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| The attractive poster for Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners |
The Danish Dogme manifesto of 1995 was a set of pious rules that meant hand-held photography, low budgets, no stunts, no extra-diegetic music, no unreal violence, etc. etc. etc., and together, Lars Von Trier's The Idiots/Idioterne (1998), Thomas Vinterberg's The Celebration/Festen (1998) and Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners are above question the finest films that came out of the successful wave.
Italian for Beginners is the story of a priest that temps in a broken down parish; two sisters that find each other when both their parents pass away; and a soccer stadium restaurant manager who gets fired. They all attend an evening course in Italian and end up going to Venice together.
This film is a liberating watch for many reasons: It is filled with weighty drama, (joggling themes of death, impotence and loneliness), and none of the heavy parts of life are slighted here. But they are balanced in an incredibly sensitive and funny script (also by Scherfig (An Education (2009))), and combined with tender romances. It all bears the risk of becoming sentimental, but the Dogme realism luckily keeps the film from that pitfall.
Much of the ironic humor of the film lies in the special Danish language, intonations and national quirks and will therefore likely not be picked up by foreigners, but much of it still will, I suspect, and the film should prove a great enjoyment to all in any case.
There are exceedingly charming performances from the female actors; Annette Støvelbæk (Speed Walking/Kapgang (2014)) as the clumsy Olympia, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen (The Killing/Forbrydelsen (2007), TV-series) as the assured hairdresser, and Sara Indrio Jensen (No Time for Love/Simon & Malou (2009)) as the Italian waitress. Anders W. Berthelsen (Mifune/Mifunes Sidste Sang (1999)) is wonderful as the troubled priest, and in his perhaps finest work of all, Peter Gantzler (Copenhagen Dreams (2013), short) shines and acts with all of his great talent as the cautious, good-willed Jørgen Mortensen.
The wonderful supporting cast builds the pleasure of Italian for Beginners up even higher; especially Jesper Christensen's (The Debt (2010)) performance has garnered national notoriety (and is commonly quoted), but also Bent Mejding (We Shall Overcome/Drømmen (2006)) as the disillusioned priest is formidable, and Lars Kaalund (In a Better World/Hævnen (2010)) as the temperamental Halfin is an asshole, but fun.
A film about the passions of the self-effacing, the weak, the arrogant, and the ridiculous, and about the tremendous gift of love, Italian for Beginners turned out to be recognized and appreciated the world over, and is said to have been the most profitable Scandinavian film in history to date, (which may or may not be true.)
Though the cast never withdrew much career-wise (internationally, anyway) from this placement, - only Christensen has since then developed a strong international career with performances in films such as The Interpreter (2005), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Melancholia (2011) etc. - Scherfig has build a strong path for herself, especially through films in the UK, but has never since made such a masterful film, though especially her great An Education (2009) received much praise, three Oscar-nominations, and served as the breakthrough for Carey Mulligan (Drive (2011)).
Scherfig's current project is an Oxford-set university thriller with the title The Riot Club to come out in 2014.
Related post:
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
Vibrant filmmaking, - you will not be able to resist it! Italian for Beginners - look it up pronto!
Cost: Reportedly between 0.6 mil.-1 mil. $
Box office: 16.3 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned at least 16.3 times the cost)
[Italian for Beginners was released 8 December (Denmark) and runs 118 minutes. Shooting took place in Zealand, Denmark and in Venice, Italy. The film opened #42 to a 66k $ strong first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #25 and in 99 theaters (different weeks) and grossed impressive 4.5 mil. $ (27.6 % of the total gross) during its 25-week run there. The film's biggest market was its native Denmark, where it grossed 5.2 mil. $ (31.9 %) from 828,701 admissions, making it the 13th highest attended Danish film in the country ever. North America was the 2nd largest market, and Germany was the 3rd largest with 3.5 mil. $ (21.5 %). The film won 4/5 nominations at the Berlin International Film Festival; it was nominated for a European Film award and won 3/11 Robert noms, Denmark's Oscar, among other honors. In 2010, Zentropa, the production company behind the film, payed an undisclosed sum to Irish writer Maeve Binchy, whose novel Evening Class (1998) Scherfig admitted to have "borrowed from" from for the film. Italian for Beginners is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Thoughts on Dogme and other great romances in cinema history?
What do you think of Italian for Beginners?
What do you think of Italian for Beginners?
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