Cheap Italian for Beginners (DVD) (Anders W. Berthelsen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen) (Lone Scherfig) Price

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Customer Reviews of Italian for Beginners

beginner's luck
it's sad to say that one of the years most sensisble and charming comedy/dramas isn't that WILL take place in our country but i cannot and won't lie. italian for beginners is a delightful, sweet and sometimes sad story of danish people who are all somehow connected by their weekly italian study class. my only complaint is that i am not particularly fond of handheld cameras in the movies yet but i'm starting to get used to this after seeing dancer in the dark. having never heard of this film before, i was immeasurably touched when i saw it and recommend it highly to everyone. you will be touched, amused, and thoroughly drawn in by the lives of these wonderful people and one might even feel as though he's known them or characters like them in his own life. there is enough hearty romance, humor, and warmth here to to satisfy the soul and this kind of film should be shared with others. treat yourself to italian for beginners and watch it with someone you love. this film is rated R for occasional profanities and some mild sensuality.

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Touching and funny
It's initially somewhat disconcerting to watch this movie, shot as a video rather than in traditional film format. But the script and the performances are so affecting and so honest that it quickly becomes entirely engrossing. A motley-seeming collection of average people: a raging restaurant keeper with a hidden talent for language, an accommodating hairdresser with a nightmare of a mother who just happens to be terminally ill, a klutzy, good-natured young bakery worker with a horrible father, a disaffected management type and a charming Italian waitress. They all find themselves at an evening class in Italian and they manage to make connections--with themselves and with the others in the class--in humorous and bittersweet ways.

This is a very worthwhile film. Don't be put off by the oddness of the video. You'll forget about it soon enough and become entirely caught up in this wonderfully well-acted, truly touching and amusing film.
Highly recommended.

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How very odd...
Your first impression of this movie will be "OMG, they filmed this with a home movie camera!", which I believe they did. You get over it fast enough though because the script and characters really are able to draw you in. Perhaps this 'home-movie' feel was done on purpose (or mabey all Dutch films ar so low-budget) because it makes the entire movie seem so much more viceral and real; you'll feel almost voyeuristic watching it. The story centers around seven (ending up with nine) people who take an Italian class together, and all the drama and humor that follow them. I found this film uproriously funny, not so much at the script, but at the film making (the way they show the final credits is priceless). The script is, however, quite well done. The humor is very believeable, but not the kind that makes you cringe like so many American films do ("rushmore" is a perfect example of cringe-humor).

It only got four stars from me because it lacked much new insight into relationships. The characters all found eachother it the same traditional way that most characters in romances do. However, it does well to avoid the annoying and somewhat unrealistic dramas that Julia Roberts seems plagued with. Their pain seem much more plausable, and for that I'm thankful.