Kitchen Stories
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Bjørn Floberg, Joachim Calmeyer, Reine Brynolfsson, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Tomas Norström Director: Bent Hamer Brand: Sony Cinematographer: Philip Øgaard Producer: Bent Hamer Writer: Bent Hamer Editor: Pål Gengenbach Producer: Arve Figenschow Producer: Jörgen Bergmark Writer: Jörgen Bergmark DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Norwegian (Original Language); Swedish (Original Language) Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.77:1 Running Time: 95 minutes DVD Release Date: 2004-12-14 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: MGM (Video & DVD) |
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Movie Reviews of Kitchen Stories
Movie Review: Half-baked
Summary: 3 Stars
This semi-wonderful Scandinavian film can be sifted into two piles -- one funny and one poignant. Of the two, the first is far more watchable.
"Kitchen Stories" relates attempts by HFI, a Swedish efficiency firm, to map the movements of single Norwegian males in the kitchen. The corporate experts, gray-clad and dull, pile into tiny trailers and head off into the frigid wastes of rural Norway. Once there, they are to into high, tennis-referee-style chairs in a kitchen corner and record their subjects as they move about. The first half of the film had an extremely dry, comic absurdist tone. In a human version of the Heisenberg Principle, the watcher cannot help but change the object he is watching. Mousy Folke Nilsson must endure being ignored and literally left in the dark by a crusty old Norwegian farmer named Isak. Slowly, inevitably, and against the rules, a bond begin to form between the two. A scene in which Folke borrows and then misplaces a saltshaker is a classic of subtle comedy.
Disappointingly, the film's second loses the subtle comedy of the first half and becomes almost maudlin. It's not difficult to imagine how the latter half's themes of loss, death and friendship could have been retained while also retaining the funny.
For those attuned to such things, there is a fair amount of good-humored Swedish-Norwegian joshing -- even to the point of a risky broaching of Swedish neutrality during the war. In a classic piece of visual humor, a border crossing is set up so that right-hand Swedish drivers can switch efficiently to the left-handed Norwegian style. But in spite of its wonderful premise and talented acting, overall, the film was a disappointment.