Best. Class. Ever.

Well. There certainly is something to be said for lowered expectations. I had gotten the impression that the film version of the Name of the Rose had been been scripted by Steve Kloves's evil clone army of screenwriters who manage combine slavish adherence to non-notable aspects of the text with more plotholes than a plotcolander, filmed almost exclusively in the dark, and was generally about as interesting as watching ink dry. I think it pretty much goes without saying that I was pleasantly surprised, although I would probably want to watch it at least one more time before I actually swore to opinions about it, which I may do since it's for class.

In class today we discussed various fun topics like What is a palimpsest and why does Eco have them call the film a palimpsest of his book? and How were classical texts transmitted to the Latin West? and What is the conflict between William of Baskerville and Jorge de Burgos and then Prof. Bartlett cued up wee!Christian Slater's sex scene, muted the DVD player, and said, "Since this scene doesn't actually have any dialogue in it, we can discuss the role of women in this film, or lack thereof, whilst we watch this piece of soft pornography." Hee.

And it gets better, because next week we're watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh yes.

EDIT: I cannot seem to turn up a single prurient screencap from this film online. O Internet, thou hast failed me most grievously.

Best. Class. Ever.

Well. There certainly is something to be said for lowered expectations. I had gotten the impression that the film version of the Name of the Rose had been been scripted by Steve Kloves's evil clone army of screenwriters who manage combine slavish adherence to non-notable aspects of the text with more plotholes than a plotcolander, filmed almost exclusively in the dark, and was generally about as interesting as watching ink dry. I think it pretty much goes without saying that I was pleasantly surprised, although I would probably want to watch it at least one more time before I actually swore to opinions about it, which I may do since it's for class.

In class today we discussed various fun topics like What is a palimpsest and why does Eco have them call the film a palimpsest of his book? and How were classical texts transmitted to the Latin West? and What is the conflict between William of Baskerville and Jorge de Burgos and then Prof. Bartlett cued up wee!Christian Slater's sex scene, muted the DVD player, and said, "Since this scene doesn't actually have any dialogue in it, we can discuss the role of women in this film, or lack thereof, whilst we watch this piece of soft pornography." Hee.

And it gets better, because next week we're watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Oh yes.

EDIT: I cannot seem to turn up a single prurient screencap from this film online. O Internet, thou hast failed me most grievously.