Italian for Beginners
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''Italian for Beginners'' ( da, Italiensk for begyndere) is a 2000 Danish
romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...
film written and directed by
Lone Scherfig Lone Scherfig (; born 2 May 1959) is a Denmark, Danish film director and screenwriter who has been involved with the Dogme 95 film movement and who has been widely critically acclaimed for several of her movies, including the Oscar-nominated film ...
, and starring
Anders W. Berthelsen Anders W. Berthelsen (born 28 September 1969) is a Danish actor. He has appeared in more than 40 films and television shows since 1994. Selected filmography References External links * 1969 births Living people Danish male film act ...
, Lars Kaalund and
Peter Gantzler Peter Gantzler (born 28 September 1958) is a Danish actor. He is perhaps best known for his parts in ''Taxa'' and ''Italian for Beginners''. Biography Peter Gantzler originally studied Danish at the University of Copenhagen, but changed to the D ...
, together with
Ann Eleonora Jørgensen Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (born 16 October 1965) is a Danish film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her television work in ''Taxa'' (1997–1999) and '' The Killing'' (2007), and for her film roles in ''Italian for Beginners'' ...
,
Anette Støvelbæk Anette Støvelbæk (born 27 July 1967) is a Danish actress. She was born in Copenhagen and is married to actor Lars Mikkelsen. She made her screen debut as Olympia in the Danish comedy film ''Italian for Beginners ''Italian for Beginners'' ( ...
and Sara Indrio Jensen. The film was made by the austere principles of the
Dogme 95 Dogme 95 is a 1995 avant-garde filmmaking movement founded by the Danish directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, who created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity" ( da, kyskhedsløfter). These were rules to create films ba ...
movement, including the use of handheld video cameras and natural lighting, and is known as ''Dogme XII''. However, in contrast to most Dogme films which are harsh and serious in tone, ''Italian for Beginners'' is a light-hearted comedy. It was made on a $600,000 budget, and went on to gross over 27 times that. After the film's release, significant similarities between its plot and that of the novel ''
Evening Class ''Evening Class'' is a 1996 novel by the Irish author Maeve Binchy. It was adapted as the award-winning film ''Italian for Beginners'' (2000) by writer-director Lone Scherfig, who failed to formally acknowledge the source, although at the very en ...
'' by
Maeve Binchy Anne Maeve Binchy Snell (28 May 1939Born 1939 as per biography, ''Maeve Binchy'' by Piers Dudgeon, Thomas Dunne Books 2013; (hardcover), pp. 4, 280, 302; (ebook) – 30 July 2012) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, columni ...
were identified. The distributor,
Zentropa Zentropa, or Zentropa Entertainments, is a Danish film company started in 1992 by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen. Zentropa is named after the train company Zentropa in the film ''Europa'' (1991), which started the colla ...
, paid an undisclosed sum in compensation to Binchy.


Plot

Andreas, a widowed pastor, arrives in a Danish suburb to take over religious duties from the previous pastor who, due to a crisis of faith after his own wife's death, has become irreligious and even punched the organist, causing him to be hospitalized. Believing his stay will be temporary, Andreas stays in the local hotel where he meets one of the employees, Jørgen Mortensen, who is suffering a crisis as he has been asked to fire the temperamental Hal-Finn who works in the hotel restaurant and is also his best friend. Hal-Finn goes to visit hairdresser Karen and is immediately attracted to her, though his visit is cut short when she must go to the hospital to attend to her alcoholic mother. Meanwhile, clumsy baker Olympia tends to her disabled and abusive father, who constantly berates her. Olympia decides to join a beginner Italian class in order to feel closer to her Italian mother, but the night she joins the class, the instructor dies. She returns home to find that her own father has died as well. Sometime later she learns that her estranged mother has died as well. At her funeral, she meets Karen, and the two discover that they are sisters and that their parents split them up when they divorced. In order to protect Olympia, Karen does not tell her that their mother was not Italian and was an alcoholic. After finally being fired for being rude to customers, Hal-Finn becomes the Italian teacher and Olympia persuades both Andreas and her sister to join. Karen and Hal-Finn begin a romantic affair but during Christmas Karen overhears Hal-Finn disparaging her mother, and angrily ends their relationship. Jørgen approaches Andreas for advice about his impotence and his trouble talking to Hal-Finn's Italian friend Giulia, and decides to ask her out for a walk. In the meantime Olympia receives a letter from the bank telling her of a large inheritance from her father. She decides to spend it taking the Italian class to Venice. In Venice, Jørgen proposes to Giulia who accepts, Karen forgives Hal-Finn after he cuts off his too-long bangs, and Andreas suggests that Olympia, whose clumsy behaviour has caused her to be fired from 43 jobs, come to work as a chorister. He then reveals that he plans to stay in the parish.


