OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooh my, this film had me in knots!
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Having lived in Norway at one time in my life, I had a strong desire to see this when it turned up at last year’s Cork (Ireland) International Film Festival. I try not to miss Scandinavian films when they’re on, anyway, but the blurb sounded good, and so I went.
Scandinavian humour is known for being quite black, actually, and is sometimes hard to swallow. There are those who find British humour incomprehensible; they would find Scandinavian humour insurmountable. That is, until they see this film… (You know things will be good when you’re laughing hysterically within the first five or ten minutes.)
Buy,Download, Or Stream Kitchen Stories! Click Here
The story begins with a group of Swedish researchers, who are sent to the cold and frozen wilderness of Norway to observe the daily habits of middle-aged Norwegian bachelors. The premise for this visit is that the researchers are attempting to redesign kitchens for the usage of such characters; the observations will facilitate a more user-friendly remodelling. It isn’t too long after the introduction of the ’suits’ that the viewer will be rolling on the floor in laughter. This comes about firstly by the inclusion of a bit of rather humorous history: once upon a not-so-long ago, the Swedes drove on the left, and the Norwegians (as they always had done) drove on the right. Consequently, the team of Swedish researchers, fresh from their border crossing into Norway, must suddenly avoid a near head-on collision, which leaves them discombobulated. Viewers familiar with the way the Swedish and the Norwegians are constantly jibing one another will immediately recognise the joke played on a certain group of meatball-lovers!
It only gets better. Folke, one of the observers who is destined to spend the next several months in a ridiculously high observation chair, is instructed to observe Isak, a grumpy old man and not-so-willing participant. A battle of the wills… and WITS… soon ensues. With very little dialogue, the dynamic is set by the actions of each character. Will Folke be forced to end the observation? Or will Isak submit? (And how, incidentally, are the others getting on with their studies?)
You won’t believe the outcome.
Incidentally, the audience at the CIFF screening went mad for it! They were breathless with laughter, and often could hardly see through their tears of mirth.
We humans are, by nature, a thoroughly inquisitive lot. We can’t help but want to know what it is that makes everything – including the people around us – “tick.” But can that curiosity, which has done so much to enlighten and advance us as a species, also wind up draining all the spontaneity and fun out of life? If everything is catalogued and labeled and put into little boxes, what happens to that sense of mystery that makes life worth living? The Swedish film “Kitchen Stories” is an ingenious little satire about mankind’s insatiable propensity to study and analyze every damn thing in life and to subject even our most mundane daily activities to the rigors of scientific enquiry.
It`s the 1950`s and a group of Swedish researchers have descended on Norway to study “the kitchen habits of the single male,” a truly pressing concern if ever there was one. The project involves setting up an “observer” in a volunteer’s kitchen in order to watch and record the subject`s every move, leading, hopefully, to kitchen designs that will prove more fruitful and productive for the average citizen. The proviso is that there is to be no fraternizing whatsoever between the two parties, otherwise the “objective” nature of the experiment will be ruined. This is truly life as lived under a microscope, and the question early on becomes who will be the first to “crack” under the pressure of this totally unnatural state of affairs, the observer or the observed. And just how meaningful and reliable could information gleaned from such a contrived, unnatural setup be anyway? Given the complexity of human nature, how much can such a study truly tell us about ourselves and what we’re really like?
The film focuses on two men who are caught up in the study: Isak, the relatively reluctant subject, and Nilsson, the analyst who takes up residence in Isak’s kitchen, perched high above him on a five foot tall chair made especially for the occasion. At first, the air is tense between the two men, for Isak is not shy about showing his obvious resentment of this nonstop intrusion and prying into his daily life. But, after a few days, the mood thaws out and the two men become fast friends, drawn to each other by their common humanity and need for companionship. Soon, they are breaking all the “rules” of the study, sharing food, beverages and conversation with untoward abandon.
Some people may see this film as an allegory of life under a totalitarian regime, with the individual’s every move being observed, recorded and monitored by an authoritarian power. I see it more as a simple study in human nature, as two men triumph over a dehumanized institution. Either way, the film does an interesting job showing just how easily the observer can become the observed if he lets his guard down. The film boasts excellent performances from Joachim Calmeyer as Isak, Tomas Norstrom as Nilsson, Bjorn Floberg as Isak’s jealous friend, Grant, and Reine Brynolfsson as Nilsson’s serious, Nervous Nelly boss who, like Grant, can’t abide the intimacy he sees developing between evaluator and subject (albeit for totally different reasons).
“Kitchen Stories” is a quiet, almost muted film in which the characters rarely speak above a whisper, reflecting the somber mood of both the clinical experiment and the stark winter background against which the story takes place. Yet, there is warmth and humor in the relationship between Isak and Nilsson, and a great deal of quirky humor in both the premise and director Bent Hamer’s sly execution of it. This is a film for those in search of the unique and the offbeat.
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