Description

The Name of the Rose is a gothic medieval mystery thriller set in a 14th-century Italian monastery. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and a young novice (Christian Slater) arrive for a conference to find that several monks have been murdered in mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his wit and intelligence. ... Read more

Reviews (66)

Interesting Medieval Movie
Sean Connery plays William of Baskerville, a 14th cenutry Franciscan Monk who comes to an abbey high in the Italian Alps and investigates a series of murders that surround a mysterious book.

A young Christian Slater plays his companion/student. Connery is similar to a Sherlock Holmes, using very modern methods of investigation during this dark ages period.

The Monastery is home to all sorts of creepy monks including Ron Perlman playing a hunched backed simpleton. William find himself the target of heresy charges by a vengeful cardinal portrayed by the villian F. Murray Abraham.

The movie is somewhat slow but not in a bad way. It's a dark but thought provoking movie with religious overtones. Throughout is an on-going battle between William and some of the older monks. It seems the older Monks want the book supressed because it's a comedy and comedy is thought to be the work of the devil.

I've heard that the movie doesn't hold a candle to the book, but since I've never read it I have nothing to compare it to.

The film shows Connery's richest & diverse acting talents !
From the opening scenes you are mesmerized at the story and characters throughout this movie. The setting takes place in an old Italian Monastery where several Monks have died in mysterious ways and Connery, as a fellow Monk of the Order, is called in to investigate what is behind it. I was especially enlightened to this movie when on a trip to Europe I took a Rhine River Cruise and had actually visited the German Monastery where the movie was shot. The props created for the altar scenes are still there for visitors to see. As this movie unfolds the plot thickens testing your wits as to what is really going on in this remote monestary, heightened by the intervention of the Grand Inquisitor because the movie takes place during the period of the Inquisition in Europe. The acting is superb because the casting was excellent. The movie has enough historical fact and content that the viewer will learn something about medieval history as well as being entertained. If you are a Connery fan you will enjoy this movie for its content and story line. As with any GOOD actor you know Connery will not become involved in a bad script, you will not be disappointed with this Monk that he portrays. See it, rent it, buy it for your home library, you will watch it over - and - over again !!!

A Winner in Every Way
I have seen this fine film 5 or 6 times and each time I see something new and fascinating in it. Umberto Eco's novel was a complex story to adapt to a major film, and this was done with skill and intelligence by Andrew Birkin, Gérard Brach, Howard Franklin & Alain Godard. The idea of such a tragic murder solved with only the tools of the time is nothing short of brilliant. I am wondering how much the BBC television series "Cadfael" with Derek Jacobi is based on this motion picture. Both are superb in their own way.

If you enjoy a film with mystery, brilliant performances, gothic photography and magnificent art direction, you will enjoy this masterpiece. Be warned, however... you will require an attention span. This is not a film kids will understand.

Excellent adaptation.
How do you take a long and very dense book, and turn it into a cohesive and quickly-paced film? The makers of THE NAME OF THE ROSE answered that riddle.

All around, this film has everything going for it. The performances are compelling and right on--no one acts like a 20th Century actor trying to act 14th century. The setting is gorgeous, although the squalor of the less fortunate is vividly conveyed. The intricate almost Escher-like quality of the labyrinth within the monastery is an amazing feat of set design and engineering.

Most of all, it's the script and direction that carry the day. Given how much information had to be siphoned and sifted from Umberto Eco's novel, the screenwriters and director Jean-Jacques Annaud masterfully created a taut and convincing murder mystery without getting bogged down in the details. The only time I thought it did was during the dragged out Inquisition scenes. However, these scenes did represent what was at risk for these characters. All in all, this is a marvelous film which murder mystery fans or fans of period pieces will want to have in their collections.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS.

