Aurelio Zen - DVD

Content: For Aurelio Zen (Rufus Sewell), an experienced investigator with the police in Rome, it is not only about solving his cases. More importantly, he always upholds his ideals and refuses to be corrupted. And that's not always easy, given the conditions that prevail in the police and in politics. When a judge is brutally murdered on his way to work one day, Zen receives direct orders from the minister Amedeo Colonna (Ben Miles) to take care of the case on behalf of the very top. Even with the supposed suicide of a member of a prestigious aristocratic family and the kidnapping of a powerful industrialist, Zen must repeatedly put his moral integrity aside at the politician's behest to achieve the desired results. But despite enormous opposition, powerful secret organizations, and brutal assaults, Zen always manages to maintain law and order in the end...

With the Aurelio Zen novels, British author Michael Dibdin has expressed his love of Italy, where he lived for a number of years and taught at university, in a highly entertaining and very exciting way. Dibdin wrote eleven of these novels before his death in 2007, three of which have now been filmed by the BBC on original locations, mainly in Rome. The makers deliberately chose to cast most of the speaking roles with British actors, who should also in no way speak with an artificial Italian accent. In the original English version, this seems a bit strange at the beginning, but works very well in the end, especially because of the well-chosen actors. In the German dubbing, this aspect is neither positive nor negative.

Rufus Sewell (The Pillars of the Earth, Dark City) plays an extremely smart, charismatic investigator, who makes a good figure both in the more romantic moments at the side of the attractive Caterina Murino (Casino Royale), as well as in mental and physical duels with his opponents. In general, almost all actors act extremely casual and with obvious joy. Especially with Ben Miles (Coupling) it becomes clear that he obviously enjoyed playing the role of the shady and somehow sleazy politician. Since he was allowed to show another side of Colonna at the end of the second episode, it would have been very interesting to see in which direction this character would have developed in the course of further episodes. But unfortunately the future of Aurelio Zen doesn't look very bright, as the BBC pulled the plug after the first three episodes. And whether another production company can be found to continue the production is more than questionable.

After all, the three films, which were directed in 2011, are absolutely successful and offer extremely good entertainment. Admittedly, there are minor dramaturgical lengths here and there and also the very big surprises are missing. But because the implementation of the many familiar elements are presented so entertaining, visually appealing and with a good mix of suspense and dry humor, the investigations of Aurelio Zen are just a lot of fun. Who likes British crime fare with a lot of Italian flair and can not be deterred by the unfortunately much too fast end of the TV life of the popular novel character, this DVD set can be warmly recommended.

Picture + Sound: The image of the DVD presents itself in very warm colors and shows a good overall sharpness. There are minor weaknesses in detail here and there, particularly in darker moments. Overall, however, the visuals are on a good TV level. The same goes for the audio. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix makes the dialogue sound very powerful from the front. Some sound effects and ambient noises provide some movement in the surround every now and then. Overall, though, there's nothing really spectacular here. Good!

Extras: In addition to the trailer, the second DVD has a nearly 30-minute making of to offer, which goes into the book template, the cast and the filming in Italy. Of particular interest are the explanations of the decision to have the actors speak in the original English without any accent and the search for suitable filming locations. Good!

Conclusion:The mini-series Aurelio Zen offers three film adaptations of Michael Dibdin's popular novels set against the atmospheric backdrop of Rome. Suspense, drama, a little humour and a touch of romance coupled with the coherent and in some cases wonderful locations and fine cast make this BBC production a thoroughly enjoyable crime drama. It is a real pity that the series was discontinued after these three parts for cost reasons. The double DVD presents the three films in good technical quality and also has a making of worth seeing. For lovers of British crime productions, this exciting insight into the machinations of the Italian police is absolutely worth watching!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp