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Kitchen StoriesReviewed by Madelyn Miller
Here is what I was told in advance: In post war Sweden it was discovered that every year, an average housewife walks the equivalent number of miles as the distance between Stockholm and Congo, while preparing her family meals. So the Home Research Institute sent out eighteen observers to a rural district of Norway to map out the kitchen routines of single men. The researchers were on twenty-four-hour call, and sat in special strategically placed chairs in each kitchen. Furthermore, under no circumstances were the researchers to be spoken to, or included in the kitchen activities.
But for most of the movie, the main character never ate in his kitchen. And you could say, the observation back-fired. I don’t want to tell you much more, because it will perhaps spoil the story. I promise you will be entertained and delighted.
Genre Comedy, Drama Swedish with English subtitles Cast: Tomas Norström, Bjørn Floberg, Joachim Calmeyer, Reine
Brynolfsson, Leif Andrée |
TM
When I first heard about this movie, I thought I would
really love it. After all, I love food and eating. And since I am going to
Scandinavia in the spring, I thought it would give me some great background.
Well, I did love the movie. And it did give me some
great insight into the Scandinavian character. But it was not at all what I
expected. I thought it was going to be a comedy. And I certainly did laugh a
lot. But it was also a very unusual, very poignant love story.
I thought I was going to see gorgeous still-lifes of
yummy Scandinavian food. I thought I would see handsome single men. 
Director Bent Hamer said the idea for KITCHEN STORIES
came to him while he was at a flea market and he found some books from the
1950’s full of post-war scienetific findings on the most efficient way for
women to do housework. These were published findings of serious research
done by dedicated scientists from the Swedish Research Institute in
Stockholm.
“I had seen these books about 25 years ago and they had
really made me laugh, especially all the detailed diagrams and very stiff
academic language,” Hamer recalls. “Now, given all the changes that have
taken place in women’s lives, I found them even more wonderfully bizarre.
After seeing the books again, the idea came to me—what if a study had been
done on men? Particularly bachelors?”
“ I knew that if I cast women in the film it would add
a sexual dimension and I didn’t want that. Both men—Isak and Folke- are
pretty repressed at the beginning of the movie, which is only more
pronounced because (according to the strict guidelines of the study) they
are forbidden to communicate with each other. But as the story progresses
their relationship evolves, at first because they both love to drink beer
and smoke cigarettes, but also because they are lonely.”
On the surface, it was very serious, with the men
barely speaking to each other. But the seriousness of the situation ended up
being the key to the film’s humor and spirit.