Kitchen Stories

An institute in Sweden researches efficiency in kitchens. The movements of housewives have been measured and the next step is single men. A team goes to Norway; how men living alone move in a kitchen is to be measured. Folke is placed in a house. The rules are strict: the observer will sit on a high chair in the corner of the kitchen, will not speak and will not intervene. Isak regrets signing up. For the first days he does not enter the kitchen at all. Then the two men start talking. Bent Hamer directs and co-wrote the screenplay. Tomas Norström plays Folke and Joachim Calmeyer plays Isak; Bjørn Floberg is in the cast. It is a Norwegian and Swedish co-production. Its ground is a real practice; an institute measuring housework was set up in Sweden in the fifties and studies were made on kitchen layout. The matter it treats is observation; the observer's presence changes what is observed, and the film takes that as a direct subject. The humour rests on silence; the two characters do not speak for a long time and the comedy comes out of waiting. The narrative also makes material of the mutual prejudice between Norway and Sweden. Winter and the caravan work inside the narrative; the space is kept narrow. The film won prizes at festivals and the director became internationally known through it. Its limit is pace; the narrative is very slow and there is little event. Who it is for: viewers who like Scandinavian comedy and minimal style. Who it is not for: it is very slow, the humour quiet, and the ending silent.