Dark Rose
1986's The Name Of The Rose is a dark, deep mystery set in the unusual setting of a medieval Italian abbey and is based on Umberto Eco's bestseller. Sean Connery stars as William of Baskerville, an English monk who is sent to the secluded abbey to investigate a murder. Along with his apprentice Adson von Melk (a young Christian Slater in just his third film), they dive into the case in which more dead bodies start turning up. F. Murray Abraham (in his first film after winning the Oscar for Amadeus) plays Bernardo Gui, an icy inquisitor who gets involved in the case, but whose motives are questionable. William struggles to solve the case against the intense religious fervor of the time and the film tries to show the conflicts between religion and justice. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud captures the dark and dank feeling of medieval times and captures the period well. The cast gives strong performances, especially Mr. Abraham in yet another menacing role. ... Read more

Amazon.com

A hit in Europe but a flop in the U.S.--where it was trimmed, rescored, and given a newending--Luc Besson's The Big Blue has endured as a minor cult classic for its gorgeousphotography (both on land and underwater) and dreamy ambiance. Jean-Marc Barr is a sweet andsensitive but passive presence as Jacques, a diver with a unique connection to the sea. He has theastounding ability to slow his heartbeat and his circulation on deep dives, "a phenomenon that'sonly been observed in whales and dolphins… until now," remarks one scientist. Kooky New Yorkinsurance adjuster Joanna (Rosanna Arquette at her most delightfully flustered and endearingly sexybest) melts after falling into his innocent baby blues, and she follows him to Italy, where he'scontinuing a lifelong competition with boyhood rival Enzo (Jean Reno in a performance both comic andtouching).

Besson's first English-language production looks more European thanHollywood, and it suffers from a tin ear for the language. At times it feels more like an IMAXundersea documentary than a drama about free divers, but the lush and lovely images create a fairytale dimension to Jacques's story, a veritable Little Merman. More dolphin than man, he's sotorn between earthly love and aquatic paradise that even his dreams call him to the sea (in asequence more eloquent than any speech).

Besson has expanded the film by 50 minutes for his director's cut, which adds little story but slowsthe contemplative pace until it practically floats in time, and has restored Eric Serra'ssynthesizer-heavy score, a slice of 1980s pop that at times borders on disco kitsch. Mostimportantly, he has restored his original ending, which echoes the fairy tale he tells Joannaearlier in the film and leaves the story floating in the inky blackness of ambiguity. --SeanAxmaker ... Read more

Reviews (99)

Long film
I have not seen the shorter version, and can give no comparision between the two cuts.
I bought the movie because I was impressed with Luc Besson's other films, such as La Femme Nikita and Leon. The story is about 2 divers, deep free diving divers. Very deep, very dangerous. The competitiveness and relationship between these 2 men is most definately love-hate, with Reno's charactor not being able to be himself without his competition and friend.
Very long, as stated perviously, with 49 minutes of footage added, the picture moves along at a fair pace. This is not an action move. Even the dive sequences are not fast paced; they move to where you are moving with them, down to their deep depths which they are certain will challenge them, but not kill them, or at least fairly certain. With Arquette's character, we are introduced to the love interest. Reno warns his friend to avoid her and concentrate on his work, but he is in to her in a very big way.
I am not sure who to recommend this film to, but it is definately worth a look.

Unfortunately, the Director's Cut left me feeling empty.
Well, I've read the other reviews and I find myself most decidedly in the minority. The movie is good, but it's not great. On the other hand, neither is it terrible. My first experience with The Big Blue was the American version, cut shorter and with Bill Conti's score in place of Eric Serra's. The Director's Cut (D.C.) is both longer and darker.

Okay, I'll say it. I like the American version better. Period. It was, perhaps, my all-time favorite movie. But things have since gone downhill. Eric Serra's music is good, don't get me wrong, but I don't feel that it has the emotional impact of Conti's. Yes, we're talking about something very subjective here. If the D.C. is your first experience with this film, then you'll be lucky enough to enjoy it without having to compare and contrast. However, for me, something was missing in this new release. I found many of the extra scenes superfluous to both the story and the character arcs. For example, there's an added humorous scene midway through the film that exists, supposedly, to show that Enzo likes to take chances and flex his masculinity. I agree; the scene depicts just that. But there are plenty of other scenes that do the same thing; this one is redundant. (On a side note, the endings of each version are virtually identical -- don't let someone tell you otherwise. Ultimately, this movie is about a man's struggle to choose between Humanity and Nature, and that message remains unchanged from one version to the next.)

