Brehm Center

        And the least and the lonely come in all shapes and sizes, as Danish writer-director Lone Scherfig shows us in the lovely film Italian for Beginners.  As one movie critic swooned (and movie critics rarely do swoon) she “has made a film so unabashedly hopeful that it actually makes the heart soar.” But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, for this hope is not pie-in-the-sky, nor is it easily experienced. The characters move from loneliness to community in slow and sometimes painful steps. But isn’t that how life is for most of us?

        Italian for Beginners is actually a romantic comedy with three romances bundled into one.  The connecting thread is that all of the characters live in the same Danish town and all attend the local Italian-for-Beginners class. There are eventually nine students total, but we enter the lives of six. We meet Jorgen Mortenson, the friendly, gentle assistant manager of the local hotel as he receives the order to fire the hotel’s restaurant manager, Halvfinn, his troubled friend.  Halvfinn is generally rude to everyone including his waitress, Giulia, a beautiful Italian immigrant.  Upon losing his job, Halvfinn is hired as a fill-in to teach the evening Italian class he attends, for he is the best of the students. Jorgen has become so taken by Giulia’s simple spirit that he is already enrolled in the class.  And Giulia, in order to see the shy Jorgen eventually joins as well.

        To these three “students” can be added Andreas, newly licensed theological student and temporary resident at the hotel. He has been sent to the town to pastor a dieing local congregation (due to the bitterness of the previous pastor). He arrives in his Maseratti, hoping people won’t notice just how lonely he is since his young wife’s death. Karen is the local hairdresser, and all of the main characters end up in her shop at one point or another. She too is struggling with an alcoholic mother who is dieing. Lastly, we have Olympia, a clumsy bakery store worker who lives with her abusive father.  Such a rag-tag group would hardly seem a promising class, but by the movie’s end they  (and we) have learned much about both life and love.

        As the movie gradually reveals unsuspected connections between the characters, and their interactions allow romances to bloom, the viewer is drawn into the preciousness of life, with all of its pain and joy. The actors are masterful in making us feel their characters’ common experience of loneliness. Be it Giulia unable to communicate in Danish. Or Pastor Andreas preparing for a service, reciting his sermon,  “It is in loneliness that God seems farthest away. But God is here in compassion, friendship, between us…in love, in every moment…in the arm you slip around the waist of your beloved.”  He then silently and alone weeps in his hotel room. Or we watch as Jorgen shares his “problem with women” with the pastor, only to “pastor” Andreas with his gentleness and care. And when Karen and Olympia are asked if they need someone to be with them in times of loss, they each respond, “I’m used to being alone.”  The beauty and poignancy of these lives is stunning, as if, to quote one critic, “they’re lit from within, emanating exquisite sadness, yearning and carefully guarded hope.”  It is as if by showing their earthly brokenness, the director makes their romantic transcendence even more stunning.

        But it’s not just romantic love that binds the wounds; it is the love of a newfound community…the connectedness to others on the journey, which creates new possibilities.  Along with its de-glamorization of the swinging single life, the movie shows us the possibilities and hope of community.  As the classmates join in a meal together at the end of the film, we see the affection that has bloomed in the midst of their respective problems. The problems remain, but pale in comparison to the love and care showed to each other. Hope for the future saturates the air. But it is a battered optimism, one filled with enough irony to make the happy ending both desired and earned.

        At one point in the story, Giulia is praying to God, reminding Him that he came into the world for the humble and poor.  She includes herself and her newfound friends in that group. And yes, Jesus did come for the least of us. He came to a motley crew of twelve and showed them a new way to live with each other, ushering in a new community of love and service. It is such a Gospel that Andreas also models for his struggling parish. The result is new possibilities for a congregation that seemed to have little promise or future. But whether among couples, classmates or congregants, the simple lesson is clear: love can prove transformative. Jesus comes again today--calling the least of us to faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

        Italian for Beginners was made following the aesthetic principles of the Dogma 95 filmmakers, who insist on natural lighting, hand-held cameras, filming on location and music that is only found at the locations. Thus, the movie might be a different type of film experience, one unlike a major studio film. Though it might take some getting used to the style, it is well worth the effort.

May 24, 2002

Catherine M. Barsotti