The title of the Film "Italian
for Beginners" might be a little misleading.
It is not as "Italian" as one would have hoped
for.
This low-budget ($1 million) romantic comedy staged
in Denmark, is an
unexpected hit all over Europe, having won a
major award at the Berlin
Film Festival, is now opening in the US.
It is about six hapless thirtysomethings are living
in a dreary town outside
Copenhagen-and begin to awaken to the possibility
of finding their romantic
partners. They are further entwined when all
six--even Giulia, who is
Italian--
start taking the same Italian class in the evenings.
Although most of the characters are suffering
from personal tragedy, whether
induced by circumstance or by character. This
is a story about people who
can move their lives in a more positive direction.
For Film Buffs, the film was made under Dogma
95's strictures, a vow of
austere filmmaking rules, and was shot on Beta
video, using a hand-held
camera and available light.
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BACK TO THE BASICS:'ITALIAN' SHUNS FRILLS OF
FILMAKING
Director Lone Scherfig is the first woman to make a movie under Dogma
95's
strictures. The result has been popular beyond anyone's expectations.
By Scarlet Cheng
Special to the Los Angeles Times
January 18, 2002
"If we had known that the film would sell to so many countries," director
Lone Scherfig says with an easy laugh, "we would have shot it on
35-millimeter."
The film of which she speaks, "Italian for Beginners," is an unexpected
hit
all over Europe; it opens today in Los Angeles.
It was shot on Beta video, using a hand-held camera and available light,
which no doubt contributed to the rather pasty coloring of her Nordic
actors.
Last February it won a major award at the Berlin Film Festival, and
it's
estimated that in Denmark, the film's country of origin, one in five
people
has seen it.
Of course Scherfig, speaking through a teleconference connection from
New
York, is being tongue in cheek. After all, the handicaps were deliberate.
Before making the film, she signed the vow of austere filmmaking rules
of
Dogma 95, which were drafted in 1995 by four Danish directors: Thomas
Vinterberg ("The Celebration"), Lars von Trier ("The Idiots"), Soren
Kragh-Jacobsen ("Mifune") and Kristian Levring ("The King Is Alive").
To them, the focus on the "cosmetics" of filmmaking had become deadening
and
the auteur theory just bourgeois romanticism. So they went back to
basics.
This meant hand-held cameras and only natural light, no added sound,
no
constructed sets, no special costumes or makeup, and definitely no
million-dollar special effects.
"Dogma was a reaction toward films that are overproduced," says Scherfig,
who
has made a television series for Von Trier's production company, Zentropa.
"They wanted to challenge the films that have more equipment and better
equipment to tell better stories. It has an element of provocation
and it has
a lot of fun in it. We are all very pragmatic about it. Basically,
it's let
Hollywood do what Hollywood is very good at and let's see if we can
do
something else."
Two years ago, after Scherfig had finished working on the project for
Zentropa, she was asked if she would be interested in making a Dogma
film,
the fifth by a Danish director and the first by a woman.
"I thought about it for a few days, a week, and I decided yes," says
Scherfig, 42. A 20-year veteran of film, television and advertising,
she was
ready for a challenge.
"They said I could do whatever I wanted to do," she says. "I just got
the
money; nobody had to approve of anything. I didn't even have to stick
to
Dogma rules."
Although she signed the vow, there is no policing of the rules, and
both
Vinterberg and Von Trier have readily admitted to skirting, if not
indeed
violating, the rules when necessary. Von Trier said as much in an interview
published on Dogma's official Web site. "We are now by definition sinners
due
to the fact that the rules cannot be kept."
Scherfig chose actors she had worked with, creating roles with them
in mind.
.In some cases, she cast against type. Peter Gantzler, for example,
a popular
Danish leading man, plays a timid chap with no faith in his ways with
women.
Dogma films are best known for dealing with heavier dramatic themes.
Scherfig's film is much lighter in tone, although it has dark elements.
In her story, six hapless thirtysomethings are living in a dreary town
outside Copenhagen--"actually the town where the production company
is
located," says the director--and begin to awaken to the possibility
of
finding their romantic partners.