Cast

*
Anders W. Berthelsen Anders W. Berthelsen (born 28 September 1969) is a Danish actor. He has appeared in more than 40 films and television shows since 1994. Selected filmography References External links * 1969 births Living people Danish male film act ...
as Andreas *
Anette Støvelbæk Anette Støvelbæk (born 27 July 1967) is a Danish actress. She was born in Copenhagen and is married to actor Lars Mikkelsen. She made her screen debut as Olympia in the Danish comedy film ''Italian for Beginners ''Italian for Beginners'' ( ...
as Olympia *
Ann Eleonora Jørgensen Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (born 16 October 1965) is a Danish film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her television work in ''Taxa'' (1997–1999) and '' The Killing'' (2007), and for her film roles in ''Italian for Beginners'' ...
as Karen *
Peter Gantzler Peter Gantzler (born 28 September 1958) is a Danish actor. He is perhaps best known for his parts in ''Taxa'' and ''Italian for Beginners''. Biography Peter Gantzler originally studied Danish at the University of Copenhagen, but changed to the D ...
as Jørgen Mortensen *
Lars Kaalund Lars is a common male name in Scandinavian countries. Origin ''Lars'' means "from the city of Laurentum". Lars is derived from the Latin name Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum" or "crowned with laurel". A homonymous Etruscan name was born ...
as Hal-Finn * Sara Indrio Jensen as Giulia * Karen-Lise Mynster as Kirsten, the real estate dealer * Rikke Wölck as Lise, the nurse * Elsebeth Steentoft as Kirketjener *
Bent Mejding Bent Mejding (born 14 January 1937) is a Danish actor, stage director and theatre manager. He won a Danish Film Academy Award in 1985 and 2007. He is married to the actress Susse Wold. Career Mejding had his debut at Folketeatret in Copenhagen ...
as Reverend Wredmann *
Lene Tiemroth Lene Tiemroth (16 July 1943 – 3 November 2016) was a Danish actress. Background and career Tiemroth was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, the daughter of actors Edvin Tiemroth and Clara Østø. She graduated from the Royal Danish Theatre's Student ...
as Karen's mother *
Claus Gerving Claus (sometimes Clas) is both a given name and a German Language, German, Danish language, Danish, and Dutch language, Dutch surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1907–1944), a German offi ...
as Klaus Graversen *
Jesper Christensen Jesper Christensen (; born 16 May 1948) is a Danish actor. A veteran of European cinema, he has more recently made the transition to English language projects, including ''The Interpreter'' and '' Revelations''. He has also appeared as the mys ...
as Olympia's father


Reception


Critical reception

On
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film has an approval rating of 88% based on 85 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Unlike many romantic comedies, the charming ''Italian for Beginners'' feels natural and genuinely heart-warming." On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 77 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Accolades

The film won the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the
Berlin Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
, the Golden Spike Award for the best film of the year at the
Seminci The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing fi ...
film festival in
Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...
, Spain, and the Audience Award at the
Warsaw International Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival ( pl, Warszawski Festiwal Filmowy, abbreviated as WFF) is an annual film festival held every October in Warsaw, Poland which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries from all around the world. The festival ha ...
in Poland. Peter Gantzler won the award for Best Actor at the Seminci festival. The film also won the Gold Dolphin (Best Film) at the
Festroia International Film Festival The Tróia International Film Festival, commonly referred to as Festroia ( pt, Festival Internacional de Cinema de Tróia – Festróia) was an annual international film festival in Portugal held from 1985 to 2014. Held in the town of Setúbal and ...
in 2001.


References


Literature

* Mette Hjort, ''Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners'', Museum Tusculanum Press, 2010. .


External links

* *
FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; "Finding the Right Spark for a Guy With a Problem"
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
2 October 2001 {{Authority control 2000 films 2000 romantic comedy films Camcorder films 2000s Danish-language films 2000s English-language films Films about language Films based on Irish novels Films directed by Lone Scherfig Films set in Venice 2000s Italian-language films 2000 multilingual films Danish multilingual films Danish romantic comedy films Dogme 95 films