The Name of the Rose

One classical way to illustrate a comedy, is to have a center design, surronded with portraits of the main, and supporting actors. The center design can vary. It can consist of the movies title and credits, a scene from the film, or a portrait of the main charachter.
Here’s an example of an artwork in that vein.



But something is very wrong here. The movie is not a comedy. It’s a drama and a murder mystery. So why does it look the way it does? Did the artist go nuts? Or did the people from the movie company have a meltdown?

Drew Struzan was engaged to make the artwork. Not getting a chance to see the film before working, he was told by the company that the poster should look like a comedy. So that’s exactly what Struzan did. Being an artist who always tries to be true to the films, Struzan became very disapointed when he found out what kind of film The Name of the Rose really was. How the company was thinking? If the idea was to attract an wider audience, it probably backfired since it hardly attracted the intended audience and made the comedy audience disapointed.

However, Drew Struzan is a great artist, and this artwork is just one of his many great ones. It just don’t fit with the film. You can’t blame Drew Struzan for that.

As a matter of fact, most posters for The name of the Rose are either dull or actually bad. The only fitting, and at the same time great artwork, is the Czech poster.