Italian for Beginners (2000)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written and Directed by Lone Scherfig
Starring Anders W. Berthelsen, Anette Støvelbæk, Peter Gantzler, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Lars Kaalund, and Sara Indrio Jensen

Anamorphic: No, it appears in its original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Definitely rent it.

Andreas (Berthelsen) has just arrived in a town in Denmark to take over and help revive a church with a small congregation. His wife has recently passed away, but he is trying to move on as best he can. Olympia (Støvelbæk) is a clumsy young woman who is currently employed by the local bakery. She is single and lives with her demented father in a modest apartment. Jørgen Mortensen (Gantzler) is a local resident who is suffering from a rather embarrassing sexual ailment that hits a lot of men approaching middle age. Unfortunately, he has let it effect his social life as well. He works at the hotel where he is close friends with Hal-finn (Kaalund), who is an abrasive young manager of the sports restaurant that is attached to the hotel, and Guilia (Jensen) who is the cook at the same restaurant. Jørgen is madly in love with Guilia and vice versa. There's only one problem. She only speaks Italian and he only speaks Danish. Hal-finn finds himself infatuated with a local hairdresser named Karen (Jørgensen). Each of them is searching for something that is missing in their lives and each enrolls in a class on Italian in the hopes that it will help them to find what they are looking for.

This is an infinitely charming and heartwarming film about the most basic of human emotions: love. But, through the relationships created in this story, it goes much deeper than many films I've seen of late. Each character has a clearly defined arc and the conflicts created are very natural, seeming to flow easily from page to screen. This is thanks mostly to a cast of actors that takes this script and brings each of the characters to life. They do this so well that it feels more like voyeurism than watching a movie. I think this is also helped by the fact that the entire film looks and feels like it was shot with someone's Hi-8 video camera and then edited on their home theatre system. Who knows, it could have been, for all I know. I have to admit, at first, I was put off by this, but the more I got into the story, the more this style of filmmaking seemed to add to the movie than take away from it.

Which brings me to sort of a sticking point about this DVD. There is not one ounce of special features which might lead to some kind of insight as to whether it was a choice or a budgetary necessity to film on a camcorder. I am dying to know which it was and I'm forced to go to the internet and read something about it rather than having it ready for me by the producers of the DVD. Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to doing a little bit of research about something that I'm interested in, but it seems to me like it's prime bonus material for a DVD. Granted a commentary track would be a little bit difficult for an American audience (unless the cast also speaks English), but it might have been nice to have some kind of series of interviews or behind-the-scenes featurette to introduce us to this wonderful cast.

So, if you are a romantic at heart (like I am) or you just like a good character study, you might want to add this one to your collection. Otherwise, this should definitely be on your rental list. I'm still not sure how this one slipped under my radar for so long.