20 Underrated Movies From 2000 You've Probably Never Seen

Released: 8th December 2000 (Denmark)

The Dogme 95 movement's commitment to all location shoots, handheld cameras, natural lighting and lack of filters or post-production work has made those movies appear austere and tending toward harsh narratives and downbeat tones. It is refreshing, then, to see a Dogme film that is instead a warm-hearted romantic comedy (especially when set against the sadistic suffering in Dogme founder Lars Von Trier's own 2000 effort Dancer In The Dark).

Italian For Beginners brings together a bunch of lost souls in a small town outside Copenhagen, united by the adult education class of the title. Love blossoms between a widowed priest and a clumsy baker, and an impotent hotelier and an Italian waitress.

Director Lone Scherfig, who would later become known for lightly feminist British dramas An Education and Their Finest, makes use of the Dogme style of simple realism to bring a genuine, natural quality to the story and its characters that avoids the saccharine tone and implausible contrivances of the clumsiest Hollywood romcoms.

Italian For Beginners feels like a romance between real, flawed people that plays out with a plenty of wit and charm and that's a rare treat.