Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners DVD - 2000 Italian film directed by Lone Scherfig. Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. A young minister, a widower, is temporarily assigned to a church whose suspended pastor drove parishioners away; he stays at a hotel where he meets Jürgen, who's alone approaching middle age. Jürgen's friend Finn, a temperamental restaurant manager, may be about to be fired. Finn's assistant is Giulia, a lovely young Italian who prays for a husband. Olympia, a clumsy bakery clerk, has an ornery father; Karen, a hairdresser, has a mother who is very ill. The paths of these six characters cross at church, in the restaurant, at the hotel, and at an Italian class at the local adult school. Loneliness, grief, solace, romance, and love may meet 'nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita.' Stars Anders Berthelsen, Anette Stovelbaek and Peter Gantzler. Rated R for language and some sexuality, 112 minutes. English subtitles with audio track in Danish and Italian.