Regarding the scoring, there are points in the D.C. where a given scene just didn't work for me with Serra's music (sometimes Besson chose no music at all, and the silence that falls over the action is absolutely stifling). I don't believe that Serra's score did the movie justice. Conti was able to capture the flavor of the film much more easily, yet without being disrespectful to Besson's message. At best, Serra hit the mark only five times out of ten.

To be fair, I can't honestly say that my take on the D.C. is based solely on its own merits, as I saw the American version first. I'd suggest that you watch both and decide for yourself. Of course, it might prove difficult to find the older one these days (outside of rental stores, that is).

In short, I was disappointed that they didn't come out with a DVD that had both the American and Director's versions. I realize that'd be more expensive, but it would've been a nice touch (and I'd have paid extra for it). I'm glad I saw the D.C., but I'd much rather own on DVD the American version and I regret that I now think less of the movie than I had previously. I would have given it two and a half stars, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant a solid two, considering how much I loved the American version; despite its flaws, this is still a pretty cool movie.

ETMR - The Big Blue
1. Humanity: Many critics claim the central themes portrayed by the two male protagonists are the search for freedom and the proclamation of one's individuality. Yet both Jacques and Enzo are undeniably not free, having self-imposed chains tied both to the sea and their fantasies about the sea. In what ways does the film express the dangers of escapism and sentimental loneliness?

2. Implications: All three characters are tied to their worlds. Enzo is trapped in his status as the best, Johanna cannot move beyond her desire for a normal life with Jacques, and Jacques is unwilling to depart from the last words of his father. Do you think this film romanticizes these issues, or criticizes them?

3. Evolution: Besson (the director) stresses the super-human qualities of both men. Do you think these qualities are tied to their fate with the sea, or do they have a choice about their fate?

4. Realism: There is a magic realism in the film that cannot be ignored, form the magnetic pull of the ocean, to the unhuman mysteries beneath. Without these magical elements, does the movie stand on its own as a piece of reality?

5. Stageplay: Much of the acting in the film is overdramatized, from the sensual yet sentimental plumbings of Johana, the deaf silence from Jacques, to the heavy and bawdy nature of Enzo. Do the actors work together in a cohesive whole, or do they jarr the story and create separate entities upon themselves?

Please put the Original US Version on DVD!!!
Like many others who discovered this well overlooked film many years ago, I was greatly disappointed in the Director's Cut. For starters, the US Version's Music Score surpasses the European Score by leapyears and this Director's Cut uses that cheesy synthesizery European Score. :-( Secondly, the additional footage simply adds a little more pointless skin in the form of nudity, but adds little or nothing to the overall story except about 50 minutes of your time. It feels like it's dragging compared to the original US Version and often gives you more information than you wanted - sometimes it's best to not tell the audience everything and let them fill in the blanks themselves. The original US Version is one of my favorite films of all times, but this updated Director's Version doesn't make my cut because the extra stuff is pointless and long and the European Soundtrack is horrible!!!

Universal Truth: Review from Power vs. Force by D.R. Hawkins
[Refers to original theatrical release.] "We've made [kinesiological] calibrations of various kinds of records of athletic achievement, including movies. Of all the movies about sports studied, the French film 'The Big Blue' produced the highest calibration. This is the story of Jacques Mayol, the Frenchman who held the world record for deep-sea diving for many years (until very recently). The movie calibrates at the extraordinary level of 700 (universal truth), and has the capacity to put viewers in a high state of consciousness -- the manager of one movie theater that showed it described audiences wandering out lost in silence or crying with joy they couldn't describe." David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D, from "Power vs. Force", page 173 ... Read more

Description

Pinhead is back -- and this time, he's out for more blood -- in the fourth and most terrifying chapter of the wildly popular HELLRAISER series! Spanning three generations, this horrifying story chronicles the struggle of one family who unknowingly created the puzzle box that opened the doors of Hell -- setting the diabolical Pinhead free to spread evil here on earth! Now, the family must fight to slam those doors shut again ... but not before Pinhead wages one of his fiercest and most frightening battles ever! ... Read more

