risks being burned for heresy by the holy inquisition. William must challenge the authority of the Catholic Church by eschewing religious fervor in favour of rational thought. Renowned for the performance of the young, virginal Slater in a graphic love scene.