The Name of the Rose: Medieval, Semiotic Murder Mystery.

The Name of the Rose: A Dark, Semiotic, Medieval Mystery.

By

James Zaworski

“The Name of the Rose” is a film based on the novel written by Umberto Eco, and it stars Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham and Christian Slater, put out in the late 1980s.  I first saw and enjoyed this film with my father and eldest brother in the early 1990s.  It is a murder mystery set in a dark and dank abbey in the mountains of northern Italy in the 13^th century.  The film was given lukewarm reviews and had commensurate box office sales in the United States, but was critically and popularly acclaimed in Europe and the rest of the world.

The Plot.

William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his apprentice (Christian Slater), are just arriving at the abbey in the mountains of northern Italy when William begins seeing signs that a monk has recently passed away, as he spies the fresh grave in the graveyard from his window.  This William is a real sleuth, and definitely has the powers of observation, logic and reason on his side.  The abbot is a bit shocked that William knows about this death, where a monk apparently fell out of, or was pushed out of, a window from a bell tower.  William investigates, and concludes from the ‘crime scene’ that this was a suicide and not a murder.  The monk in question went up into a tower in the middle of the night, in a hailstorm.

Most of the monks in the abbey are hideously ugly or grotesque, except for a few “beautiful boys” who tempt the others with ‘unnatural caresses’.   Sometimes there are bouts of self flagellation to punish the sinful desire of the flesh.

As William and sidekick explore the abbey (they are Franciscans and are part of a delegation that is to be part of a debate against a papal delegation about some issues of Christ’s poverty and the church’s poverty), they meet other characters such as a hunchback named Salvatore, who tried to kill William, his master Remeggio, a fat monk (both were formerly of the heretical Dulcinites, who believed in the poverty of the church and slaughtered fat bishops and priests and gave their property to the poor), an old blind man named venerable Yurgi, his sidekick Malackea, a handsome Greek translator, and a good natured herbalist.

Soon, the Greek translator is found dead, and his body has been plunged into a vat of pig’s blood.  When taken out and examined, it is noted that his index finger is black, as well as his tongue.  Now the real murder mystery begins.  William soon finds tracks in the snow of someone that dragged the body to the kitchen, and concludes that he was murdered.  A counter theory is proposed that these are two of the trumpets, signs of the apocalypse in the Book of Revelation.  It is predicted the next murder will be in water, the third trumpet. 

Well, the third victim, a corpulent and nearly albino monk who was flagellating himself earlier, is found in a bath of water, confirming the apolcalyptic predictions but also William’s prediction that the killer has struck again, as the victim has a blackened tongue and finger.

The papal delegation arrives and they bring a special guest: Bernardo Gui of the Inquisition.  William had sparred with this chap before, disagreeing in a heresy case, and was tortured and forced to recant his decision. 

In the mean time, William’s sidekick gets laid by a peasant girl who scrambles up daily to the abbey to trade sexual favors for a bit of food.  She gets caught with Salvatore this time by Bernardo, in ‘flagrante delicto’, as it were, with a black cockerel and a black cat.  This proves, to his mind, that she is a witch.

William again contests the decision, and knows that the key to the whole mystery is a book written in Greek that men will kill for, or that the book itself kills.  William and sidekick manage to get into the library, but encounter a labyrinth.  They had found a clue in the form of a parchment with Greek written in lemon juice that gives the secret hiding place of the book.  Just as they arrive, the old blind Yurgi is there with the book, and gives it William to read.  William knows this is the lost book of Aristotle, on comedy.  He is wearing a glove, and does not get poisoned when he would normally lick his finger to turn the page.  Frustrated by this, Yurgi grabs the book and escapes, eating the pages as he goes.  They ask him why is he afraid of a book?  He says that laughter kills fear, and fear is needed, because we need to fear God.  If we laugh at God, all will be chaos.  At that point, they catch up with him, and he starts a fire in the library.  The library goes up in flames, William is trapped inside and tries to save as many books as possible, then, as the hunchback and master  and girl are about to be burned at the stake as heretics, the crowd of peasants saves the girl, and Bernardo gets killed as well.

William escapes the flames and he and sidekick ride off, and the whole account was written by sidekick when he was an old man.

Review.

The acting in the movie is excellent.  Sean Connery puts on a convincing performance, and Christian Slater’s debut is also very good.  The directing is good as well, and the feel of the dark, and dank “Dark Ages” are brought to life in this dimly lit film.  No sunny days, no blue skies, only cloudy and cold days in a mountaintop abbey are displayed.

I’ve read Umberto Eco’s novel “The Name of the Rose” after seeing the film based on the novel.  This is one of the few movies that remain quite faithful to the book.  Of course the book is more detailed and quite long.

Source: http://jameszaworski.blogspot.com/2010/08/name-of-rose-medieval-semiotic-murder.html