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.

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.

I thought I was going to see gorgeous still-lifes of yummy Scandinavian food. I thought I would see handsome single men.

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.

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.

Genre: Comedy, Drama
Running Time: 91 minutes
Ratings: NR
Swedish with English subtitles
Cast: Tomas Norström, Bjørn Floberg, Joachim Calmeyer, Reine Brynolfsson, Leif Andrée
Director: Bent Hamer
Producer: Jörgen Bergmark, Bent Hamer
Screenwriter: Jörgen Bergmark, Bent Hamer
Cinematographer: Philip Ogaard
Composer: Hans Mathisen

About the author, Madelyn Miller: Madelyn Miller is a member of the Dallas/Fort Worth Film Critics Association. She adores art house and foreign films and seems drawn to anything with a travel theme. She never met a film festival she did not like. Although she travels as executive editor of www.travellady.com about half the time, when home in Dallas you will often find her in movie theatres. Her film video collection is gradually replacing her cookbook library. Her favorite popcorn is heavily buttered; straight from a popcorn machine in a movie theatre. Chocolate inspires her to write better reviews. Website: http://www.travellady.com

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