ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS

Country: Denmark
Director: Lone Scherfig
Lead Actors : Andres W. Berthelsen, Anette Stovelbaek, Ann Eleonora
Running time: 118 min.
(English Subtitles)
BC Rating: PG (Coarse language)

"The real romance in the film might just be for those basic elements; Scherfig has made a film that feels richer than any number of kazillion-dollar epics through under-statedly clever dialogue, easily recognisable situations and economically but sharply drawn characters. Turns out that's all you need, and I'd defy you to name five films produced by a Hollywood studio in the past six months that match its wit, homey whimsy and charm." - Exclaim

Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS is a tale that delights with its whimsical characters and romantic charm. Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen) is a bumbling, recently widowed pastor, newly arrived to preside over a small Copenhagen suburb. Still recovering from the shock of his wife’s death, he accepts an invitation from Jørgen, the friendly but shy hotel receptionist, to join a local Italian-for-beginners class. This sets an unlikely round-robin of romance in motion, as Andreas joins accident-prone pastry shop assistant Olympia, hairdresser Karen, former soccer player and rude waiter Halv-Finn and Guilia, who already knows Italian but takes the class because she has a crush on Jørgen. Thrown together by happenstance, this eclectic collection of lonely, unhappy classmates discovers, in Italian, the language of love and sides of themselves they never knew they had.
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