«The name of the rose» by Jean-Jacques Anno, France/Italy/Germany, 1986. In roles: Sean Connery, Christian Slater, Andrew Birkin, Fyodor Shalapin Jr., and others.
Jean-Jacques Anno took the name of the rose more than seriously. It took about five years to prepare for filming, during which the director traveled across Europe and America, collecting the acting band and choosing the nature. The film ended up in Germany, founded in 1136, but since the early 19th century, an inactive Cistercian monastery in Eberbach. The chief historical consultant was the famous French media historian Jacques Le Goff.
The actors came from all over the world to work on the film. Among them were the Scottish Sean Connery, the Americans Christian Slater, Ron Pearlman and F. Murray Abraham, the Austrian Helmut Qualtinger, the Soviet Emigrant Ilya Baskin, the French Michael Lonsdal and Vernon Dobcheff, the Germans Folker Prehtel and Michael Habek, the son of the great opera singer Födor Shalapin Jr., Valentina Vargas Chilia, British Andrew Birkin…
Initially, both Anne and Echo were opposed to Sean Connery’s claim to lead the role: they believed that the actor could not go beyond James Bond’s ample. When the director did choose Connery, the producers of Columbia Pictures opposed the decision, and Anna was forced to seek funding in Europe. It is worth saying that Connery eventually turned out to be almost the ideal choice: he was able to create a convincing and very humanistic image of Wilhelm Baskerville, in which faith, conscience and rationality are harmoniously intertwined.
In the U.S., the film failed, but in Europe the fees were very high, and in the end the painting’s revenues were almost four times higher than the budget. In addition, «The name of the rose» was covered by international prizes: Sean Connery was awarded the BAFTA and Deutscher Filmpreis awards, Jean-Jacques Anno received the Cesar Awards and David di Donatello Awards, and the work of producers, make-up artists, operators and artists was also celebrated. Today, the leading Internet portals of the IMDB and the «Cinopoise» have an estimated 8 to 10.
