A suburb of a Danish town, present day. Six people. Their paths cross. And for various reasons they all get involved in an Italian language course at the adult education centre. A subtle, nice comedy by Lone Sherfig. The poster is totally misleading. It doesn’t show what the film is about at all.

The trailer of Lone Sherfig’s new film ‘Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself’, has made me look forward to seeing it, but in the meantime, I shall blurb about her previous film ‘Italian for Beginners’. It’s time I added ‘feelgood movies’ to my ‘favorite movie genres’ in my CoP Bio. Not that I feel bad all the time, and continuously need to compensate I just like good feelgood movies with a little ‘oomph’.

Although it was awarded many prizes, including a Silver Bear in Berlin, ‘Italian For Beginners’ seems to have faded away quietly. Luckily you can still find it at the local well-stocked video rental.

‘Italian for Beginners’ is the twelfth Dogme 95 film. Dogme 95 is many things. It’s a collective of filmmakers who had specific ideas about making film. It’s the name of those ideas converged in a manifesto and a set of rules called ‘The Vow of Chastity’. And, it has become a cult-ish phenomenon. Dogme 95 has presented these rules as a means to inspire directors to experience film in a specific way. This has resulted in a certain typical style. But enough about Dogme 95. For more info on that, navigate to the official website.

In ‘Italian for Beginners’, the ‘oomph’ is a creative kind of wit, which I can only describe as a Scandinavian kind of British dry humor. The story clearly is subject to the interaction of the characters. At first that interaction seemed flat and common, but it soon turns into subtly funny conversation. The events and dialogues are like little anecdotes. Flawlessly brought to the screen by experienced actors.

But what I liked best about this film, is how well suburban life in Denmark is depicted. At the risk of generalizing about Danish society too much, it seems exactly like how I experienced Denmark and hanging-out with Danish people. Reserved and open at the same time.

Dislikes? At times the pace is real slow. A pity. Also, the experimental Dogme95 cinematography becomes pretentious at times. A little less would’ve been better. The ending lacks … eh … everything.

rated: **** (out of 5). For subtlety and style.

Be Sociable, Share!

•