Kitchen Stories (2003)

A Swedish researcher strikes up an unlikely friendship with a cranky Norwegian farmer in this "quirky thoughtful and bittersweet" (Boxoffice) comedy that captured audiences' hearts around the world. Both "warm" (Newsday) and witty Kitchen Stories is "a deadpan thoroughly delightful comedy that cooks up tasty laughs" (New York Post)!It's thei1950s and a Swedish efficiency expert under strict orders not to interact with his subject is sent to improve a Norwegian farmer's culinary efforts. But the sly old farmer much prefers to amuse himself by impeding the timid researcher's work! Soon in the struggle between neutral observation and the need for human interaction the kitchen becomes a battleground!System Requirements: Running Time 95 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 027616919571 Manufacturer No: 1007910 Product Description

Friendship Unbound

Isak did not care to speak to Folke. Folke was not to speak to Isak. Such were the rules unspoken and otherwise. This is "Kitchen Stories," or, as this movie is known in Norway, "Salmer Fra Kjøkkenet."

Isak, as the subject of Folke's sociological research, offered himself up to be studied thinking a horse was to be provided, and when a toy horse arrived instead of a breathing one, on strike he went. Thus began their banal arrangement.

Things delved into a quiet silence, each respecting the other's space in the midst of themselves. Each watched the other. One took notes, the other remembered. Soon, they realized how similar they were: two single men doing little more than avoiding relationships, living alone.

Isak is a curmudgeoned older bachelor living in Norway, whilst Folke, also a bachelor, makes a living studying people like Isak. However, having never dialogued with his subjects, Folke, he never saw more them as more than moving objects to be charted and analyzed. Within a few cups of coffee, two lonely men become brothers, seeing there is something more important than a self-induced hermitage.

Their relationship develops with subtle sophistication, with Folke bringing in rare treats his elderly aunt sends him, and Isak, saving his friend from being run over by a train.

Like 84 Charing Cross Road, "Kitchen Stories" is graceful in its presentation and unfolding of phileo love.

--Brockeim March 28, 2008

Home sweet home . . .

This wonderful, quirky film has volumes to say about the need for human intimacy. Set in 1950, as Swedish "home scientists" invade the homes of Norwegian bachelors to study the use of their kitchens, the film describes the limits of scientific inquiry. Perched in what can only be called an adult-size highchair, the home scientist assigned to one bachelor attempts to unobtrusively observe his every movement. Unlike a lab rat, however, the bachelor modifies his behavior to accommodate this intrusion, and before too long the two men are making tentative attempts to alleviate the boredom of it all. A friendship forms that so totally compromises the study that they sometimes switch places as observer and observed. Finally, it is a story about a kind of male bonding, especially as a friend of the bachelor finds himself neglected and takes desperate measures to get rid of the man who has supplanted him. A neatly told story, all the neater for taking place in the snow-covered winter months of the Norwegian countryside. February 18, 2008

The best movie I've seen in a long time.

Kitchen Stories is one of the sweetest, funniest movies I've seen. If you don't mind reading subtitles, and much of the movie is non-dialogue, then watch this. It is about the friendship that develops between a crotchety and lonely old Norwegian man and his younger, Swedish intruder, a researcher who has been assigned to observe him in his kitchen to improve kitchen efficiency.

Izak, the old man, had signed up for this project expecting a horse, but instead, found delight in tormenting Folke, the quiet researcher, by taking his kitchen activities elsewhere in the house. Folke is under strict orders to not interact with his subject, but as time goes by the two men, regardless of the circumstances, find enough in common to form a bond. I recommend this to everyone! September 7, 2007

Viedo Review "Kitchen Stories"

Kitchen Stories ,a Swedish flm which was an Official Selection at Cannes Film Festival 2003 ,directed by Joachim Calmeyer, is a must see film,set in the the 1950's ,a Swedish Researcher Efficency Expert ,part of a project to gather research information about farmers ,forms an unlikely friendship with the farmer he is suppose to be objectively studing in this quirky comedy.The researcher is under strict orders to just observe his subject. The action occurrs in the batchelor farmers kitchen. A must see movie,in original Norwegian and Swedish with English Subtitles this movie which contains some mild language can be viewed by persons of all ages. An all time Favorite on my Top Ten movie list. Nate Goodman Salt Lake City, Utah U.S.A. June 19, 2007

I am stingy with 5s

But this deserves it. Nearly perfect in all ways.

No need to reiterate the plot, which is very slight and well rehashed by the others. I do think there is another subtle issue going on which isn't much addressed here. The early 50s, when this movie is set, were a time of science as the end-all and be-all, the solver of all human problems and repairer of all human brokenness. Remember electricity too cheap to meter? Behaviorism? On and on the litany went, how reason and science would fix the damage done by evil and superstition.

Kitchen Stories is about the relationship between science and the heart. The famous dictum that we must murder to dissect, and by murdering our subject it is not longer fit for study, is beautifully examined here. A scientist, the dispassionate and cold observer, watches a man, and as his fondness grows, his observations diminish and then fail completely. What began as observer and observee becomes two friends. Science cannot know the human heart, just the human paths. And the way people walk around a room tells us very little about them.

Delightful touches abound, as sly jokes, clever dialog, those brilliant chairs (oh, how God-like the scientist is on his perch!) and the rawest of emotions surface in this quiet world. Even the leaders of the team, the firmest believers in what science can teach, demonstrate their own human failings and flaws. Nope, science is of limited use when looking at humans, or pigeons for that matter.

A first class film. Glad I stumbled into it! April 26, 2007

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