KITCHEN STORIES
Directed, Produced, & Written by: Bent Hamer.
Director of Photography: Philip Øgaard.
Edited by: Pål Gengenbach.
Music by: Hans Mathisen.
Released by: IFC.
Country of Origin: Norway. 91 min. Not Rated.
With: Joachim Calmeyer & Tomas Norström.

Kitchen Stories, a quirky tale set in the early 1950s, features the unlikely twin themes of market research and extraordinary friendship. Scientists working for Sweden’s Home Research Institute are sent to a small farming community (which has a significant number of bachelors) to study single male behavior in the kitchen. The institute’s goal is to develop a standard model for the most time-efficient and money-saving kitchen layout ever. (Maybe someone should tell the designers on Trading Spaces.) A craggy loner named Isak (Calmeyer) has agreed to participate in the study because he's been promised a horse. To say that he is uncooperative is putting it mildly. Isak refuses to allow his assigned observer, Folke (Nordström), to set foot inside his house. It is the dead of winter, and poor Folke spends his days banging on the door. Finally, Isak relents and allows Folke to come in. Hijinks ensue, as Isak purposely grates on Folke’s nerves with such hilariously juvenile pranks as turning off the light when Folke is taking notes or devouring a chocolate bar while Folke looks on hungrily. The ice begins to thaw, however, when Isak finds himself without cigarettes. When Folke offers one of his own, this opens the door to an unlikely, but certainly charming relationship. The two discover they are not so different; they are both lonely men set in their ways. They begin to share a real camaraderie that is so contagiously affecting, you’ll find yourself laughing and being moved at the same time. A wonderful piece of storytelling, the droll Kitchen Stories is truly heartwarming. Tanya Chesterfield, Book Reviewer (Barnes&noble.com)
February 19, 2004