The Name of the Rose is a Franco – Italian – German historical drama directed by Jean – Jacques Annaud , released in 1986 . Written by Andrew Birkin , Gerard Brach , Howard Franklin and Alain Godard, the film is the film adaptation of the eponymous novel by Umberto Eco . He starred Sean Connery as Guillaume de Baskerville , Christian Slater inAdso de Melk , F. Murray Abraham in Inquisitor Bernardo Gui , Michael Lonsdale , Valentina Vargas and William Hickey .
Distributed by AAA, this film was released in the United States on then on the French screens the . He has won numerous awards, including the César for Best Foreign Film at the 12 th César Ceremony in 1987 .