Stars: Anders W. Berthelsen, Anette Stovelbaek, Ann Eleonora Jorgensen

Director: Lone Scherfig

Summary: A group of six thirty-something social misfits find their lives intermingled when they attend an Italian class.

In this beautiful, understated film, every character possesses a naive, heartbreaking honesty and every line communicates the sweet simplicity of basic human longing. From Danish director Lone Scherfig (ON OUR OWN), ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS uses natural lighting, muted cinematography, and a partially improvised script--falling into the Dogme 95 genre. The film is not about learning Italian, though the film's six thirtysomething characters all meet each other through an Italian class at the community center in their quiet, rainy town. The film is about real life and hardship and hope. A nurturing hair stylist, a clumsy bakery clerk, a committed pastor, a foulmouthed waiter, a friendly hotel manager, and a lonely waitress all struggle with the banality of daily life, while dealing with their own unique challenges. But as they begin to reveal themselves and their problems to each other, they form a bond and a network that is both a safety net and a new reason to live.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

The winner of a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Italian for Beginnersis the first film made under the Dogme rules of austerity (no artificial lighting, no extraneous music, no imported props, etc) to be directed by a woman, Danish director Lone Scherfig. It's set in a small Danish town where half-a-dozen awkward misfits (the newly arrived pastor, a recently bereaved hairdresser, an ex-footballer turned abrasive bar manager, a put-upon baker's assistant and so on) are drawn together by the shared activity of an Italian-language evening-class and--yes, you guessed it--start coming out of their shells and finding love.

This is a gentle, good-natured film, full of quirky dialogue and unforced humour. Scherfig derives a good deal of amusement from watching the gloomy, buttoned-up Danes gradually relaxing and expanding under the influence of their improved linguistic skills, and reaching out for happiness. (As usual in North European cinema, Italian equals everything that's spontaneous, life-loving and sexy.) True, the pro-togetherness message is banal, and the whole film's altogether a little too pat, especially in the final neat pairing-off and the way a couple of obstructive parents helpfully contrive to die just when they need to. Still, the freshness of the largely improvised performances, and Scherfig's affectionate regard for her characters, make for a film that's hard to dislike.

On the DVD:Italian for Beginnershas no extras except the theatrical trailer. The transfer faithfully reproduces the mainly hand-held, digital video quality of the original. --Philip Kemp

Aspect Ratio:	1.33 Full Screen, 4.3
Main Language:	Danish
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2001
Release Date:	March 31, 2003
Runtime:	107 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P 9039 D V D
Keywords:	Beginners, Subtitled, Comedy, Off, General, Danish, Italian, Romantic, Schedule
Genre:	Comedy