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Bookmark this pageKitchen Stories (2003)
Director: Bent Hamer
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
It's the early 1950s, and Sweden's Home Research Institute, having created the perfect kitchen for the national housewife, sets its sights on the Norwegian bachelor. The plan is simple: an inspector installs himself on a stepladder in the volunteer's kitchen and for weeks logs all movement and business in the room. While the scheme's originator flies back and forth across Scandinavia, ever more debauched and remote from research, an officious manager loses control of the exercise as inspectors drink themselves out of a job or, more likely, break the code of silence and distance which the task demands; conversations, even friendships ensue, none more poignant than that between the initially taciturn and suspicious farmer Isak (Calmeyer) and his intended overseer Folke (Norström). This is wonderfully warm hearted and entertaining cinema from one of Norway's most distinctive talents. Striking camerawork and design, pitch-perfect playing and writer/director Hamer's acute eye for the revealing detail all add up to a pantry full of enjoyment and often absurdist subversion.Author: GE
User reviews of this film
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- herman said...
- Posted on Sep 19 2009 22:25 I was expecting a lot on the theme of how sciene works, the subjectivity of the observer etc, and was very disappointed in the contents of the film. Nicely done, but nothing to remember.
- Report as inappropriate
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- Patrick Beare said...
- Posted on Nov 12 2008 20:27 Lovely film. I remember seeing it at the ICA and enjoying it immensely.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Bent Hamer
Producer: Bent Hamer
Cast: Joachim Calmeyer, Tomas Norström, Reine Brynolfsson, Bjørn Floberg, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Lennart Jähkel, Leif Andrée, Gard Eidsvold, Trond Brænne, Bjørn Jenseg full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 95 mins
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