Italian for Beginners (2000)A very sweet, romantic, warm movie about a bunch of slightly lonely, slightly misfit Danes who meet through an Italian class. There is a dysfunctional church (probably not uncommon in Denmark), a quaint bakery, a hairdresser's, and so on, adding to a kind of small town reality where everything has conviction.As much as this is all good--and it is good, if not great--it's also decided low budget in a kind of clunky way. The acting is fine--people are themselves, I suppose, or like fairly normal people--and the story line is cute and clever. But the filming and direction borders on a really good home movie. It's a 97 minute affair of course, and doesn't feel thrown together or amateurish, merely so simple and plain, visually, it becomes conspicuous.But if you can just enjoy the interpersonal lives, and some budding love affairs (and who can't), and a final section in Venice, you might find it a sweet joy.

A lovely, feelgood film that manages to avoid being twee through several flashes of that dry, dark, Danish sense of humour; as well as a willingness to look at life's realities square on, without overt sentimentality, but with a tentative optimism.For those familiar with Dogme '95 this is proof that it doesn't always have to be vaguely disturbing or downright shocking truths that the medium wrings out of its characters and situations - life isn't always that bleak. For those not familiar with Dogme, this film presents a warm and inviting pool in which one may dip one's toe comfortably.The six lead characters are three-dimensional and likable, including Lars Kaalund's Ramseyan restaurateur Halvfinn. The support is a little more exaggeratedly drawn, but still sympathetic for the most part. The plot is uncomplicated (no prizes for guessing the minor twists) but none the worse for that - part of the Dogme vow of chastity is to avoid the horrendously contrived plot twists favoured by Hollywood today over proper character development or story (you know the usual suspects).One to watch with (teenage) offspring, parents, partners, business partners, potential clients, complete strangers... in fact, just about anyone who's around.

In the 1990's a group of Danish film makers developed protocols for a new style of filming which was intended to give a more natural looking product than most large studio productions. These films are now listed as following the Dogme 95 franchise. It encourages filming exclusively on location with hand held cameras. If a studio is used, the lighting must be simple and natural. The most distinctive feature is however that all background music not required by the story is excluded, this can provide a very refreshing change after watching films where the mood has to be established through the soundtrack before every sequence. Italian for Beginners is one of the later Dogme productions and is a classic "feel good" film which most viewers may not remember as memorable, but the vast majority will regard as enjoyable viewing. I recommend it strongly to anyone not familiar with any of the Dogme films, both as a film and as a good introduction to this franchise.The story is of a group of rather drab and depressed individuals who decide to learn a little Italian to enable them to better follow the program of the Venice film festival. Gradually the challenge of undertaking a difficult task together brings colour into their lives and they become both more interesting people and more interested in each other. (The most serious criticism of this film is that, in order to highlight the extent of the change they experience, they appear so uninteresting in the early sequences it is initially very hard for a viewer to become involved in the story which is being unfolded.) Ultimately romances bloom, other important changes in their lives can be seen developing; and the film conveys the clear message that everybody has to contribute something before they can get anything back.Forget the Dogme protocols - they are useful to know but not very relevant. Personally I love the simplicity of the sound track in a Dogme movie, but I hate an over-shaky camera; neither are critical aspects of this film. Essentially, this is a film about ordinary people - not one with a gripping story or overwhelming spectacle; but one which nevertheless has won many awards. If they last out the early sequences, most viewers find it very rewarding to watch. My IMDb rating is 7 stars.

When I went to see Lars Von Trier's "Breaking the waves" years ago I coined a new film-genre: the Guilt-Flick. Since then, I only watched Dogme95 films to analyse their technique, because I have researched how to apply their "10 commandments" in depth at university. I am a micro-budget filmmaker myself - although I now Dogme95 isn't about budget. It can take a lot of money to look that cheap! Some of my Scandinavian friend attribute the grim atmosphere of the Dogme95 guilt-flick to the Puritanical influence. I can relate to the desire to show "life as it is" as a rebellion against special effects-laden Hollywood films, but the amount of unhappiness shown in the first half of this film nearly puts you off watching the rest of it. It is still a very gentle, beautifully edited and shot story (especially compared to the atrocious "Kingdom"), and the actors are talented and obviously well directed. (SPOILER COMING UP!) When the Italian classes lose their teacher, the local council gives the job to Halvfinn, who likes football so much he doesn't even know that "Penalty" in Italian is "Punizione" and not "Punire". What really baffles me is that there is an Italian girl in the village, Giulia, whose Italian is genuine (I know, I am Italian myself!), but she won't get the teaching job!!!! My partner objected that she couldn't get the job because she spoke little Danish, but so did the old Italian teacher. He is only on screen for a few minutes but would still drive you mad with stereotypes: he is trying it on with anything remotely female, his name is Marcello (yeah, like Mastroianni in "La Dolce Vita" and his surname is Mercoledi', Wednesday! Is this a clever pun on Robinson Crusoe or they couldn't be bothered looking up a more realistic-sounding Italian name? And Giulia - this is 2000, and she is praying (praying!!!!) that the man she fancies will like her new hair. That's ridiculous, and offensive for Italian girls in general and all the more so for the ones that chose to be religious. Giulia's character is some leftover from a 1950s romance, and should have no place in a story that strives so hard to be true to life. And as for Catholics not having sex before they're married... see "1950s romance" above! It is still a beautiful film, that manages to combine tragedy and comic moments in true melodrama style (the character of the old Pastor is fantastic!) and I recommend it to anyone who doesn't like the "exploding cars" film genre (you all know what I mean).