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>>what do members think about the book/film The name of the rose ?
>>
>
>Personally, I enjoyed the film although (as is usually the case) it
>is far weaker than the book.
>
>I tried showing the film as an extra-credit assignment to my upper
>level medieval history class -- the assignment being to write 2-3
>pages assessing the historical accuracy of the film, on the basis of
>what we had learned about the Middle Ages in the course of the term.
>Although there are certainly a number of "inaccuracies" and flat out
>anachronisms (the apparently seventeenth century statue of the virgin
>in the church being the one that stuck in my craw), I like the way it
>manages to contrast the strong passions of the intellect and the
>gritty, drab reality of the monastery. My students, however, were
>unimpressed. I am always surprised how ready they are to reject
>movies as being "just Hollywood" and leave it at that.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Nicole
>
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>Nicole Morgan Schulman
>Assistant Professor of History, Ohio Wesleyan University
Speaking of Hollywood and craw-sticking, I think the most disturbing
part of the film version of *The Name of the Rose* was its presentation of
Bernard Gui's death as the result of impalement after the peasants push him
off a cliff! Pierre Gui, the nephew who wrote a brief life of
his uncle, described Bernard's death in 1331 quite differently, and unlike the
filmmakers certainly did not believe that Bernard, as an inquisitor,
"deserved"
a brutal death . This is a good example of the revision of history to suit the
accepted template of the dramatic film--in this case, the need of movies to
have
a hero and a villain who gets his at the end, creating the clearly
identifiable and
distinct moral "sides" that history supplies so rarely.
Christine Caldwell
University of Notre Dame
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