The production of the 1986 film The Name of the Rose, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, was marked by intense dedication and unexpected behind-the-scenes struggles. Director Annaud had become captivated by Umberto Eco’s novel, a murder mystery set in a medieval monastery, after reading it and feeling an immediate personal connection. To ensure historical accuracy, Annaud consulted with medievalist Jacques Le Goff and his colleagues to meticulously reconstruct the costumes, architecture, and religious liturgy of the era. He said, “Listen, boy …” and started reading. A murder mystery about monks in the middle ages fighting for the fictional missing part of Aristotle’s Poetics, i read an article about a curious book that had great reviews in Italy. Since childhood, I had been fascinated with medieval and religious architecture, and Aristotle’s Poetics is my favourite literary work. The author, was going to be in France for one night and agreed to meet me at his hotel and that I would drive him to Charles de Gaulle airport, i learned that Umberto Eco. Which looked like the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes – Umberto was a man of great humour, and he met me wearing a deerstalker, with a pipe in his mouth, the first thing I saw was his shadow on the hotel staircase. In the car, I asked questions: what sort of shoes would the Franciscans have been wearing.
For the lead role of William of Baskerville, Annaud sought a lesser-known actor but was ultimately convinced by Sean Connery’s audition. The director recalled the moment Connery arrived at his door, screenplay in hand, and began reading the dialogue. Annaud noted that Connery’s delivery perfectly matched the voice he had imagined while reading the book, providing an immediate sense of authenticity. The friar who investigates the deaths, and travelled the world to watch plays featuring great actors in their 50s, i wanted an unknown to play William of Baskerville.
The casting process for other roles involved unique circumstances. Christian Slater, who played the novice Adso, arrived for his audition after drinking and failing to learn his lines. Despite his mother—the casting director Mary Jo—attempting to turn him away, Annaud insisted on hiring the 16-year-old actor. On set, filming was fraught with hazards; during the library fire scene, a piece of timber fell on actor Feodor Chaliapin Jr., and Connery’s costume caught fire. Despite suffering a scar, Chaliapin remained undeterred, showing more concern for the quality of the take than his own health.
Ron Perlman, who portrayed the character Salvatore, brought his own intensity to the project. Having worked with Annaud on Quest for Fire, Perlman was eager to tackle the complex role of an intellectually challenged hunchback who communicated in a hybrid of seven languages. To build the character, Perlman randomly selected words from translations of the book to construct Salvatore’s unique speech patterns. He also worked with a dialect coach to develop a lullaby for his character’s final scene at the stake, which was designed to convey a childlike, unaware wonder despite the imminent execution.
Technical constraints posed significant challenges for the cast. During a particularly demanding scene where Perlman’s character had to spit at Connery, the actor found himself unable to go through with it. Connery eventually pulled him aside and told him, “Ron, if you don’t actually spit in my face, we’ll be here all day.” Motivated, Perlman delivered, but the requirement for multiple camera angles—including profiles, close-ups, and over-the-shoulder shots—meant he had to repeat the action 16 times throughout the day. He said: “I don’t know, I didn’t have to write any of that.
Behind the scenes, producers faced financial strain. Producer Bernd Eichinger admitted to selling the film’s production office building in Munich to help fund the project. Meanwhile, for his own transformation into Salvatore, Perlman spent over 13 hours in the makeup chair to apply a prosthetic hump, leaving him with little time before filming began on the day he was tortured by F. Murray Abraham’s character, the inquisitor Bernardo Gui.
