Director of ‘The Name of the Rose’ Praises Oscar-Winning Actor’s Magical Performance!

French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, best known for his films “The Bear” and “The Name of the Rose,” discusses in his autobiography, “A Life for Cinema,” the joy of working with Sean Connery on “The Name of the Rose,” which revolves around the investigation of multiple monks’ murders at an Italian Benedictine abbey.

It gives me goosebumps

While still searching for his lead actor after a fallout with Michael Caine that ended in litigation, Jean-Jacques Annaud received several calls from Mike Ovitz, Sean Connery’s agent. At the time, Connery’s career was in a slump following his role in an unofficial James Bond film, “Never Say Never Again,” and the mediocre “Sword of the Valiant” (1984).

Annaud agreed to meet him, and Sean Connery showed up with the script in hand. Annaud writes in his memoirs: “He sat across from me and began reading the pages I had written and rewritten, which I knew by heart, down to the intonation. He read them so well that it gave me goosebumps. I stopped him and rushed to Bernd Eichinger [the film’s producer]: it’s done, we have our William.”

Sean Connery thus secured the lead role in the film alongside Christian Slater and Helmut Qualtinger. When work began between the British actor and the French director, Annaud was astonished by his actor’s precision, which he likened to “Swiss watchmaking”:

“During the initial rehearsals, [Sean] would ask:

– Do I take the cup in my left hand or my right?

– In your left, because you’ll need to grab your glasses with your right.

– OK. And on which word do I pick it up?

– You pick it up when you say: ‘Yesterday, I saw the librarian’.

– Where do I place it? 20 cm from my nose or 25?

– At 25. Then you pause.

– And after, how many steps do I take towards the window?

– Two.

Once the mechanics were set, he performed all these actions with stunning grace and naturalness.”

Sean helped me understand actors

His meticulousness was sometimes almost too much, as learning his lines to the millimeter meant any slight change on set threw him off. Yet, Annaud had no regrets, quite the opposite:

“Sean helped me understand actors who employ methods from theater, who are versed in the old school where you learn to hit your marks without looking, to turn your face by the exact degree, where being an actor is considered a profession, and where there is a respect for that profession. (…) In any case, watching him work was magical, and it would have been a dream to work with him again.”

“The Name of the Rose” won the César Award for Best Foreign Film and Sean Connery received the BAFTA for Best Actor for his role as William of Baskerville. Upon its release in France, “The Name of the Rose” attracted nearly 5 million viewers in 1986. That same year, “Highlander,” also featuring Sean Connery, drew 4.1 million moviegoers, revitalizing the actor’s career.