MovieChat Forums > The Name of the Rose (1986) Discussion > i dont like the layout of the library

i dont like the layout of the library

posted 14 years ago by student_points
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in the movie. The director said in the commentary that there was a fault in the design of the library because it was all on one level, and the tower was very high so it must be filled with air. But in the book, different than in the movie, the great building contained three levels: first level was kitchen and refectorium, second level was the scriptorium and third level was the library. In the movie the kitchen was placed in a whole other building and the great building had only 2 levels. In the book that great tower could have had 3 levels without 'air' to fill it up.
So in the movie, the director created a labyrinth with stairs, but if you look at the labyrinth it only seems to exist out of stairs with very few rooms: the stairs take up a lot of room thus leaving not enough place for all the rooms with all the books. It seems to consist more out of stairs than out of rooms. That tower should have been even bigger on the outside to contain all those stairs, it doesnt seem to fit the building. The director should have left well enough alone and kept the library on 1 level.

[–] marcigabrielle 14 years ago

I suspect the director was influenced by Borges's story "The Library of Babel," which is described as having cells of six rooms, each cell connected to the others through railways and stairs. Of course, Borges's library is (probably) infinite.

Of course, since Eco has made very public his debt to Borges, changing the library to recall the old master's model sort of fits. But the kitchen should have been in the same building. Otherwise, the death of Venantius doesn't make so much sense (he died in the kitchen, coming down from the scriptorium where he had been reading the Aristotle in Adelmo's desk; very inconvenient to the cellarer, Remigio).

http://www.arch.ttu.edu/people/faculty/ellis_c/images/test1%20images/piranesi.jpg

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Space For Sale.

[–] student_points 13 years ago

i also didn't like that they got rid of the "navigation-system" of the library. In the book the library has 56 rooms. each room is connected with other rooms by doors (no stairs to go from one room to the other). Some rooms have 1 door, others 2, 3 or 4. Above each door there was written a senctence from the bible with the first letter in red. If you take this first letter and put it together with other first letters from other rooms you get a word, which tells you which books you can find in that section of the library.

In the eastern tower you can make out FONS ADAE, which is latin for the garden of Eden. Here you find bibles and commentaries on bibles.Also IUDEA
ACAIA: ancient word for greece, books from greece
Going to the south tower you come across AEGYPTUS and go into LEONES: books from african/arabian writers or heaten witers and subjects. These books from Leones contains lies, so thought the builders of the library because they are not written by christians but by muslims or non-christians.
YSPANIA: books from spanish authors, or books about spanish subject
ROMA: books from rome
In the western tower you find HIBERNIA: the latin name for ireland with books from irish authors
Going to the western tower you pass GALLIA (books from france and belgium)and
GERMANIA (books from germany) and you end up in the western tower in ANGLIA (england).

The secret space in the library is situated in the "finis Africae", which litterly means the end of africa. So you go to the room with the letter L from LEONES and press the letters above the mirror.
The lost book from aristotles contained "false information and lies" according to jorge so he hid it in "Africa", although the writer (Aristotle) is greek and should have been filed in ACAIA