Un italiano en Noruega

The negative reviewers are taking this a whole lot too seriously. I watched this on the plane a few days ago and it made me laugh out loud - not easy in those circumstances. It's not subtle, nor full of elegant wit, but it is funny. It's not exactly Fellini (who, strangely, made a similar film with Marcello Mastroianni, if I remember correctly). Anyone who's spent time in these countries, and I have, knows there's a grain of truth in these stereotypes. Italians are impatient drivers, Norwegians do like to bathe naked in the snow. Etc. As for the Mafia...that no longer exists, so we are told. Except that trials of so called gangsters have been going on for years now, but witnesses keep disappearing (check the news on google). So that particular stereotype might just be accurate. I have an Italian friend who took me to visit his relatives near Naples. One of the relatives was a civil engineer who had built a road that bypassed a particular village. That road was used exclusively for his friends and relatives for some years before it became a public highway. That is true from my own experience, so all the reviewers on here who say the stereotypes are just that...well, no. Anyway, if you are too earnest to enjoy this film, stick to something more philosophically challenging.

I was zapping TV when I caught this movie starting in a secondary channel and I ended up watching 'till the end. I didn't recognize the actors but I know that European comedies can be quite the surprise and so was this one. Image quality is good with beautiful sceneries, there are the comical songs but above all, being an European myself, I totally got it. It's not full of stereotypes, it's more like reality slightly exaggerated for comical purposes. Or like we say here: "One has to laugh, so not to cry."

One of the best european comedies i've ever seen. LOL

i saw the Spanish dubbed version of this film with my wife who is a Spanish Civil Servant. The Spanish Civil Service and government structure is similar to that of Italy, so the humor, much of which rests upon the way the system works, is easily understood in Spain. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I heard my wife on at least a couple of occasions guessing the next bureaucratic maneuver that the recalcitant civil servant would use in his effort to maintain his position. The film effectively uses both Nordic and Latin stereotypes. It brought me back to the days of my youth, when movies such as "La Dolce Vita" or "Bread and Chocolate" made me laugh out loud, while providing me with an education on the difference between cultures.

I laughed out loud, most of the film, and I'm not sure why. It felt almost like a dirty pleasure. The movie portrays and even celebrates several aspects of Latin/Mediterranean cultures (which are to a great extent inherited by most Latin American countries). I felt it represented my people and it resonated with me.

It does a great job caricaturing the profile of the natural born public worker, who aspires nothing more than a post in public office and the security that comes with it.

It uses Nordic cultures to contrast traditional Italian values, and how the world is changing, and what is politically correct, versus what older generations expected.

All in all I found it a refreshing break from Hollywood based humor and mindset, the whole you gotta be a winner thing, you gotta be a passionate worker vs the more plain joy de vivre that celebrates life, and does not need work to justify its existence.