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Post by kygal on Jul 3, 2011 1:49:46 GMT
Having read the books and watched the series, would have been interesting to see what direction the relationship would have gone, had there been more episodes. Would that be the end of Tania? Would there be a nice love interest in every trio of episodes? I seem to have an issue with closure (haha). I did enjoy the series and thought Rufus did a wonderful job as Aurelio. Similar, but different from the book in some ways. I think the US audience will enjoy it!
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Post by megagem on Jul 3, 2011 2:15:09 GMT
***For all the lovely ladies in the motherland (UK)***
I'm sure it probably is, but it doesn't hurt to ask:
Is Zen available for rent anywhere or is it purely for purchase? When I'm in England in just over a week I plan on renting it from somewhere (unless one of my relatives is a closeted Rufian!) because I'm determined to not miss out on any of the fun the lovely ladies over here will be having (I wonder if our collective squeals of delight will awaken the ears of someone who'll carry on the series! Too wishful? LOL!)
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Post by kissmekate on Jul 3, 2011 11:14:05 GMT
It's available for rent online via lovefilm.com, and I'm sure you'd be able to find it at video shops, too.
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Post by judypatooty on Jul 14, 2011 1:38:24 GMT
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Post by kissmekate on Jul 14, 2011 6:58:06 GMT
Yes, that's nice, Judy. Thanks for finding this! Love the pic with the red car  |
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Post by robela on Jul 14, 2011 8:54:09 GMT
Thanks for finding and posting Judy - Great article! The pace seems to be hotting up for Zen!!  |
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Post by anyother on Jul 14, 2011 17:31:51 GMT
Cheesy indeed - and so what if they mumble (just turn up the volume) - nice find!
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Post by nell on Jul 14, 2011 18:38:09 GMT
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Post by judypatooty on Jul 14, 2011 22:53:14 GMT
Yaaay! The New York Times likes Zen!!!  In Sunny Rome, Solving a Murder Involves Sharp Suits and Sexy TalkBy GINIA BELLAFANTE Published: July 14, 2011 Michael Dibdin, the British crime novelist and professional Italophile, died four years ago, having left behind 11 novels centered on Aurelio Zen, the stylish Venetian detective whom he dispatched throughout Italy to solve murders typically executed against the backdro of political corruption, Mafia wrongdoing and aristocratic entitlement. The books serve as cultural reportage as much as anything else. In the 10th entry, “Back to Bologna,” Zen deals with a victim who has been stabbed with a Parmesan knife and bears witness to a cook-off between a singing television chef and an academic celebrity who is a spoof of the philosopher, novelist and critic Umberto Eco. Only in Emilia-Romagna, folks. I’d like to think that if Dibdin had lived, he would have set an entire mystery series amid the belly-dancing escapades of Silvio Berlusconi‘s bacchanals. What we have instead is Zen revisited. Beginning this Sunday and continuing over the next two, “Masterpiece Mystery!” will show adaptations of three of the earliest Zen novels — “Vendetta,” “Cabal” and “Ratking” — and I can think of no better way to culminate a weekend. The films find Zen on the murder squad in Rome, where, despite a wardrobe and comportment that suggest Marcello Mastroianni in the 1960s, he is living with his mother at the age of 40. Zen is brought to us by Rufus Sewell, an Englishman whose Mediterranean good looks contain enough intelligence to make the character’s complexity resonant. He plays Zen with a perfectly rendered sense of professional confidence and romantic hesitancy, a blend of quiet rectitude and erotic bemusement.Romance is an essential component of the equation. As Zen tackles one difficult case after another, balancing his own sense of justice against the imperatives of higher-ups, he begins to fall for the precinct secretary, Tania Moretti, played by the exquisitely beautiful Italian actress Caterina Murino as a woman dealing with the rubble of her own crumbling relationship. Still, there is nothing of the morose in this trilogy, which makes it a welcome antidote to the craze for the grimness and melancholy of the unstoppably popular Scandinavian crime genre. Aesthetically, the Zen films are as distant from something like “The Killing,” AMC’s recent take on a Danish detective series, as an early James Bond movie is from an episode of “24.” The films deploy a light comic sensibility and graphics that suggest a ‘60s caper. They situate us in a Rome where the weather always seems heavenly, blouses are always unbuttoned suggestively, and no lunch transpires without multiple courses and repeated instances of sexual innuendo. Risotto is eaten; cigarettes are smoked; espresso is consumed; public displays of lust are evident. There is little resistance to cliché in all this, but the cliché is so visually appealing that you’ll feel like a spoiled child if you complain. And you’re given such a treat that you’ll also feel like one, begging for more. |
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Post by kygal on Jul 14, 2011 23:35:37 GMT
Nell...I so agree with you!
Yay... NY times!
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Post by judypatooty on Jul 15, 2011 14:47:01 GMT
Check the "Zen on PBS" thread for more reviews!  Rufus is getting some excellent press!  |
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Post by rueful on Jul 16, 2011 0:18:57 GMT
Great NY Times article, Judy!!! And thanks for the redirect to the other thread, since some of us (chiefly me!) have not been posting where we should! ;D
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Post by anyother on Jul 16, 2011 17:12:33 GMT
Can't help it Judy, I have to repeat this quote: " Zen is brought to us by Rufus Sewell, an Englishman whose Mediterranean good looks contain enough intelligence to make the character’s complexity resonant. He plays Zen with a perfectly rendered sense of professional confidence and romantic hesitancy, a blend of quiet rectitude and erotic bemusement." Now wouldn't language courses be far more fun with sentences like this to practise with? |
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Post by GreenEyesToo on Jul 17, 2011 0:22:44 GMT
And thanks for the redirect to the other thread, since some of us (chiefly me!) have not been posting where we should! ;D I think I'm the one that started doing that! ;D However, since the new reviews relate to the PBS showing, then there is a logic to them being there....isn't there? (well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!  ) |
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jo
Roo-kie
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Post by jo on Jul 18, 2011 4:58:08 GMT
I just saw Vendetta on PBS and loved every second of the show. It's fun, stylish and intelligent, the romance is great and everyone acts beautifully, especially Rufus with the tiny little textural bits he always adds to any performance. The ending was a little confusing though. The person who is finally shown to be the killer seems way too convenient all around and there's no motive for the deaths. The script has Zen casually dismiss it as unimportant, but that's ridiculous and makes no sense. Can anyone who's read the books tell me if the author wrote it that way or whether the scriptwriter just fouled up?
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