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By Gerri Pare
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- An oddball study by the Swedish government of the culinary customs of Norwegian men sets in motion a curious tale of tentative friendship in the gentle and very human comedy "Kitchen Stories" (IFC).
For whatever reason, Sweden's Home Institute decides in the early 1950s to study the kitchen traffic patterns of Norwegian bachelors in a remote town. In a memorable image, a convoy of sedans attached to tiny egg-shaped trailers is seen crossing the border to their snowbound destination.
Supervising the project on-site is rules-bound Malmberg (Reine Brynolfsson), who instructs his workers they must position their highly elevated chairs in the corner of each kitchen, remain silent and note all the physical movements of their subjects, never speaking or participating in their routines.
Folke (Tomas Norstrom) has been assigned to observe the crusty farmer Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), who regrets having volunteered to be a subject and refuses for several days to admit Folke into his stark kitchen. Once Folke is enthroned on his stool, Isak goes out of his way to frustrate him, cooking his food on a hot plate in his bedroom instead and turning out the light when using the kitchen. Hating being under a veritable microscope, the taciturn Isak turns the table on his wearisome watcher, going as far as secretly drilling a small hole in the ceiling directly above Folke's head -- where he can do his own spying.
Isak at least has friendly visits from single neighbor Grant (Bjorn Floberg), but it's a lonely life for Folke, speechless all day with frigid weather offering few incentives for a break outdoors, then into his claustrophobic caravan at night. Gradually, the two loners grow used to each other's presence and break a rule: Folke lends Isak pipe tobacco and Isak offers a cup of coffee and a few words of conversation. Before long, they warily open up to one another.
Meanwhile, neighbor Grant is mighty put out to hear his only friend laughing with Folke whenever he approaches Isak's house and takes surprisingly dramatic action. And on surprise visits, Malmberg is alarmed to find Isak -- not Folke -- asleep in the observer's chair and his employee MIA. He wonders what's going on, even as another observer has been caught drinking with his subject. Has this rigorous scientific study been undone by the human need for communication?
Inspired by actual 1950s Swedish Research Institute findings on the most efficient way for women to do housework, co-writer and director Bent Hamer thought it would be interesting to transfer the idea to Norwegian men, in the process exploring often awkward male relationships. And his leads appealingly capture the older, grouchy farmer eventually won over by the patience and small kindnesses of the timid observer. This is a spare story with appropriate straightforward direction that mirrors the stark simplicity of these men's humble lives. But it more movingly reveals their humanity, as well as that of third wheel Grant, who nearly does in his rival but has a turnaround as the bittersweet ending suggests.
The theme almost heavy-handedly points to how advances in scientific efficiency can never trump genuine personal interaction, but the wry humor on display in many scenes makes this humanist tale consistently charming.
It's also not difficult to guess where the characters will end up as the hints in the unfussy narrative are writ large. Yet the simplicity of the images, pointing to a misplaced salt shaker, the consequences of a sneeze, say more than the sparse dialogue in the film. And there is real poignancy in Grant's feeling rejected when Isak befriends Folke.
References to the Jews' persecution during the war, however, are too slight to have much resonance.
Warmly observed and unimpaired by its measured pacing, "Kitchen Stories" is a droll study in friendship, loneliness and kindness -- which know no territorial borders.
Subtitles.
Because of an occasional crude expression and fleeting alcohol abuse, the USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-II -- adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America.
* Pare is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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© Copyright 2006 Catholic Communications Corp.
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Communications Corp.