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Salmer fra kjøkkenet

  • 2003
  • PG
  • 1h 35m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
8.8K
YOUR RATING
Salmer fra kjøkkenet (2003)
Trailer
Play trailer1:53
1 Video
11 Photos
SatireComedyDrama

A scientific observer's job of observing an old cantankerous single man's kitchen habits is complicated by his growing friendship with him.A scientific observer's job of observing an old cantankerous single man's kitchen habits is complicated by his growing friendship with him.A scientific observer's job of observing an old cantankerous single man's kitchen habits is complicated by his growing friendship with him.

  • Director
    • Bent Hamer
  • Writers
    • Bent Hamer
    • Jörgen Bergmark
  • Stars
    • Tomas Norström
    • Joachim Calmeyer
    • Bjørn Floberg
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    8.8K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Bent Hamer
    • Writers
      • Bent Hamer
      • Jörgen Bergmark
    • Stars
      • Tomas Norström
      • Joachim Calmeyer
      • Bjørn Floberg
    • 44User reviews
    • 65Critic reviews
    • 75Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 8 wins & 7 nominations total

    Videos1

    Kitchen Stories
    Trailer 1:53
    Kitchen Stories

    Photos11

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    Top cast13

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    Tomas Norström
    Tomas Norström
    • Folke Nilsson
    Joachim Calmeyer
    • Isak Bjørvik
    Bjørn Floberg
    Bjørn Floberg
    • Grant
    Reine Brynolfsson
    Reine Brynolfsson
    • Malmberg
    Sverre Anker Ousdal
    Sverre Anker Ousdal
    • Dr. Jack Zac. Benjaminsen
    Leif Andrée
    Leif Andrée
    • Dr. Ljungberg
    Gard B. Eidsvold
    Gard B. Eidsvold
    • Bakkerman
    • (as Gard Eidsvold)
    Lennart Jähkel
    Lennart Jähkel
    • Green
    Trond Brænne
    • Ordforer
    Bjørn Jenseg
    • Vaktmester
    Jan Gunnar Røise
    Jan Gunnar Røise
    • Vaktmesterassistent
    Karin Lunden
    Karin Lunden
    • Svensk selskapsdame
    Päivi Laakso
    • Finsk selskapsdame
    • Director
      • Bent Hamer
    • Writers
      • Bent Hamer
      • Jörgen Bergmark
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews44

    7.38.8K
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    10

    Featured reviews

    7rainking_es

    Everybody needs somebody sometime...

    Imagine your job entails watching the habits of the people in their kitchens, their comings and goings: from the oven to the fridge, from the washing machine to the cupboard... How come? Well, let's say you're an employee of an enterprise that's looking forward to optimize the arrangement of people's houses to make their life more comfortable (???). You just sit there and watch your assigned "specimen". No talking, no communication between you and him. Now imagine you're the "specimen", and that there's a man sit on your kitchen observing your behavior!!!

    Yeah, it's such a crazy plot, but it comes in handy for the director to express his message: man is a social creature and everybody needs someone sometime.

    A small movie about small people, calm and intimate. It will make you snore by the second sequence if you're looking for some action... Otherwise, if you don't mind about contemplative cinema, this movie's gonna leave you a nice taste in your mouth.

    *My rate: 7/10
    mpeters-7

    Close to perfect little movie

    This movie pokes fun, in a very gentle way, at a whole lot of things. At the Swedes and their "Ikea-type" market research, at the Norwegians and their laconic ways, and at the strange ways of humans altogether. This movie manages to be moving without being sentimental or manipulative. What I mean here is that the element of manipulation that is quite obvious in many of the more sophisticated recent "feel good" movies I generally enjoy (you know the ones I mean - Cinema Paradiso, Billy Elliot etc.) is not in evidence here. We are getting at something pretty basic and human with "Kitchen Stories". The movie tracks the unlikely relationship that develops between the Swedish market researcher, sent to observe (and strictly forbidden to interact with the subject of his study) the kitchen ways of his crusty Norwegian bachelor "host". Sounds rather minimal but this is a movie that is as good as a movie can get. Perfect pacing, perfect acting, perfect camera work, perfect story. While the movie can be enjoyed on the tv, as video, I think that it is best seen on a larger screen in a movie theater because the visual impact is strong. You come out of this movie a happier person than went in and that is worth something these days !
    9jotix100

    The observer is observed!

