|
|
Post by roseofkilgannon on Jan 14, 2011 20:58:17 GMT
What an interesting find! Thanks!  I love well-fitting suits, but well-fitting shirts even more But I love well fitting shirts on Ru the most! Just like me ! |
|
|
|
Post by anyother on Jan 14, 2011 21:01:41 GMT
But I love well fitting shirts on Ru the most! Just like me ! I couldn't agree more!  |
|
|
|
Post by PrairieGirl on Jan 15, 2011 3:38:36 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by nell on Jan 15, 2011 9:01:12 GMT
Thanks for posting Rueful. It took me a while to get past the phot's at the top  but it was an interesting insight when I finally read it ;D So here it is :  I just love the link from the article to the explanation of well fitting shirts - apparently you put a shirt with darts in the back on a fat guy and voila he's slim ! ;D Take a look. You can tell he's a lardy bloater really  |
|
|
|
Post by kissmekate on Jan 15, 2011 10:38:54 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by anniem on Jan 15, 2011 10:44:27 GMT
 That is a fantastic interview germanlady. Thank you for posting. It's great to get some more stuff from the BAFTA event too. I wonder why we didn't see him in the bar before ? I am also wondering why the Telegraph waited until the end of the TV series to publish this and not the beginning like the rest of the press interviews.
|
|
|
|
Post by rueful on Jan 15, 2011 14:51:55 GMT
Thanks, Nell! I don't know why I didn't post the pics. The best part of the article!! Of course he's too intelligent and talented to want to just stand around posing all day, but he would have made a fabulous model. He always looks so natural. Here's a nice review from the Irish Times: SADLY, THERE’S ONLY one more episode of Zen , the BBC’s quality adaptation of Michael Dibdin’s best-selling crime thrillers. It’s a bit of europudding that took some getting used to in the first episode.
Set in Rome, it features the English actor Rufus Sewell as detective Aurelio Zen, the Dubliner Stanley Townsend as his boss, English actors as all his colleagues in his Roma police station and Italians as his mother and his love interest. Every time a new character appeared it was distracting to wonder whether they’d be speaking in a Yorkshire burr or with an irresistible Italian accent.
By episode two all that confusion was set aside: it helps that you can’t but be dazzled at every turn by the visual treats that are Sewell, with his sharp-suited nonchalance, his mesmerisingly gorgeous lover, Tania (ex-Bond girl Caterina Murino), and the crumbling backstreets of Rome.
This week’s intricate multilayered plot was pure Dibdin: to solve a murder, Zen, the only honest cop in the force (as we are repeatedly told), must fight corruption, and, as ever, it is when corruption is on the inside, in the police and in government, that it’s most difficult to tackle.
A man jumped, or more likely in Zen’s view was pushed, into the Tiber, and Zen uncovers a web of intrigue involving a government minister, a sinister robed church figure, a mysterious cabal and a doomed love affair. And he still finds time to drink endless little cups of espresso and woo the girl. It says a lot for Sewell’s screen magnetism that his Zen is devastatingly attractive even though he still lives with his mammy. Her first words this week were, “I see everything.” Even an ex-Bond girl would find that challenging.www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0115/1224287523536.html |
|
|
|
Post by tipou on Jan 15, 2011 16:10:29 GMT
i am having a quiet saturday morning, lounging with a hot arabica and the still hotter aurelio zen.
i am at about 1/4 of episode 2, "cabal", and i am a bit puzzled, because the catholic church (such a great component of the book's "cabal") is totally absent. but of course, it would have been virtually impossible to film inside the vatican, let alone the sistine chappel, so...
which brings me to my point: i am astounded at how well they handled the movie adaptation from a book. it just looks like the producers and writers said, ok, we have to change the story quite a bit, but how can we do it intelligently AND in harmony with the original work.
seems like an obvious question to be asked, but havent we all seen screen adaptations of books that make us wonder: if they liked the work so much as to turn it into a movie, why did they trample over it with such joyful abandon? (notable exemple: mel gibson's "the man without a face".)
this is not the case here. even with the stories and characters modified quite a lot, this is still 100% dibdin.
as a movie adaptation, this is as good as the screen adaptation of "the world according to garp" from john irving's novel, which is my personal staple when it comes to good movie adaptation of my favourite novels.
ok so, to go back to important things: ISNT RUFUS LOOKING G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S OR WHAT?
