My journey to The Name of the Rose is an interesting one, as a kid of the 70s, I was part of the Star Wars generation and that in turn made me a huge fan of anything scifi or fantasy related that arrived on the big screen. Superman The Movie arrived in the late 70s and I was there in the audience, blown away by how amazing that film was (and still is), then a few years later and some Superman sequels later we get 1984’s Supergirl starring Helen Slater which I also loved (and still do). 1985 saw the release of the Helen Slater starring road movie The Legend of Billie Jean which also starred a kid called Christian Slater (no relation to Helen even though they played siblings in the film) Fast forward a bit to 1987 and I saw in the video store the rental VHS of a film called The Name of The Rose starring Sean Connery and hey its that kid from Billie Jean. Christian Slater. Ill check that film out! So thats how I ended up watching a lot of films back in the day, by following cast members from film to film and discovering really good films.

Here I am forty years later once again watching The Name of The Rose, but no longer in a pan and scan version on a 14 inch colour television, but instead, I’m watching it on a 4K bluray player on a 65 inch TV and wow it looks stunning. Whilst I do still enjoy current films, there is something so special about revisiting movies from my earlier years and I love that companies such as Second Sight Films are releasing upgraded and feature packed editions of films I havent seen for years and in many cases decades! Jean-Jacques Annaud’s The Name of The Rose is the latest film to be given loving treatment by the wonderful Second Sight Films. The movie is being released in a lovely Limited Edition Dual 4K UHD/Blu-ray Box Set as well as a Standard Edition (which is still lovely) and on digital via download and streaming from 10 August 2026.

For those now familiar with the film, its set in the year 1327 and respected Franciscan friar William of Baskerville (played by Sean Connery) and his young novice Adso of Melk (played by Christian Slater) arrive at a remote Italian abbey to attend a theological debate. But their visit takes a dark turn when a monk is found dead under very mysterious circumstances. Using his sharp intellect and powers of deduction, William suspects foul play and embarks on his own investigation. Its very Sherlock Holmes-ish and it really works. Sean Connery is of course amazing in the main role and Christian Slater who was 15 at the time is great, standing toe to toe with actors who had been working decades more than him. There’s an excellent featurette on the disc where Christian shares his memories of the film, from the audition process right through to his thoughts on the film now (he also shares his thoughts on the love scene that he was part of with Valentina Vargas (The Big Blue) Definitely check that out.

The Name Of The Rose as well as being a really good thriller is also a gorgeous looking film. shot in Europe, it was pretty much left along by studio execs during filming which allowed the filmmakers to build stunning sets and craft the film they wanted to craft and in 4K it looks stunning, whilst the main buildings used as constructed sets, they definitely don’t look like sets and in one of the many special features the director jokes that people still go up to him nowadays telling him that they recently visited the monastery in which the film was made (which of course they didn’t as it was a set) The outdoor locations look stunning too and it still baffles me how a film shot over 40 years ago can be made to look this good on modern technology.

Whilst I do of course love watching the films I add to my physical media collection I do tend to go for the releases that are special feature packed, which is why I do adore Second Sight Film releases and The Name of The Rose is most definitely stacked when it comes to those.

Checking Out The Special Features

For those who pick up the Limited Edition set, you are getting a dual format edition which includes the 4K UHD and Blu-ray which both contain the same special features (and the film of course) You are also getting one of those amazing hard shell cases with new artwork plus a 120-page book with new essays by Eugenio Ercolani and Gian Giacomo Petrone, Francesco Massaccesi,Sam Moore, Gregory Mucci, Dan Schindel and Nadine Whitney. Art card collectors can add 6 new ones to their collection also that come with this limited edition set.

So lets delve into the features. For audio commentary fans (me) there’s a new audio commentary by film critic James Marsh. Now whilst James wasn’t involved in the films production he does know pretty much everything you need to know about the film and this chat track is trivia packed with details and well worth listening to. When it comes to chat tracks, I personally prefer the ones done by people involved in the film and so I do have to say my favourite of the two audio tracks on the set is the one featuring director Jean-Jacques Annaud who shares his look back at the film and its production. Youll be a bit of an expert on The Name of The Rose by the end of these two audio commentaries.

I then settled down for the evening to watch five featurettes on the set which total 150 minutes (two and a half hours) and felt like I was indeed now officially an expert on the film by the end of those. The first four of these are pretty much face to camera style interviews and they really do work best that way. JJ (as he likes to be called), Christian, Ron, and Andrew are all given their own featurette and the time to share their stories of the production. The running times are 38 minutes, 23 minutes, 22 minutes, and 22 minutes) for the following featurettes.

Charm of Humanity: a new interview with Jean-Jacques Annaud

A Boy and His Dog: a new interview with actor Christian Slater

Bringing the Mustard: a new interview with actor Ron Perlman

Liquidating the Disk: a new interview with writer Andrew Birkin

We also get The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose which runs for 45 mins and is more of a documentary looking at the film. this is a German made for TV documentary that was filmed in ’86 and is subtitled. Its certainly the weakest of the extras on the set but im glad its in here and it was interesting to check out. The reason I feel (for me) its the weaker documentary is due to it being an archive look at the film rather than a new look back. But do check it out and im sure the completists among you (which includes me) will do that anyway.

All in all Second Sight Films have yet again scored a success with this release, the film looks great, sounds great and comes with enough extra looks at the production that youll become a scholar on the film pretty quickly. I had such a great nostalgia trip rewatching this film after a near 40 year gap and the film definately has stood the test of time and deserves to be revisited by those who havent seen it for years, and visited by those who will venture in the movie for the very first time.

You can order the Limited Edition Box Set HERE, The 4K bluray HERE, and the Standard Bluray HERE