THE CRIMES OF BARLUME

by Laura Poggiani

In Italy, as is well known, writing books is quite common. Much less often, however, is a book's success, especially if it's written as a hobby and set in a small Tuscan town, filled with phrases and customs typical of the vernacular, which on the surface seems the same, but is actually peculiar to a very specific area: Pisa. It must be no small satisfaction, then, when the fruit of one's hobby, in addition to enjoying success in print, is used as the basis for a film series thanks to the genius of another Tuscan, this time Florentine. Thus it happens that the thrillers of Pisan Marco Malvaldi find cinematic expression in a perfect match with the multifaceted Florentine Alessandro Benvenuti, who said of Malvaldi's work: "It's very rare to find a thriller with a healthy dose of humor."

Like a romantic relationship, a working relationship, too, must be based on good astral affinities for it to function well. Thus, we cannot help but notice that both Benvenuti and Malvaldi are practically astral twins, and therefore share the same Aquarian wit (I've already noted, http://www.astralis.it/comici.htm , in the article "Sotto il segno della ridere" (Under the Sign of Laughter), how Aquarius is prominent in the themes of the greatest comedians), but in this case, we also have the same Sun/Venus conjunction.

The settings of Malvaldi's detective stories, as the title of the series suggests, are all in a bar where, between one round of cards and another, the bartender manages to uncover the culprit in intricate detective stories. However, they are not without their share of typically Tuscan pranks, quips, and light-hearted antics, even though in the television series, the Pisan vernacular often blends with the Florentine dialect.

The choice of a bar and a card game harks back to the position of Malvaldi's highly stimulated radix Pluto, which "scorpionizes" the Sun, helping him embody Sherlock Holmes's motto "observe, connect, deduce." And, like a true elective affinity, Benvenuti's Pluto is also "scorpionized." But, as we said, writing isn't Malvaldi's primary pursuit, even if it's very likely to increasingly take precedence.

So here we are again in the fictional village of Pineta, where some old men, playing cards, gossip about the latest case of the day while the bartender is ready to unravel all the twists and turns, and the fishmonger Alessandro Benvenuti is ready to play yet another prank.