THE NAME OF THE ROSE
This is a professional (though far from complete, of course) adaptation of Umberto Eco's great novel The Name of the Rose (which, it occurs to me, has not yet been reviewed on this site). As with The Lord of the Rings, the film version is presumably meant for people who have not read the book. It may even lead people to read it. The film of The Lord of the Rings did, I know, though I personally have never watched it. I gave up on it when I heard they had omitted Tom Bombadil. (Tom Bombadil!!)
The best thing about Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose, apart from some great acting, is its realistic depiction of the horror of existence in the late Middle Ages, the sheer grimness of life under a corrupt yet omnipotent and omnipresent Church riddled with superstition and ignorance, and made even worse by the rise to absolute power of the Inquisition, here represented by Bernardo Gui, a historical figure who was Bishop of Lodève and, as Inquisitor of Toulouse under Pope Clement V from 1307 to 1323, was largely responsible for the Cathar genocide.
At the onset of what is called the Medieval Inquisition, the great crusades to the Holy Lands were over. These, in any case, were against pagans rather than heretics. In the Practica Inquisitionis of 1323, written by the Dominican friar Bernardo Gui, he specifies amongst his targets Jews that have been converted and then relapsed. The Medieval Inquisition can be considered to occur between 1235 and 1400, and is characterised by the direct control of the Pope, administration by the monastic orders of the Dominicans and Franciscans, and finding its opponents in the Cathars, the Spiritual Franciscans and Waldesians, all genuine schismatic reform movements
In our book, Gui clashes head on with the fictitious Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville (a cross between the contemporary Friar William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes, played perfectly by Sean Connery) when they are both independently called upon to investigate a series of murders in a labyrinthine hill-top monastery full of spooky monks lurking in the shadows - it is all shadows - quite as bad as anything ever seen in any late-night Gothic horror movie. Brother William looks for clues and uses "reason" (a rare and suspect commodity on those days) while the appalling Bernardo Gui searches for heretics and witches and finds both all too easily.
And the name of the film - of the rose - of the girl with whom young Adso the novice falls in love ...?
If you haven't read the book, see the film - you may end up reading the book as well. If you have read it, then let me simply say that in the film the whole horrible Medieval thing is there before your eyes, and I for one saw it more clearly than I had ever imagined it while reading, or even while writing. I have been accused of dwelling on the awfulness of it all in my books: after seeing this I think I understated it.
JM
