When the Dogme 95 movement was unveiled with Thomas Vinterberg's superb The Celebration, the Danish collective's schoolmarmish tenets—use only handheld cameras, real locations, natural light, ...

[EDITOR’S NOTE: “Italian for Beginners” had its world premiere at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. Following are excerpts from G. Allen Johnson’s review, first published by indieWIRE on Feb. 13, 2001.

The first words I learned in Italian were gamba di legno, or wooden leg, for which Benito Mussolini and Walt Disney are to blame: After the war, my mother, who was fluent in Italian, had been involved ...