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Post by numbat on Jan 12, 2011 0:05:47 GMT
I can only say I love Vendetta and I love Cabal and most I love Aurelio´s bed.  My thoughts exactly stama!!! And i especially love the way he's saved a space......... Probably a very bad sign, but the first thought to enter my head when i woke up this morning was: "Aurelio Zen loved women." I have a sinking feeling that this might be the opening line to the piece of fanfiction which i have so far resisted........... Somehow i don't think it's going to feature any crime or corruption or underhand dealings or mystery. Just Aurelio and Tania and the new apartment.  |
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Post by rugirl on Jan 12, 2011 0:53:39 GMT
I have a sinking feeling that this might be the opening line to the piece of fanfiction which i have so far resisted........... If that's the case, I live for your sinking feelings, Numbat!  Somehow i don't think it's going to feature any crime or corruption or underhand dealings or mystery. Just Aurelio and Tania and the new apartment. [/quote] |
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Jan 12, 2011 2:57:10 GMT
But of course, any discussion about a possible Numbat fanfic will be continued on the FANFIC thread......... won't it?  Hint, hint! ;D Thank you! (sorry, but I know how quickly fanfic discussions escalate once they get started!) |
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Post by tipou on Jan 12, 2011 4:06:13 GMT
ok so, i cut away from reading all your reviews, because they just made me want to SEE the DAMN THING now that i got the internet back.
and now i just found out i am too tired to finish ep 1 tonight, but i had to get back here and SWALLOW MY WORDS.
a while back, having discovered and LOVED aurelio zen, i expressed a few doubts (GULP) about our (my) rufus being the man for the job.
**noise of someone swallowing words **
in fact, i cannot remember even one of the numerous guys i thought then would be more appropriate, age wise, lookwise, etc.
**noise of someone belching after painful swallowing of words **
RUFUS, I APOLOGIZE.
this man is the incarnation of aurelio zen. smooth, elegantly nonchalant and always a few inches away from TOTALLY having a clue. I LOVE IT!
there is a whole vocabulary of eye play that he creates and that is so subtly comedic. i dont remember rufus using his eyes like this. its like they come up with silent dialogue, from "i have no idea what he was talking about, but i guess it did not show" to "are you perhaps trying to insult me in some way?"
just brilliant.
and, like rai said, it IS a bit better than EH. oh my god the images are so gorgeous. the light is so golden and the editing is so reminding of old italian movies trying to be modern and stuff. its kind of an ageless time warp, if such a thing exist.
ok, more soon. gotta go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Jan 12, 2011 4:44:21 GMT
and, like rai said, it IS a bit better than EH. A bit? A BIT??? TONS better! ;D (with apologies to all the EH-lovers here) Looking forward to the rest of your thoughts, Tip! |
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Post by numbat on Jan 12, 2011 8:28:24 GMT
Hahaha, i don't think we need to single out EH on that score - Zen is better that a lot of things Rufus has done in the past!!
But i think he would agree that every performance is the sum total of all the performances that have gone before, and that he wouldn't be the actor he is today if it wasn't for the experience gained on each and every film set and theatre stage (both good and not so good).
The difference that's obvious to me, is the personal involvement and influence that he's been able to bring to Zen that he's just not had the opportunity to bring to most of his other projects. He seems so comfortable and natural and relaxed in this role (and the beautiful scenery and architecture and fashion doesn't hurt one bit!!!)
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Post by kissmekate on Jan 12, 2011 8:31:03 GMT
The difference that's obvious to me, is the personal involvement and influence that he's been able to bring to Zen that he's just not had the opportunity to bring to most of his other projects. He seems so comfortable and natural and relaxed in this role (and the beautiful scenery and architecture and fashion doesn't hurt one bit!!!) That's so true. There's a lot of real-life Rufus in Aurelio, I guess. |
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Post by kygal on Jan 12, 2011 11:55:53 GMT
I totally agree with you Numbat! There are some things Rufus has been in that the ONLY thing I liked about them was his performance. I do tend to enjoy the more modern roles he has had, such as EH and Zen. I enjoy them both!!
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Post by ruthie2910 on Jan 12, 2011 13:13:37 GMT
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Post by rueful on Jan 12, 2011 13:18:27 GMT
There are some things Rufus has been in that the ONLY thing I liked about them was his performance. He always brings something special, even if he's not given a lot of support by the script or fellow actors. That's how I feel about Extreme Ops. A fashion magazine has written a positive review of Zen with regard to style. lucire.com/insider/20110112/finding-zen-with-style/Fashion editor Sopheak Seng and I had a great meeting today, discussing trends. A couple of weeks ago, he told me that he had seen his first episode of Ashes to Ashes, and I mentioned that Keeley Hawes was back, in a sequel to the original Upstairs, Downstairs series. However, I added, the most stylish show on television presently is not Upstairs, Downstairs, because the early part of the twentieth century is not in the Zeitgeist as we open 2011. It won’t be like the 1970s, when there were periods in which we looked back, thanks to The Great Gatsby adaptation—if we are recalling any moment in fashion, there seems to be an awful lot of the 1980s still hanging around in the mainstream. Even the 1960s, which we thought would hang around in some form for a long time, isn’t that present, Michelle Obama’s style aside.
