Italian for Beginners - out now
Italian for beginners is a touching and enduring romantic comedy set in a dreary suburb of Copenhagen. It portrays the lives of six lonely thirty-somethings looking for love and a sense of purpose who enroll in a beginners’ class in Italian run by the local council. Written and directed by Lone Scherfig (On Our Own), the film follows the guidelines of Dogma 95, the ascetic filmmaking code advanced by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and others which forbids expensive and spectacular special effects in order to focus on the purity of storyline and script.
The three romances depicted in the film are fairly conventional. The young pastor Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen) has been drafted in to oversee the local church, after the last one was booted out of the job. A shy and clumsy bakery worker, Olympia (Anette Støvelbæk), becomes infatuated with him, and he eventually returns her feelings. Since Andreas’ predecessor refuses to move out of the rectory, Andreas must stay at a hotel, where he meets impotent desk manager Jorgen Mortensen (Peter Gantzler). Jorgen is interested in Guilia (Sara Indrio Jensen), a waitress at the local Italian, and hopes to impress her with his new language skills. Her slovenly and foul-mouthed boss Halvfinn (Lars Kaalund), who also happens to be Jorgen’s best friend, is sent for a haircut by senior management, and is attracted to Karen (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen), who runs a hair salon.
However, this is where any Hollywood parallels end, as each character tries to cope with his or her own tragedy – a beloved wife who committed suicide after a nervous breakdown got too much for her, illness, broken families and drunken and ailing parents whose constant need for attention is a burden of guilt for their hard-working children. By showing the characters’ pedestrian responsibilities, Scherfig makes their romantic transcendence all the sweeter.
Italian lessons provide the characters with a focus which is meant to ease their struggles with life and love, and where the term “beginner” truly expresses their need for a new start. Mastering a new language becomes a metaphor for building self-esteem and escaping from the banality of suburban life. As the six become united both in their tribulations and their hopes, they form a bond which gives them security and a new reason to live.
Some stunning performances mean the cast shine under the scrutiny of the Dogma approach, without the need for Hollywood quick-fixes. Particularly impressive is Anders W. Berthelsen, who radiates both grief and good humour as the recently widowed Pastor Andreas.
This is a comedy that transcends mindless stereotypes, and shows how friendship and trust can give new hope to broken lives. Its richness and tenderness will warm the heart of the most hardened sceptic.