Description

Keith Carradine (Nashville, The Tie That Binds) stars asia former pop star who have it all, until he felliin love with theiwrong gangster's girl andihad his throat cutifor his sins. Nowia drifter, he lives inia haze of amnesia, alcohol andimisery, until one day, he rediscovers himself andia chanceifor vengeance. Legendary director Samuel Fuller's (Naked Kiss, Pickup oniSouth Street)final film isia raw, powerful andistylish masterpieceiin theigenre that he helpedito define. Based onitheiclassic crime-novel byiDavid Goodis (Shoot theiPiano Player), this brutal tale strikes withtheiimpact ofia hammer blowito theihead (literally!). Fantomaisiproudito present theiU.S. premiere of this modern classic, from oneof cinema's most original visionaries, inia special new edition. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A must-own for Fuller fans
Jean-Luc Godard described Samuel Fuller's films as "cinema fist," and that's certainly true of Fuller's last film, the underrated _Street of No Return_. A bizarre, fast-moving noirish cocktail of love and death (with an unexpected ending that feels more like fantasy than fact), _Street_ bears the director's indelible stamp on every frame. The use of Lisbon locations to stand in for an unnamed American city creates a perverse visual poetry out of the production's budgetary constraints.

Keith Carradine acquits himself well as the film's male lead, but it's Bill Duke as a Black police chief who explodes all over the screen. The DVD from Fantoma features a very good video transfer and remixed audio; special features include an atrocious audio commentary from Carradine (couldn't they have roped a few film scholars into doing this instead?), a text interview with Fuller, and a marvelous new featurette with plenty of screen time devoted to Fuller's outsized personality.

Fuller's autobiography _A Third Face_ mentions that, as was often the case with his projects in the '70s and '80s, this film was taken out of his hands at the last minute and re-edited. The version of _Street of No Return_ that he intended us to see is probably lost by now. But even in this shortened version, it's a ripping good swan song. No one before or since has made films like Fuller, and it's our loss.

Truncated Fuller
This is Samuel Fuller's last film, 1989, starring Keith Carradine as a former pop star (wearing overly glam clothes and singing schmaltzy guitar and orchestra 80s pop songs to an adoring audience in flashback) who loses the girl of his dreams and wanders into the life of a drunken bum after getting his vocal cords cut for his dallying with the girl, a mobster's babe. No cords, no singing. No singing, no money. Et cetera.

Based on a strong hard boiled novel by David Goodis, ca. 1950s, the film is, unfortunately, a travesty of the novel. While the book does a great job of linking Eugene's (Michael in the movie) descent into the lower depths with the corruption of the world around him--cop and criminal both--the movie short changes the viewer on everything: the plot, the characters, emotional resonance.

The movie was made in Portugal with Portuguese and French actors in most roles, along with Americans Keith Carradine and Bill Duke. In fact, the film feels way too much like it's a B minus movie made exclusively for the European market, with its truncated, cliched dialogue. You've seen these movies before, in which just about all the characters spout dialogue that's tailor made for actors who struggle with English, since it's not their native language. Because of that, the script is made up of short lines, easy to memorize and pronounce for non-English speaking folks. This, of course, tends to substantially limit the depth of emotion at any given point in any of these films. And that is, unfortunately, the case with Street of No Return.

Carradine is fine, but he doesn't have much to do. The book portrays Eugene's emotions far more deeply than does the film, so that the reader understands--FEELS--how it is that this man could sink so low after the loss of a love. The movie moves through this plot point(s) so abruptly that it's basically impossible to sympathize with Michael/Eugene; we merely watch him go through the motions of drinking and reacting to stuff as it happens. But even the stuff that happens is cursorily or tritely portrayed. A race riot in the beginning of the film is much too stagey to look credible, for example.

The three stars are for the concept of the film which is great, and also for the extras, principally the terrific 32-minute featurette on the Making of Street of No Return, in which Fuller is interviewed on the set. He's quite a character and evokes great sympathy, with his strong views on society, violence, and hypocrisy. Moving around the set with an 11-inch cigar in his mouth, he looks like--and was--the last of the legendary maverick directors.

The featurette gets five stars; the film gets about 2 and a half. Hence the three stars for the DVD. ... Read more

Description

From master filmmaker Samuel Fuller (The Naked Kiss) comes this twisted tale of revenge and redemption! Keith Carradine (Nashville) stars as a former pop star who had it all until he fell in love with the wrong gangster's girl and had his throat cut for his sins. Now a drifter, he lives in a haze of amnesia and misery until one day he rediscovers himself and a chance for vengeance. Based on the classic crime novel by David Goodis (Shoot the Piano Player), Fuller's final film is a raw, powerful, and stylish masterpiece in the genre he helped define. This brutal tale, a modern classic from one of cinema's most original visionaries, strikes with the impact of a hammer blow to the head, literally! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A must-own for Fuller fans
Jean-Luc Godard described Samuel Fuller's films as "cinema fist," and that's certainly true of Fuller's last film, the underrated _Street of No Return_. A bizarre, fast-moving noirish cocktail of love and death (with an unexpected ending that feels more like fantasy than fact), _Street_ bears the director's indelible stamp on every frame. The use of Lisbon locations to stand in for an unnamed American city creates a perverse visual poetry out of the production's budgetary constraints.

Keith Carradine acquits himself well as the film's male lead, but it's Bill Duke as a Black police chief who explodes all over the screen. The DVD from Fantoma features a very good video transfer and remixed audio; special features include an atrocious audio commentary from Carradine (couldn't they have roped a few film scholars into doing this instead?), a text interview with Fuller, and a marvelous new featurette with plenty of screen time devoted to Fuller's outsized personality.

Fuller's autobiography _A Third Face_ mentions that, as was often the case with his projects in the '70s and '80s, this film was taken out of his hands at the last minute and re-edited. The version of _Street of No Return_ that he intended us to see is probably lost by now. But even in this shortened version, it's a ripping good swan song. No one before or since has made films like Fuller, and it's our loss.

Truncated Fuller
This is Samuel Fuller's last film, 1989, starring Keith Carradine as a former pop star (wearing overly glam clothes and singing schmaltzy guitar and orchestra 80s pop songs to an adoring audience in flashback) who loses the girl of his dreams and wanders into the life of a drunken bum after getting his vocal cords cut for his dallying with the girl, a mobster's babe. No cords, no singing. No singing, no money. Et cetera.

Based on a strong hard boiled novel by David Goodis, ca. 1950s, the film is, unfortunately, a travesty of the novel. While the book does a great job of linking Eugene's (Michael in the movie) descent into the lower depths with the corruption of the world around him--cop and criminal both--the movie short changes the viewer on everything: the plot, the characters, emotional resonance.

The movie was made in Portugal with Portuguese and French actors in most roles, along with Americans Keith Carradine and Bill Duke. In fact, the film feels way too much like it's a B minus movie made exclusively for the European market, with its truncated, cliched dialogue. You've seen these movies before, in which just about all the characters spout dialogue that's tailor made for actors who struggle with English, since it's not their native language. Because of that, the script is made up of short lines, easy to memorize and pronounce for non-English speaking folks. This, of course, tends to substantially limit the depth of emotion at any given point in any of these films. And that is, unfortunately, the case with Street of No Return.

Carradine is fine, but he doesn't have much to do. The book portrays Eugene's emotions far more deeply than does the film, so that the reader understands--FEELS--how it is that this man could sink so low after the loss of a love. The movie moves through this plot point(s) so abruptly that it's basically impossible to sympathize with Michael/Eugene; we merely watch him go through the motions of drinking and reacting to stuff as it happens. But even the stuff that happens is cursorily or tritely portrayed. A race riot in the beginning of the film is much too stagey to look credible, for example.

The three stars are for the concept of the film which is great, and also for the extras, principally the terrific 32-minute featurette on the Making of Street of No Return, in which Fuller is interviewed on the set. He's quite a character and evokes great sympathy, with his strong views on society, violence, and hypocrisy. Moving around the set with an 11-inch cigar in his mouth, he looks like--and was--the last of the legendary maverick directors.

The featurette gets five stars; the film gets about 2 and a half. Hence the three stars for the DVD. ... Read more