*back to the movie*
OH another thing: i just LOVED the scene with his mother when she offers to "give him the money" - this is such a motherly thing to do, and the kind of things you dont see enough in movies, simple, real, cute and funny.
ohhh and ANOTHER THING: didnt you guys get the impression that, as he said repeatedly in interviews, rufus truly likes aurelio zen as a character? i certianly did. he just looks like he is enjoying himself, and he can add quite a bit of quirkiness, but, since he is such a good and professional actor, he knows when to stop. he "got" zen, and he gladly jumped into his persona. this is so much fun to watch, rufus being good (which is a given) but also having fun being good. i am so glad for him, and for us, of course.
|
|
|
|
Post by GreenEyesToo on Jan 15, 2011 17:36:04 GMT
ok so, to go back to important things: ISNT RUFUS LOOKING G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S OR WHAT? Definitely not "or what"!  Thanks for the articles, Rueful, and the pics, Nell. I still like scruffy Rufus the best, but still...... |
|
|
|
Post by anyother on Jan 15, 2011 17:37:12 GMT
ohhh and ANOTHER THING: didnt you guys get the impression that, as he said repeatedly in interviews, rufus truly likes aurelio zen as a character? i certianly did. he just looks like he is enjoying himself, and he can add quite a bit of quirkiness, but, since he is such a good and professional actor, he knows when to stop. he "got" zen, and he gladly jumped into his persona. this is so much fun to watch, rufus being good (which is a given) but also having fun being good. i am so glad for him, and for us, of course. I completely agree - he looks like he's enjoying himself all the time in Zen. Glad you finally had the chance to watch Zen, Tipou! |
|
|
|
Post by tipou on Jan 15, 2011 17:56:13 GMT
yes, me too! i fighted with megavideo for a while (they kept insisting on giving me a free ipad) but finally both eps ended up on stagevu, and i could download them.
ahhh the pain we endure for you, rufus...
|
|
|
|
Post by tipou on Jan 15, 2011 19:52:57 GMT
ok so now i have watched (gratefully) 2 eps of ZEN. is it brilliant or what? clever and all. elegant. with a sbtle comedic undertone and a stylish flair to it. just like dibdin's novels my only not-totally-enthusiastic comment has to do with me being basically french, i found the dialogues a bit difficult to understand. since i had read the books, i could get by, but i am afraid i may have missed some jokes. OHHH NOOOOO does it mean i will have to watch AGAIN  ? ahhhhhhh. well, after all, it may not be so painful. there is this unbelivably handsome man in a suit in almost every frame... and the rest of the cast was not bad either. murino was quite good, and she is so lovely! i loved the architecture, the light, the music.it's a very well made series, on par with the latest mystery series from the bbc. kudos indeed, kudos. |
|
|
|
Post by rueful on Jan 15, 2011 20:10:26 GMT
but i am afraid i may have missed some jokes. OHHH NOOOOO does it mean i will have to watch AGAIN ? ahhhhhhh. That is a shame. It will be well worth it though, because you don't want to miss any jokes. I actually find Zen funnier (as a character) than Petruchio, because of Zen's dry, ironic world view and because many of his jokes are so subtle. (And here, I agree with earlier comments that Zen has quite a bit of Rufus in him.) which brings me to my point: i am astounded at how well they handled the movie adaptation from a book. it just looks like the producers and writers said, ok, we have to change the story quite a bit, but how can we do it intelligently AND in harmony with the original work. Agreed! They have taken the heart of the story and condensed it or altered it as needed because of time contraints. They have maintained the character and tone of the novels, for the most part. This is what one wishes The Pillars of the Earth adaptaters had done--rather than making all sorts of weird and unnecessary plot changes to amp up the violence or sex and then having nowhere to go with it but a Perry Mason-style courtroom ending. OH another thing: i just LOVED the scene with his mother when she offers to "give him the money" - this is such a motherly thing to do, and the kind of things you dont see enough in movies, simple, real, cute and funny. The Mara/Mama dinner was a great scene, from beginning to end, but the part you mentioned was a delightful touch. Looking at some  reviews and tweets, I just can't understand all the people who are still complaining about the accents. Get over it! I live in Chicago, where The Good Wife is set, and the characters are quite clearly not from Chicago. No one talks through their noses or substitutes "d" for "th". It's really not a problem for me though. Or in The Closer, where Kyra Sedgwick is affecting a southern accent (I can't be a judge of how good it is), other actors sound like they're from New York or elsewhere. It's set in LA, and big cities (like Rome) have a lot of transplants. It seems pretty likely that people speak Italian with many accents or dialects. Sorry, end of rant.  Here's a mostly positive review, at least of Rufus. www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7cd137fa-1f56-11e0-8c1c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1B8SM8886Zen and the heart of modern relationships
By John Lloyd
The protagonist in contemporary crime fiction – cop, private detective or, as in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, a private citizen (in the unlikely form of a business journalist) – is often pitted against nasty capitalists and/or politicians. The latter may not have committed the central crime but they are complicit in some way, direct or indirect. Cops, at least in fiction, have become heroes of liberal values – wearily, doggedly, angrily sifting for the truth through the mess left by greedy, privileged and hypocritical rulers so that society can be based on something resembling justice.
