INTERVIEW: ‘Vienna Blood’ transcends the whodunnit formula
Photo: Vienna Blood stars, from left, Matthew Beard and Juergen Maurer. Photo courtesy of PBS / Provided by press site with permission.
Vienna Blood has returned to PBS for a third season of mystery, murder, philosophy, history, science and art. On the series, which airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on the network, Dr. Max Liebermann (Matthew Beard) teams up with Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt (Juergen Maurer) to solve a case or two in Vienna in the early part of the 20th century. This is a tumultuous era of decadence and impending doom, with luxury fashion houses, palatial opera houses and grand cafes alongside the rise of fascism and anti-Semitism, the onset of war, and clashing cultures, according to press notes.
Liebermann and Rheinhardt find themselves in the middle of the hubbub, trying to solve a sordid criminal affair. Joining them on this adventure are the pivotal characters of Rachel Liebermann (Amelia Bullmore), Leah Liebermann (Charlene McKenna) and Mendel Liebermann (Conleth Hill), who all have important story arcs in the third season.
In 2022, the cast of Vienna Blood, joined by series director Robert Dornhelm, talked to the press about the production of their beloved series. Here’s what they had to say …
On whether the director felt boxed in by the whodunnit formula …
DORNHELM: “I wondered why they hired me to begin with because I’m the last person who is qualified for murder mystery stories. If I would not have had the historic, literary, musical elements to play with at the time period, I’m certainly [not the best person]. … My whole life I’ve done only two police dramas, and to my colleagues this is a genre that is totally unsuited to my interests. And I accepted this because there was so much more than whodunnit. They often have to help me with the logistics, mathematical construction of the artificial part of the story because I’m coming more from the Max Liebermann side. The psychology of the characters, that interests me much more, and the surrounding of the story, what’s happening in the time, who are the artists of the period, what is the political development, anti-Semitism, all these subjects are as important to me as whodunnit.”
On whether Matthew Beard was an immediate yes for season three …
BEARD: “First of all, you want to see the scripts. You want to know what’s left for the characters, what’s left in the stories, where are you going to take them, where are we going to go, and more practical things about how are we going to film it. Is there going to be enough time to make it good? I’ve never done a series like this, a returning series, so it’s a new question for me and a new thought for me, but it seems the longer it goes on, the more you collect people who like it. And the fanbase are the people who come back to watch it again, so you want to make sure you have something to offer them that’s worth their time and worth them watching it and piquing their interest — and personally or selfishly worth me turning up every day for a few months to do and keep my interest and my brain active. And a big help for that is that people come back that you want to work with, like Juergen, and that you can carry on that. I’ve never had this where you build a relationship over years with another actor. It’s quite a unique thing to a returning series. I’ve really, really enjoyed that.”
On whether the historic locations help the actors get into character …
BULLMORE: “The fact that you’re filming in places that ordinarily would make you swoon — your head would [go] back, you’d be oohing and aahing at the whole thing — but these places are taken for granted by these characters. So that tells you everything. The house we were filming in yesterday, the Liebermann house, is so spacious, lofty and airy and elegant, and you just have to think, this is their living room to them. We were joking, where’s the TV? But to them it would be this is where they hang out even though it’s unimaginable to us because it looks kind of formal. The trick is, you think, it isn’t a big deal to them. … So you actually have to get into the not-special-ness of it in a funny way.
HILL: The locations are just breathtaking.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Vienna Blood airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on PBS. Click here for more information.
