‘Zorro’ French TV min-series revue

 SPOT

By Michael Müller

September 6, 2024

The potentially biggest highlight of this year's Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre awaited buyers and press representatives on the last day: a "Zorro" series starring Oscar winner Jean Dujardin from Paramount+ and France Télévisions.

[Jean Dujardin (r.) is "Zorro"] 

CREDITS:

Production: Paramount+, France Télévisions, Le Collectif 64 – Marc Dujardin, Bien Sûr Productions – Julien Seul, Panache Productions – André Logie, Gaëtan David, RTL-TVI, Wallimage; Screenplay: Benjamin Charbit, Noé Debré, Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud; Director: Jean-Baptiste Saurel, Emilie Noblet; Cast: Jean Dujardin, Audrey Dana, Salvatore Ficarra, André Dussolier, Eric Elmosnino, Grégory Gadebois; Episodes: 8; German Paramount+ launch: probably December 2024

REVIEW:

Almost every person on this globe knows the "Zorro" myth about the black-clad masked man, the fight for justice, the sword skills and the iconic "Z" carved on his opponents. But the last pop-cultural impact with this character probably goes back to the 1990s, when "The Mask of Zorro" with Antonio Banderas was released in cinemas and at least recouped its budget.

The idea of turning this world-famous myth into an elaborate cloak-and-dagger series with the 52-year-old French Oscar winner Jean Dujardin ("The Artist") in the lead role seems obvious, because as a super-agent in the "OSS 117" films, which are unfortunately still criminally neglected in Germany, he has already shown how he can play such a larger-than-life genre role with action moments in a self-deprecating but charming way.

While most may associate something with the Zorro myth, few know that Johnston McCulley's original story takes place in 19th-century California during Spanish colonial rule. In real life without a mask, Zorro is the wealthy country nobleman Don Diego de la Vega, which is also the beginning of the French series from Paramount+ and France Télévisions. Dujardin plays Don Diego as an aged avenger of the poor, who has hung his mask and sword in the closet for more than 20 years.

[Zorro in normal life when he is not wearing a mask]

Don Diego is also under the thumb of his all-powerful mayoral father of Los Angeles, which is even more like a cow village than a big city. Dujardin thus plays a grown-up son who has not inherited his father's talents as a political successor, shows insecurities in speeches, is a great thinker but not a real pragmatist. However, the father dies in the first of the two episodes shown as a world premiere in Le Havre at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous and Dujardin's Don Diego has to take the mayor's business into his own hands from then on.

The French creators Benjamin Charbit ("The Beast") and the fresh Deadline TV Disruptor Award winner Noé Debré ("Parliament") try a balancing act: On the one hand, they tell the "Zorro" story with a wink, when the black, tight-fitting clothing pinches the somewhat aging hero or soldiers literally beg for the slit "Z" on their chest with their eyes, because it is simply part of the myth.

[Villain (l.) and hero united]

On the other hand, the relationship between Zorro and his wife Gabriella de la Vega (Audrey Dana) takes up a lot of space in the first two episodes. As a couple, they are still childless, which makes Gabriella the laughingstock of the city in women's circles. There is not really much fire between the two in the bedroom anymore. But by reviving the Zorro myth and having Dujardin's character take up the blade again to raze new villains to the ground, husband and wife help in the aforementioned love life. She doesn't know that her husband and Zorro are one and the same person but is saved in a dicey situation by the masked avenger and from then on develops a certain fetish for masks. Somewhat clumsily symbolized and told with a mallet is also the woman's desire to have children when she takes in a poor boy.

The "Zorro" series from Paramount+ and France Télévisions, which, by the way, was co-produced by Jean's brother Marc Dujardin (Le Collectif 64), thus lacks the pure lightness of a parodic comedy as in the "OSS 117" films, for example. But the more dramatic relationship moments aren't that completely convincing either. But maybe this will happen in the other six forty-minute episodes. The format is actually always best when it comes to the aged, out-of-shape avenger with a mask in action, who swings the sword, the action is implemented with humor in a fun way and the myth is also played with with a wink.

The potential foundations are laid with a silent but inventive assistant and a villain built up in the first episodes, who builds a casino in Los Angeles with slave powers. The best sequence is an action scene in which Zorro frees a boy from prison, beats up a handful of guards and then returns in time for the end of the letter read out by another guard, who has written down all the problems and unprocessed Zorror moments from the old days in the best Freud manner. The music is harmoniously western-like, there is a whistling theme and Dujardin even picks up the guitar himself.

The character Zorro is actually an American invention but is considered a Mexican hero and was realized here by a French film team in French in a very different Los Angeles than we are used to. In Germany, the format is to come to Paramount+ this year, although that sounded like the month of December. In France, the series will launch this week on the same streamer and will later come to France Télévisions.