"The Name of the Rose" is the first novel of Umberto Eco, a famous contemporary Italian writer who is a collection of novelists, semioticists, aestheticians, historians, philosophers, etc. Some people commented that this is a suspenseful reasoning masterpiece describing serial murders in medieval churches; others commented that it is a book that reflects the ignorance, despotism, and darkness of the medieval church. But to me it is an encyclopedic novel. The author conveyed a lot of information related to architecture, medicine, grammar, linguistics, semiotics, The context of the work, the opposition between theology and science, the discussion of Christ's coming to the world, etc. Reading such a novel is like looking up and seeing the stars in the sky, but those stars are too far away from me.
"The Name of the Rose", the story begins with the tracing of a manuscript. An elderly monk Adesso wrote in the memory of his experience with his mentor, a Franciscan monk William, during a visit to a monastery. There are two traces. One is that William, who was between the pope and the emperor, tried his best to defend the Franciscans who were regarded as pagans by the pope, which involved a lot of theology. The other line is that William was entrusted by the abbot to pursue the secret of the murder, that is, the detective part. Why is such a story that has nothing to do with roses called "The Name of Rose"? I specifically searched for some information. It is said that Eco initially planned to name the book "Adeso of Melek" after the protagonist (because the novel unfolds the story in the form of memories of Adso's later years). The ancient proverb "In the past, the rose was famous for its celebrities, but now people hold the name of the rose". Because it fits the field of "semiology and metaphor", which is the research field of Eco, it is named "The Name of the Rose". So what does the rose in "The Name of the Rose" symbolize? There are also divergent opinions on the information. Roses usually symbolize love and beauty. In Catholicism, the rose is the Rosary, praising the Virgin Mary; the rose is the rosary on the wrists of monks; the rose also represents the blood of Jesus, and so on. The famous War of the Roses took place in European history. The Rose Knight was the matchmaker of Austrian society in the 18th century. Richard Strauss wrote a famous opera "The Rose Knight". So what does the rose in this book metaphor? Then, to borrow the words of the Franciscan friar William who is responsible for investigating the strange murders in the mysterious monastery in the book: “Perhaps the task of those who love humanity is to make people laugh at the truth and make it ridiculous; because the only thing Truth lies in freeing ourselves from the enthusiasm for the pursuit of truth.” Is it possible to say that only after we have experienced hard planting and hard work, can we smell the fragrance of roses.
In 1986, the great director Jean Jacques Arnold adapted it into the movie "The Name of the Rose" (also translated "Legend of the Devil's Palace"), starring Sean Connery. Because my uncle once advised me not to go to the movies until I read the book, so I haven't been to this movie all the time. When I was sorting things this afternoon, I turned to the reading notes of this novel, and finally couldn't help but look for this movie. Let's not talk about how the movie was made, but what I want to say is thank goodness, it is the movie that helped me understand this great work of incomprehensible first 100 pages. Because the amount of information in the original book is too large, especially when William and his apprentice used a lot of knowledge about religion, symbols, metaphors, mysticism, etc., for me who don’t have a lot of biblical and theological reading foundation, the movie is just An explanatory version of the original novel, although the content has been simplified a lot in the movie.
It is well known that the Middle Ages was the strongest time for church power. It covered all aspects of secular society, and theocratic power occupies an absolute overwhelming position on human rights. Thus, anti-theocracy and anti-church became the theme of the movie. The tone of the film is always dark and depressing. From the beginning to the end, only four colors have appeared: gray, black, and white. These three are all cold colors. The only bright red is also in the form of blood. Although the pope's dress is red, it is already the incarnation of evil. The outside is a hazy sky with heavy fog, and the interior is dark and gloomy. With the facial makeup of the characters, the outer world of the film and the inner world of the characters achieve a perfect fit.
Usually involving religious films, the liberation of human nature is also an indispensable level. The strange facial makeup of every monk in the monastery is actually an externalization of their heart. In the film, the director also used a large number of naked scenes to show the sex scenes between Adso and the country girl, and showed more of the country girl's untie Adso's strict teaching gown to imply underneath the teaching gown. The release of humanity. At the end of the film, when the bishop’s carriage got stuck on the edge of the cliff, he leaned forward and saw the farmers in the distant fields put down their agricultural tools and ran towards him. He thought that people were coming to rescue him. Yes; but people ran over and pushed his carriage off the cliff with all their strength.
In the original book, Eco told the mystery of the murder through William’s mouth. He said: “He (referring to the murderer) did a violent thing because he loved his truth so much, so in order to destroy the falsehood, he dared to do it. Anything... It turns out that the cause of the murder in the monastery came from the second volume of Aristotle’s Poetics, which was planned by the old dean. He believed that laughter is a sin, it makes people like monkeys, and Christ Jesus never Laughed. His ideal is to hope that people will always live in a world without laughter and live under the absolute authority of Jesus. Unfortunately, the second volume of Aristotle's "Poetics" is just talking and laughing. So in order to protect his beliefs, he filled the book with venom and let the people who saw it die. Therefore, it is not difficult to find that the real murderer is the excessive pursuit of ideals and beliefs, and used an extreme method to do it. Maintaining his ideals, he finally turned to the opposite of his ideals. I
like this movie because of its name "The Name of the Rose", and the shot of one person riding on the trail and looking back in the winter fog, and then it is vast. Winter mountains.
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