And not just in Scandinavia. Italy enters the cop lists with Zen (BBC1, Sundays), a Venetian who in early middle age has found himself with a bust marriage and a stalled career. As a famed but un-promoted detective in Rome’s murder squad, a reputation for honesty is not always to his advantage. One of the main strengths of this stylish, absorbing short series (pace my colleague Isabel Berwick’s reservations in this column last week) is its fine rendering of the world of Italian officialdom, where power and patronage are more important than talent and ambition. The falsest move is to break with one’s patron – a much worse career move, even for a policeman, than breaking the law.
The series of novels featuring Aurelio Zen was created by the late British writer Michael Dibdin, who in years at the University of Perugia gained an insight into Italian society and mores. Zen is both hero and anti-hero. He rolls with the punches and placates the bosses but, in the end, goes for the real criminal, not the convenient scapegoat or the quick burial of the affair that authority favoured. Rufus Sewell is too handsome for the character Dibdin created – and Zen’s lover, the Italian actress Caterina Murino, is achingly beautiful – but he plays him with the right mixture of diffidence and inner strength. He is a man who doesn’t set himself up to be any better than the sharky, corrupt waters in which he must swim, but who cleaves his way through with his reputation unscathed. As those about him try to figure out what his game is, he quietly demonstrates that it is no more than behaving like a good cop in a naughty world.
Italian writers of gialli – crime novels, literally “yellows”, after the covers of the first books – are largely unknown in the Anglophone world. Only the Sicilian Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Salvo Montalbano has had a sustained following in English translation; the Italian-made television adaptation Montalbano’s Croquettes (BBC4, December 27) made a telling contrast to the British-made Zen. The Swedish creations – Chief Inspector Wallander, Inspector Beck and the journalist Mikael Blomkvist – skilfully as they are drawn, seem excessive in their despair over a society as relatively rich, well-ordered and pleasant as theirs. The Italians labour under no such disadvantage. The gialli are a way of revealing the real seaminess and venality of too much of the Italian political caste – and of showing that a concern for truth, modestly but defiantly pursued, still pulses through the peninsula. |
|
|
|
Post by kygal on Jan 16, 2011 13:31:16 GMT
I enjoyed Zen in the books, but I also like that Zen seems to be a kinder gentler version on tv. That may change as it goes along. Both versions try to do the right thing but it often backfires. The books seem to indicate Zen was selfish ,which ended most of his relationships. Havent seen that in the tv version.
I dont mind the plot changes as they always seem to. The little things that stick out most to me is Zen didnt drive much or carry a gun in the books. Momma was also more demented and frail, or maybe Zen just thought that. Anyway, I dont mind these "adjustments". Thought while reading the books that Rufus was perfect as Zen...that is now proven!
|
|
|
|
Post by GreenEyesToo on Jan 16, 2011 22:40:02 GMT
 Wahhhhhhhhh! It's over!!!! Well, Numbat got her longed-for morning-after armpit, and.....did I see....was there....was there a Zen wink? Yay!!! Rufus wasn't kidding when he said Zen was sneaky, was he? Loved that scene where he double-crossed Colonna. Loved all the kissy scenes, of course. LOVED it when the desk collapsed - both times! Awww, but poor Aurelio......his face when Tania left.....Will he ever see her again? They just HAVE to make more so we can find out! <runs off to watch it again> (oops - thanks for that review, Rueful!) |
|
but it was an interesting insight when I finally read it ;D
That is a fantastic interview germanlady. Thank you for posting. It's great to get some more stuff from the BAFTA event too. I wonder why we didn't see him in the bar before ?
? ahhhhhhh.
