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It's a great example of how a film can portray very accurately and honouring the original book it is based off, written by Umberto Eco.
But not really. I'll explain myself. The book is a historical thriller where a XIVth century Franciscan friar, William of Baskerville, alter ego of William of Ockham (the one of the razor), investigates a murder mystery in a Middle Age abbey in Italy. This is excellently portrayed in Jean-Jacques Annaud's film, by Sean Connery, Christian Slater, F. Murray Abraham and Ron Perlman as leading and main secondary actors.
But the book is much more than that. It is a whole and very academical encyclopaedia of the society, art, politics and even the heretical lines of thought that agitated Europe and the Church during this very specific short period of 15-20 years of history. And all that is dispatched in just a few minutes. On the contrary, an anecdote that lasts for a brief paragraph in the book, deserves a full 10-minute scene in the movie: a sex scene. Obviously.
To summarize, and taking into account that the film only tells the mundane events of the noir detective plot of the book, I can only recommend watching this film, or rewatch it, and (re)discover the many hidden Easter eggs that Eco hid in the story. Such as the character of the blind librarian, Jorge de Burgos, a tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian genius writer, who was blind and wrote cryptic stories located in libraries, his personal paradise, or maybe hell.
Definitely, watch it! Or... much better, read it!
But not really. I'll explain myself. The book is a historical thriller where a XIVth century Franciscan friar, William of Baskerville, alter ego of William of Ockham (the one of the razor), investigates a murder mystery in a Middle Age abbey in Italy. This is excellently portrayed in Jean-Jacques Annaud's film, by Sean Connery, Christian Slater, F. Murray Abraham and Ron Perlman as leading and main secondary actors.
But the book is much more than that. It is a whole and very academical encyclopaedia of the society, art, politics and even the heretical lines of thought that agitated Europe and the Church during this very specific short period of 15-20 years of history. And all that is dispatched in just a few minutes. On the contrary, an anecdote that lasts for a brief paragraph in the book, deserves a full 10-minute scene in the movie: a sex scene. Obviously.
To summarize, and taking into account that the film only tells the mundane events of the noir detective plot of the book, I can only recommend watching this film, or rewatch it, and (re)discover the many hidden Easter eggs that Eco hid in the story. Such as the character of the blind librarian, Jorge de Burgos, a tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentinian genius writer, who was blind and wrote cryptic stories located in libraries, his personal paradise, or maybe hell.
Definitely, watch it! Or... much better, read it!