No, it would have to be Zen, the three-part BBC collaboration (alongside ZDF, Mediaset, and Masterpiece) based on the novels of the late Michael Dibdin, that ranks as 2011’s most stylish series (so far, and we are only in January). Rufus Sewell plays Venetian transplant Aurelio Zen, working in Roma, where politics and corruption are rife and the cases aren’t as clear-cut as they seem.
But who’s really working out the plot when the fashions are so good? It’s the suits and the cinematography that make Zen so watchable for fashion-lovers. In fact, they’ve dressed down Bond girl Caterina Murino, the female lead, and Catherine Spaak, playing Zen’s mother, doesn’t get the glam image that she had in the Hotel adaptation of the 1960s. This may well be one of those rare times when the male fashion outdoes the female fashion considerably in a TV series.
In the first of the TV-movies, ‘Vendetta’, director John Alexander has so much enjoyment of Rufus Sewell’s sartorial style that he allows him to put on and remove his sunglasses, zooming in and zooming out to set Aurelio Zen firmly in Roma and emphasize the sharpness of his suits. He’s almost saying to us, ‘We are on the Continent,’ albeit a very stylish one where Zen has plenty of space to park his Alfa Romeo 147, where he can speed up at will around the stradas, and where Britons playing foreigners speak with British accents—even if none of the women in Italy do.
‘Cabal’, the second entrant, is less focused on Sewell stylistically, but there are more shots of the Roman nick, and the entire department seems to be incredibly well dressed.
Sopheak remarked that Sewell looks ‘too perfect’ in his unruffledness, while I called certain scenes ‘an issue of l’Uomo Vogue’.
Not that any of this is a criticism. The stories are competent enough, so it ticks the principal box of why any TV series exists: a decent plot with a decent execution. After that a visual delight is a huge boon, especially to those of us who are visual people.
There hasn’t been a stylish television show in ages, at least not on this eastern side of the Atlantic. Ashes to Ashes relied on a stereotype of 1981–3 to make it work (Life on Mars, however, might rank slightly more highly—SJ Clarkson’s finalé paid particular attention to colours and cinematography, as Sam Tyler returned to 2007, with a wardrobe to match). Wallander doesn’t take advantage of its Swedishness, but then, it isn’t that sort of show—it would be different if it was set in a larger city, but regardless of whether it’s Rolf Lassgård, Krister Henriksson or Kenneth Branagh in the title role, it seems to revel in a subdued, darker version of Ystad.
You’d have to go either into a retro show (Mad Men) or into fantasy before we chaps are so well dressed on TV—yet it’s totally possible if we took a bit more care about our tailoring. But since, by and large, we don’t, it’s always good to see a fictionalized world on the box, and get transported into climates far sunnier than what Britons see in the northern winter. |
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Post by kissmekate on Jan 12, 2011 13:27:12 GMT
ruthie, I think we had the article somewhere, but better twice than not at all. And there's the little old lady in the train station again  I'd so love to see that scene! (But the reviewer apparently hasn't watched TOTS - the cross-dressing bit doesn't exactly pass as period clothing ...) Nice article too, rueful. (Seems like some people do prefer Rufus ruffled, huh?) |
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Post by rueful on Jan 12, 2011 15:31:16 GMT
this man is the incarnation of aurelio zen. smooth, elegantly nonchalant and always a few inches away from TOTALLY having a clue. I LOVE IT! Fantastic description, Tip!  there is a whole vocabulary of eye play that he creates and that is so subtly comedic. i dont remember rufus using his eyes like this. its like they come up with silent dialogue, from "i have no idea what he was talking about, but i guess it did not show"; to "are you perhaps trying to insult me in some way?"; Love this assessment too! Looking forward to the rest of your review. (Seems like some people do prefer Rufus ruffled, huh?) If we tried really hard, we might be able to name a few. ;D |
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Post by anyother on Jan 12, 2011 18:19:26 GMT
I can only say I love Vendetta and I love Cabal and most I love Aurelio´s bed. And one question to Dreamer, in Italy is coffee drinking such a way that makes Aurelio? I think the fact that he throws into him all cup of coffee as Czech doing it with a glass of plum brandy. ;D Ah, an excuse to quote Aurelio's bed!  I think his fast style of drinking coffee is Italian. When I visited a friend that lived there, her (non-italian) hubby took me for a morning coffee. And there were all these tall men standing there drinking very strong espresso's really fast. As I'm not very tall and had expected a large frothy cappuccino sitting comfortable by the window, I was quite surprised. Our coffee break was a very short one!  - maybe the seats are more for ehm, say secret couples. |
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Post by germanlady on Jan 13, 2011 10:27:58 GMT
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Post by tipou on Jan 13, 2011 12:13:56 GMT
that is one of the best interviews i ever read on our Green-Eyed Wonder. thank you, germanlady. the more i know about this guy, the more i like him. he is such "a bloke". |
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Hint, hint! ;D
- maybe the seats are more for ehm, say secret couples.