Italian For Beginners

Italian For Beginners ***



Six wounded souls get together for a beginner’s course in the beautiful Italian language. The first is a Pastor named Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen), who is sent to a small town church in Denmark to take over another Pastor’s position after he loses his faith. Andreas had lost his wife six months earlier due to illness and doesn’t plan on staying long or getting to know anyone. The next person we meet is Jørgen (Peter Gantzler) a man with no mission other than being depressed and wondering why he is impotent whenever he gets a chance to bed a woman. His friend Hal-Finn (Lars Kaalund) is the third; he is a grown orphan with a short fuse and a large chip on his shoulder. Jørgen is supposed to fire Hal-Finn, his best friend, from the restaurant he manages because he cannot stop from yelling at the customers. At that same restaurant is Giulia (Sara Indrio Jensen), a beautiful Italian girl who prays to god every day for a man to marry. Then there’s Karen (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen), a lovely hairdresser who is battling through watching her alcoholic mother during her last days. Rounding it off is Olympia (Anette Støvelbæk) a clumsy baker who has a cruel hearted father at home that makes her life a living hell. These six people have suffered and lived with loss, and each of them are utterly alone in the world. That is, until they start their beginner’s course in Italian.

Italian For Beginners was written and directed by Lone Scherfig, a Danish woman with few writing and directing credits to her name, but she completely hits the mark with this charming movie. The movie is shot with what looks like a camera used in soap operas and infomercials, which at first threw me off a bit, but only because I’m not used to it. Yet, it works just fine. There’s also no music involved, it completely relies on realistic dialogue, and the depth of each of the characters. All the actors involved do a wonderful job of not making this movie a standard romance, but more of a voyeuristic view into complex and sad lives. At times I really felt sorry for the people in the film, and at times I almost felt like cheering that they could finally find some measure of happiness. It is truly a warm-hearted movie that draws you in and makes you genuinely care for the people involved. I recommend this film with much love, which is easy, because after watching it…I was in the mood for love.

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"Today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."

This is yet another movie I've had my eye on (and fingers on) several times and for whatever reason I didn't rent it. After your nice review I'll make sure to check it out next time.

Hey, I own this film! I gotta rewatch it sometime now!

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The novelist does not long to see the lion eat grass. He realizes that one and the same God created the wolf and the lamb, then smiled, "seeing that his work was good".

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

Never heard of it....nice cover though

Slay, I'm sorry for this crappy response... When I got home last night I wasn't even able to read your review.

I will check it out later when I've had some breakfast... Heeeey, what's this?? Polly Chewy Chunks!!!

....do I got the blues or what....

No problem, mate. You needn't feel obligated to reply. There's more than a few indy and classic reviews done by members here that never get even one reply Yet, the Matrix movies get a thousand. *sigh*

I remember that it was a very warm and intelligent story. But I also remember that I was annoyed with the dogme '95-influenced style. It's like every danish film made around that time had that style as an obligatory. The purpose of Dogme '95 if I've got it right was to make movies as pure and realistic as possible but after the success of the movement and especially von Trier, I think that purpose was buried in the hunger for more success. The documentary style in "Italian" is probably meant to give, as I just said, the film a realistic feeling. But since it has become such a cliché within that cinema movement it works the opposite way, in my opinion. It's like Dancer in the Dark. The shaky handheld cameras remind us constantly about that "this is film - not reality". It doesn't suck me into the movie - it rather pushes me away. You've made your point, von Trier et al, now please move on!

Anyway, after this little rant let's end with something positive. I think the film is, as Brian said, a very original romantic flick and in spite my criticism of it much more closer to reality and real love than most other Hollywood productions. The actors are great and the film is filled with a lot of both funny and tragic situations and I would recommend it too.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but couldn't find a discussion of Italian for Beginners (2000) in a newer thread and I didn't want to start a new thread since I don't have much to add.

Anyhow, I just recorded this movie off cable and plan to watch it in the next few days. This will be my first Dogme 95 movie. Any more opinions on this movie? Or to those that reviewed the movie in this thread: any more comments?

Here are the Dogme 95 movies (from wiki):

For those that don't know about the Dogme 95 Vow of Chastity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogme_95

The Celebration and The Idiots will move you. Other than that, they are ugly and disorienting, but IT WORKS.

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"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

I like the philosophy behind the Dogme 95 Manifesto -- the purity and all -- but I think it would be hard to create a movie that doesn't look like it was made by a bunch of high school kids with a video camera, no matter how good the acting is. Well, I'll get a taste with this movie and then I'll see where it goes from there . . . .

Italian for Beginners was directed by Lone Scherfig, who directed last year's Best Picture Oscar nominee, An Education.

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My IMDb page

Did she stick with the Dogme 95 recipe or did she let it go?

No Dogme, no.

I miss LordSlaytan.

Rule #11. If displeased with the direction of the film, ignore the rules.

This is my vow of chashitty.

There are already two dogcrap 95 threads on here.

dogme 95

Dogme 95. Good? Bad? Quite possibly ugly.