Italian for Beginners

Not to be confused with Italian For Beginners (The IT Crowd).
Italian for Beginners
DVD cover.
Directed byLone Scherfig
Written by
Produced by
  • Karen Bentzon
  • Gert Duve Skovlund
Starring
CinematographyJørgen Johansson
Edited byGerd Tjur
Music byNiels W. Gade (non-original)
Distributed byZentropa
Release date
  • 8 December 2000 (2000-12-08)
Running time
118 minutes
Countries
  • Denmark
  • Sweden
Languages
  • Danish
  • Italian
  • English
Budget$600,000[1]
Box office$16.4 million[2]

Italian for Beginners (Danish: Italiensk for begyndere) is a 2000 Danish romantic comedy film written and directed by Lone Scherfig, and starring Anders W. Berthelsen, Lars Kaalund and Peter Gantzler, together with Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Anette Støvelbæk and Sara Indrio Jensen. The film was made by the austere principles of the Dogme 95 movement, including the use of handheld video cameras and natural lighting, and is known as Dogme XII.[3][4] However, in contrast to most Dogme films which are harsh and serious in tone, Italian for Beginners is a light-hearted comedy.[5] It was made on a $600,000 budget[1], and went on to gross over 27 times that.[2]

After the film's release, significant similarities between its plot and that of the novel Evening Class by Maeve Binchy were identified. The distributor, Zentropa, paid an undisclosed sum in compensation to Binchy.[6]

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  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Politiken 2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).