Sad-eyed Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen) has arrived to take over the
local
church, despite the hostile action of the previous minister, who seizes
every
opportunity to denigrate him. Jorgen Mortensen (Gantzler), a hotel
clerk, is
too shy to act on the interest of Giulia (Sara Indrio Jensen), a waitress
in
the restaurant run by his best friend, Hal-Finn (Lars Kaalund).
Hal-Finn ignites sparks with hairdresser Karen (Ann Eleonora Jorgensen)
when
he arrives for a hair trim. Meanwhile, Olympia (Anette Stovelbaek),
an inept
salesclerk at a pastry shop, seems to be drawn to Andreas. They are
further
entwined when all six--even Giulia, who is Italian--start taking the
same
Italian class in the evenings.
While the film suggests the light touch of a (low-budget) romantic comedy,
most of the characters are suffering from personal tragedy, whether
induced
by circumstance or by character.
Andreas is still grieving from the recent death of his wife, Olympia
lives
with an abusive father, Karen must look after a severely alcoholic
mother,
Jorgen believes he has become impotent and Hal-Finn is the rudest
restaurateur on Earth and widely hated. Only Giulia seems untroubled,
except
for her crush on Jorgen.
"Of course it's a love film," Scherfig points out, "but it's also a
film
about loss and sorrow and solitude and insecurity."
But when "Italian for Beginners" was recently shown in Moscow, she was
criticized for not depicting the "truth," the stated goal of Dogma
films.
"[They said] that six people can't become that happy that easily," she
recalls. "In a way they're right, but this is a story about people
that can.
I wanted to have all of them to be stuck in a situation and then change
their
mental curve into a happier direction. This is a film about problems
that you
can solve. There are many you can't. But this is a story about people
who can
move their lives in a more positive direction."
Making the film was liberating, Scherfig says, for many reasons. Her
budget
was small--around $1 million--so she felt she could risk experimentation.
"Filmmaking is quite anxiety-provoking," she says. "You spend so much
of
other people's time and money."
There was also less pressure working with a smaller crew. Without the
need
for many "cosmetics," she had a crew of 15, as opposed to 75 for her
first
feature film, "The Birthday Trip." And she didn't have to agitate about
lighting, sets, costuming or makeup.
"There's some choices that you make at random," she says. "For instance,
all
locations were just the nearest places--the nearest hairdresser, the
nearest
hospital.
"There were so many choices that I usually have to make that I didn't
have to
make, which gave me much more time to work with the actor and concentrate
with the actors and scene. And they're acting in their own clothes:
no
makeup, no props."
Although she is usually given to meticulously plotting out her shots,
for
this film she accepted improvisation and happenstance.
"It was helpful for me to sign this vow of chastity saying that I promise
to
trust the moment rather than the dramaturgy," she says. "So I didn't
feel
obliged to be a perfectionist, but just shoot and improvise and to
be open
and spontaneous to whatever occurred on the set, or rather location,
since
there are no sets."
Thus, occasional ad-libs worked themselves into the script. Or one day,
for
example, when Gantzler showed up with a scarf around his neck, saying
that he
was too sick to work, Scherfig simply insisted that he play his character
as
being sick. For her, it worked, because the scene added to the character's
fussiness.
"It's a completely different way of working; it's much more intuitive,"
Scherfig observes. "I would not have dared to do that if I hadn't promised
that."
Scherfig says making a Dogma film has helped her move in a more positive
direction. "I felt I finally found my own vision of how I want to make
films," she says.
First, she feels more comfortable about indulging in her penchant for
comedy.
And although her next film, "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself," is a full-scale
35-millimeter non-Dogma feature with lighting, costuming and the rest
of the
baggage, it will mix humor with descents into the dark side of life.
"I use
the comedy as a tool for being serious," she explains.
"The films are never only funny because I take the audience seriously."
"Wilbur," to be shot in Scotland, is about how one man tries to dissuade
his
brother from killing himself.
As for shooting style, Scherfig would like to adopt a more relaxed attitude,
being open to incorporating improvisations or happenstance, a pleasure
learned from "Italian for Beginners."
Would she consider making another Dogma film? "Maybe in 10 years, if
I need
to sharpen the instrument or find a story good for Dogma," she says.
"Yes, I
think I'll miss it if I don't do it again."
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