Italian lessons in love (Italiensk for Begyndere [Italian for Beginners] (DVD))

Member Name: chinnyli

Product:	Italiensk for Begyndere [Italian for Beginners] (DVD)
Date:	28/05/02 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Endearing look at life and blossoming relationships

Disadvantages: Ties up too neatly at end

Do you have any idea what a Dogme film is?! No I didn't either, in fact I'd never come across the term until I was standing outside the Odeon Wardour Street cinema in London, desperately scanning the brief reviews they had outside for clues to what might be a good film to watch.

We'd just missed the beginning of two other films, having forgot to check film times before going into a café to eat. So desperate not to waste cheapy Monday evening, we opted for the first film we could find that didn't seem to have started already.

"It's a Dogme film," my friend informed me as we walked down a winding corridor to the cinema screening. Forehead furrowed. "What's Dogme?" I asked. A quick briefing told me Dogme films could be about anything, but must not belong to any specific genre (though this one fits well into romantic comedy), and have to be filmed naturally ie without the aid of special effects, mood music, superficial action or artificial lighting (and even the credits are written on bits of paper). Apparently they were usually pretty awful too, "but I've heard this is meant to be good," he quickly added. Hmm, I thought, why didn't you tell me this before I paid the fiver to get in?

Annoyingly, we still managed to miss the first two minutes of the film, so I spent the next 15 minutes agonising that I'd missed crucial information in the introduction of the characters.

But no, while I was slightly bewildered by the chopping and changing between characters and scenes, with a smidgeon of concentration it's possible to quickly discern what the main characters do and are like.

---- Brief synopsis ----

The film centres around five early middle-aged characters and one young waitress in a small Danish town, living close to a stadium and hotel complex. All are unmarried and suffer from loneliness.

Let me introduce you to them - Andreas (Anders W Be
rthelsen) is the Roman Catholic pastor just arrived in town to temporarily replace his predecessor, who had thrown the organist from the church gallery. His wife died six months ago. He's staying at the hotel where...

Jorgen Mortensen (Peter Gantzler) is a hotel receptionist. He's worried about being impotent! He's incredibly helpful, in a nerdish but well-intentioned way, and will always offer advice and recommendations to both customers and friends alike. He often recommends people to...

Karen (Ann Eleonora Jorgensen) the hairdresser. Her mother is addicted to the morphine she takes to ease her physical pain, and often turns up unexpectedly at Karen's salon begging for money or help. During one of these incidents, she is dealing with...

Halvfinn (Lars Kaalund) the floppy haired and scruffy hotel restaurant manager. He's completely rude to his customers, colleagues, and unfortunately his bosses who want him sacked. He's fluent in Italian and translates for his colleague...

Giulia (Sara Indrio Jensen), a young Italian waitress who barely speaks Danish. She spends most of her time praying that Jorgen will notice her, even though he is 10 years older and doesn't speak Italian.

Olympia (Anette Stovelbaek) is the excessively clumsy bakery assistant who takes leftover cakes to her ungrateful and extremely bitter homebound father every night. Her father constantly compares her to her mother, who abandoned them when she was a child.

Their seemingly completely separate lives slowly begin to intertwine, at first randomly through their workplaces and an Italian evening class some of them join to learn Italian, but become poignantly closer through a series of coincidences.

---- Synopsis over ----

The film is a wonderful exploration of human nature, a result I guess from the Dogme mandate. As the film is unable to rely on false settings or special effects, it is forced to make f
ull use of its script and actors' acting skills.

Each of the characters are at first filmed within their own personal constrained spaces... the hotel, restaurant, salon, bakery, home, hospital... setting out the routine of their lives and the daily disappointments that they deal with.

You're often left filled with sympathy in seeing these people's lives, seeing Andreas preaching to an empty church, Karen interrupting appointments to deal with her mother turning up again, at Halvfinn's churlishness when we know his bosses want him sacked, and most sadly, Olympia trying to save some truffles to take to her father, by lying to a customer that they have been "booked" by the hotel.

So it seems terribly unfair when tragedy strikes in some of these characters' lives, serving only to enforce their sense of vulnerability further. This is felt most keenly as Olympia stands stunned, telling a queue of waiting customers: "Now my mother has died too," before dropping a cup while standing in the kitchen alone later.

But even the saddest scenes can be infused with hope, as they gain support from newly made friends, and intermingled are the sweetest awkward beginnings of romance.

Whereas in other films couples seem to jump into bed almost instantaneously to sickly sweet music, here the romances are built up, with glances, touches, smiles and conversation. Amongst all this you notice their adjustments in behaviour, habits, as they learn how to please the other. You'll see this as Halvfinn succumbs to Karen's gentle washing of his hair, and when Karen remembers not to put an overall on him for his haircut. Then there's the way Andreas tenderly wipes away cappuccino froth from Olympia's upper lip, or Giulia turning up at the Italian class despite already being fluent, in order to impress Jorgen.

Italiensk for begyndere is such an honest film, and you will often find yourself
smiling and laughing wryly with them, empathising and maybe even occasionally recognising yourself in some of the characters.
"What would you like for Christmas?" Karen asks.
"I'd like a husband and a house and not to have to work... but those big earrings we saw in the shop will do," replies Olympia.

There is no way this kind of film could work if it had used the normal rules of mainstream filmmaking. If the film had used younger wrinkle-free or airbrushed actors under soft artificial lighting, playing dominant roles in several artificial and unlikely settings with cleverly timed music, well we'd know it was contrived, wouldn't we?

As it is under Dogme rules, we see the characters' weaknesses here, both physical and mental, and we love them more for it.

But it's a shame that the film had to end just a bit too tidily, with a typical happy ever after, but hey, it's a feel good movie! Just makes me wistful how seemingly impossible situations will always work out in a film... if only real life were like this.

---- Afternote ----

Italiensk for begyndere was first released in Denmark on Dec 8 2000, and annoyingly seemed to open in every other country in the world before being released in the UK one and a half years later on April 26 2002.

The film is 112 mins long, rated a 15, and filmed in Danish with English subtitles (so make sure you bring your glasses if you need them!) There are no nude scenes, though there are suggestions/references to sex.

Information on Dogme 95, a collective of directors founded in Copenhagen, as well as their 'vow of chastity' concerning film making can be found at http://www.tvopa1.2/film/dogme95/

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