Kitchen Stories (2003)

This arid, retro Scandinavian comedy offers immense and surprising pleasures that seem to come out of nowhere. A band of 1950s-era Swedish efficiency experts, bulbous travel trailers in tow, caravan across the frozen plains to study the kitchen usage habits of rural Norwegian bachelors.


One such researcher named Folke (Tomas Norstrom) is assigned to catalog the daily activities of Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), a reluctant and at times belligerent subject whose eccentricities comically frustrate the researcher at every step. Eventually, the two men settle into a kind of stalemate where the line between observer and guinea pig becomes blurred and then completely obliterated.


Norstrom’s long and impassive countenance is the perfect foil for Calmeyer’s craggy obstinance and we eagerly await each amusing and unexpected turn as this odd couple’s story unfolds. Thanks to director Bent Hamer’s clear and detailed vision of the material, we feel as though we are in lockdown with the two men, as the deep snow and biting winds of a Norwegian winter lead to a sort of cabin fever that causes the pair to comically question their roles in life and the choices each has made.


Solace is found in small pleasures - jars of pickled herring for Folke and monthly baths for Isak- and we realize that the science of Sociology is an imperfect one at best, as it attempts to tailor people to it’s neatly defined categories with no allowance for individualism. Ultimately, it is clear any social engineering data derived from the study depicted in this film would be as useful as last week’s TV Guide, and this realization causes an existential quandary as the entire research team devolves into a humorous sort of harmless decadence, and the scientific method is quietly discarded.


The film’s coda strikes a note thats both poignant and satisfying, as role reversals and small rebellions complete the slightly skewed circle of life that is “Kitchen Stories”.

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Kitchen Stories (2003)

This arid, retro Scandinavian comedy offers immense and surprising pleasures that seem to come out of nowhere. A band of 1950s-era Swedish efficiency experts, bulbous travel trailers in tow, caravan across the frozen plains to study the kitchen usage habits of rural Norwegian bachelors.


One such researcher named Folke (Tomas Norstrom) is assigned to catalog the daily activities of Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), a reluctant and at times belligerent subject whose eccentricities comically frustrate the researcher at every step. Eventually, the two men settle into a kind of stalemate where the line between observer and guinea pig becomes blurred and then completely obliterated.


Norstrom’s long and impassive countenance is the perfect foil for Calmeyer’s craggy obstinance and we eagerly await each amusing and unexpected turn as this odd couple’s story unfolds. Thanks to director Bent Hamer’s clear and detailed vision of the material, we feel as though we are in lockdown with the two men, as the deep snow and biting winds of a Norwegian winter lead to a sort of cabin fever that causes the pair to comically question their roles in life and the choices each has made.


Solace is found in small pleasures - jars of pickled herring for Folke and monthly baths for Isak- and we realize that the science of Sociology is an imperfect one at best, as it attempts to tailor people to it’s neatly defined categories with no allowance for individualism. Ultimately, it is clear any social engineering data derived from the study depicted in this film would be as useful as last week’s TV Guide, and this realization causes an existential quandary as the entire research team devolves into a humorous sort of harmless decadence, and the scientific method is quietly discarded.


The film’s coda strikes a note thats both poignant and satisfying, as role reversals and small rebellions complete the slightly skewed circle of life that is “Kitchen Stories”.

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Songs From The Second Floor (2000)

Produced in 2000, Roy Andersson’s astonishing collection of bizarre and satiric set pieces was intended as a farewell to the excesses of the 20th century, but it’s also an eerily prophetic glimpse into the grim decade that lay ahead. Set in a gray, oddly depression era looking city, “Songs” is constructed as a series of long take vignettes that weave a number of concurrent storylines into a starkly surreal tapestry of modern life, dealing with everything from age discrimination to the Holocaust to the commercialization of Christianity.


And below the narrative level, Andersson also gives us a thorough primer in cinema history. Most of the film takes place on elaborate, impeccably art directed sets that are reminiscent of films like “Brazil” and “Metropolis”, but the tributes do not end there as homage is paid to Godard, Fellini, Bergman and even George Romero.


Indeed, part of the enjoyment of this film is spotting, and attributing, Andersson’s next quotation. The film is primarily a comedy - at times a side-splitting comedy - and, for a Scandinavian film, surprisingly slapstick in nature. You’ll probably hate yourself for laughing at some of the crueler scenes, but you will laugh.


The nearest parallel I can draw to the directorial style is those old Federal Express commercials from the 1980s, directed by Chicago’s Joe Sedelmeier, which featured wide angle lens shots of comatose-looking actors gawking into the camera in a comically stupefied manner. But that is a feeble attempt on my part, for to concisely and accurately describe this extraordinary film is beyond this reviewer’s vocabulary. “Songs from the Second Floor” is simply amazing. Just watch it.


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Songs From The Second Floor (2000)

Produced in 2000, Roy Andersson’s astonishing collection of bizarre and satiric set pieces was intended as a farewell to the excesses of the 20th century, but it’s also an eerily prophetic glimpse into the grim decade that lay ahead. Set in a gray, oddly depression era looking city, “Songs” is constructed as a series of long take vignettes that weave a number of concurrent storylines into a starkly surreal tapestry of modern life, dealing with everything from age discrimination to the Holocaust to the commercialization of Christianity.


And below the narrative level, Andersson also gives us a thorough primer in cinema history. Most of the film takes place on elaborate, impeccably art directed sets that are reminiscent of films like “Brazil” and “Metropolis”, but the tributes do not end there as homage is paid to Godard, Fellini, Bergman and even George Romero.


Indeed, part of the enjoyment of this film is spotting, and attributing, Andersson’s next quotation. The film is primarily a comedy - at times a side-splitting comedy - and, for a Scandinavian film, surprisingly slapstick in nature. You’ll probably hate yourself for laughing at some of the crueler scenes, but you will laugh.


The nearest parallel I can draw to the directorial style is those old Federal Express commercials from the 1980s, directed by Chicago’s Joe Sedelmeier, which featured wide angle lens shots of comatose-looking actors gawking into the camera in a comically stupefied manner. But that is a feeble attempt on my part, for to concisely and accurately describe this extraordinary film is beyond this reviewer’s vocabulary. “Songs from the Second Floor” is simply amazing. Just watch it.


More Info