Synopsis
Italian for Beginners (2000) is Lone Scherfig's Danish tragicomedy, available to watch online on iFILM. A cluster of lonely people in a quiet Copenhagen suburb keep turning up to the same evening Italian class.
A young pastor, an anxious waitress, a hot-tempered hotel clerk, a bakery girl, a hairdresser — each carries some private grief or awkwardness. The class gives them one reason a week to leave the house and slowly lean on one another. Their teacher dies, the group nearly comes apart, and yet the language of a far-off sunny country is what pairs them off and finally carries them to Venice.
Made under the strict Dogme 95 rules — handheld camera, natural light, not a note of added score — the film is bare by design. At the Berlin Film Festival it took the Jury Grand Prix, the Silver Bear. It's the rare case where such an austere method serves a warm, almost cozy story about second chances. Stream Italian for Beginners (2000) online on iFILM.
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