Italian for Beginners

Reviewed by
Margaret Pomeranz

Margaret
David

SBS Movieshow film review

This romantic comedy deals with the lives and would be pairings of six misfits living in a Danish town. Writer/director Lone Scherfig’s beautifully textured screenplay overcomes any limitations of the genre by creating real and sympathetic individuals. Pastor Andreas, Anders W. Berthelsen is newly appointed to the local church but has to stay in the hotel in the complex managed by Jorgen, Peter Gantzler, because the mad old pastor won’t move out of the rectory. Within the complex is a sports bar managed by rude, arrogant Hal-Finn, Lars Kaalund, who, in an attempt to make himself more presentable goes to see Karen, Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, who runs the hair salon in the complex. Rounding off the six are Olympia, Anette Stovelbaek, a clumsy bakery assistant who has a monstrous father and Giulia – an Italian waitress in the sports bar. For a variety of reasons all except Guilia find themselves in an adult education class learning Italian. Conforming to the purity of the Dogma manifesto – handheld cameras using only available light and no manipulative music - Italian for Beginners isn’t cramped by the manifesto at all. It bursts with genuine affection for its characters none of whom are adept at romance - we can really empathise with their agonising tentativeness and with the burdens they carry in the film. This is such a charming film, a crowd pleaser with substance and genuine humanity performed by a splendid cast.

WorldFilm Review

Director: Lone Scherfig

Writer: Lone Scherfig

Stars:
Anders W Berthelsen,
Anette Stovelbaek,
Ann Eleonora Jorgensen,
Peter Gantzler,
Lars Kaalund,
Sara Indrio Jensen

Country: Denmark
Danish-language, subtitled

Rated R for language
and some sexuality
Certificate 15
Comedy

Year: 2001
Running time: 108 mins

Loners Find Love, Dogme Style
Romantic comedy--with its conventions of unblemished star faces, swelling theme music, and gauzy lighting--seems like an unlikely genre for a Dogme film, a pedigree that, after all, calls for handheld cameras, no artificial light, no overdubbed music, or any of the usual trappings of manipulative Hollywood cinema.

Even more thrilling, then, that Lone Scherfig pulls off just that: a tremendously touching film about six loners who find love. A bereaved pastor, a clumsy baker's assistant, a hairdresser, a hotel manager, an angry waiter -- normal people who struggle with loss (you need both hands to count the deaths in this film) and try to find a ray of light in their evening Italian classes at the community center. The film is pitch-perfect in plumbing the depth of their pain before it slowly allows for a remarkable recovery. "Italian For Beginners" is an unfettered, honest potrayal of everyday people finding happiness. It is all the more involving for its lack of obvious manipulation - and Meg Ryan is nowhere in sight.

Pros
• Comedy filmed according to Dogme 95 rules
• Great characters, fine actors
• Real people with real problems

Cons
• Unsteady Dogme camera isn't everybody's idea of good filmmaking

The Bottom Line - A warm and nourishing romantic comedy that doesn't force you to check your brain in the lobby.

Boxoff review

"Italian for Beginners" is the latest and most entertaining of the Danish Dogma films. The Dogma "rules" of a hand-held camera, natural light and location shooting give an intimacy that helps to emphasize the emotional changes of some thirtysomethings in Scandinavia.

Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen, "Mifune") is a minister whose wife has recently died. He arrives in Copenhagen to replace a suspended pastor. As he preaches to an almost empty congregation, Andreas seems like a character from Ingmar Bergman's imagination, but the film soon takes a different turn after Andreas signs up for an Italian class and he gets to know the other students: Jorgen (Peter Gantzler), the shy manager of the hotel where Andreas is staying, has a crush on Italian cook Guila (Sara Indrio Jensen). Hal-Finn (Lars Kaalund) is a restaurant manager whose antagonism toward his customers puts his job in jeopardy. Hal-Fin is attracted to Karen (Ann Eleonora Jorgensen), a hairdresser whom he meets when he tries to get a haircut. Olympia (Anette Stovelbaek), who is clumsily working in a bakery, has a demanding father.

As the students meet in the Italian class, lives change as new relationships develop. For them, it's a romance language in more ways than one; it's as if the warm Mediterranean sun was melting the chilly Scandinavian winter. A misscheduled funeral further connects some of the characters.

The script, the first from director Lone Scherfig, is extremely successful in delineating the very different personalities. The actors, whom Scherfig cast against type, give distinctive performances. Scherfig, who is the first female Dogma director, deftly adds a lighter, comedic tone to the genre as the language students gradually help each other to enrich their lives. It's a charming and often affecting journey.

- Ed Scheid