    This film was a surprise since we went without any preconceptions, having avoided reading about it beforehand. It is a droll attempt at film making by Bent Hamer, the director, who collaborated on the scenario.

    The film presents a story that on its surface seems to be one thing, but deep inside there is an ode to friendship between two different, but stoic Scandinavian men, Isak and Folke, whose lives become entwined as they discover how they are similar, despite of all appearances. The story is set in the bleak and snowy Norwegian winter.

    In the end, Folke is a better man by having known Isak, the man who he doesn't understand at the beginning of the story, but who unknown to him, was always looking over him, without the other one knowing it.

    The three principals are very well portrayed. This film will resonate with people that find themselves alone at the last stages of their lives, and how they are changed by opening up to perfect strangers who are going through the same thing themselves.
    10smakawhat

    Pure GENIUS!!

    How do you make a film… no SELL the idea of a film, whose premise is the following? Take 1950 era Swedish scientists, whose goal is to find men who live alone in the wilderness and study their ‘kitchen habits' at home for the purpose of building a more efficient living space for people. I am sure if any writer walking into Hollywood with that script would be instantly flogged before he even set foot in a studio executive boardroom. A story like this obviously seems to set itself up as a comedy, since the story is so obviously absurd, but what viewers come out with after witnessing this film is the great appreciation and the bonds the characters create. This is a truly touching masterful picture, from a premise that has the most bizarre source that I don't know how anyone could have even come up with. That premise is quite something, since it seems that the idea of studying male behavior in a kitchen in the backwoods of Norway is either going to be a complete disaster or something extremely memorable. Luckily it is the latter of the two. Isak Bjornsson is a scientist out to study a ‘subject' named Folke who lives by himself and has literally no friends. Folke unwittingly is part of this experiment which involves Isak sitting in a giant chair overlooking his living space, as if he was the judge in a tennis match. Also Isak is supposed to follow certain rules set out by his employer. He is not to disturb Folke's living space, nor talk to him. If this isn't a unique bit of Scandinavian humor I don't know what is. If this film were to fall flat or even be just a short funny comedy, it would only fixate on the stupidity of this premise. Somehow a guy who sits in a log cabin miles away from civilization, who can put up with a stuffy repressed scientist whose main purpose is to write excruciating details of a man who literally spends his day doing nothing, is actually quite a funny situation for comedy. Kitchen Stories does not fail in that sense, but the ingeniousness is that Kitchen Stories is smarter than that.

    The film suddenly takes the viewer to ask what the real purpose of these 2 men in the movie are and the focus provides and glaring and obvious point. They are essentially both alone in their lives for different reasons and they in a way need each other. But not of course in the sense of a dying love, but in a great sense of male camaraderie and caring that is essential to the idea of a great friendship

    Gradually, the bond between scientist and subject breaks down, and both men start evolving a strange set of rules and create a friendship that comes off as the most genuine and heartwarming I've seen on screen since this year started.

    As this relationship and some good subplots develop, the comedy takes another turn as Isak tries to hide from his boss ( a man who only ‘dreams' of what the future possibilities of kitchens may look like), that he has engaged his subject in what is obviously, ‘caring' humanity. The nerve!

    I loved this film from the moment it started till its tender conclusion. It had only a short run in my area, and even after what must have been several months since I've seen it, I still think about it and a giant smile comes across my face.

    It is touching, heartwarming, very funny, and just flat out great. It is the best film I have seen so far this year. If you ever get a chance to see it, go immediately. It shows the perfect beauty of the bond between us all as people, in the most kooky, unique bizarre way. And that in itself… is pure genius

    Rating 10 out of 10
    JohnDeSando

    The credibility of documentaries and scientists is on the table here.

    Having just seen Kaurismaki's dryly-witty `Man Without a Past,' I couldn't believe that director Bent Hamer's `Kitchen Stories' is actually drier and funnier. The Norse/Swedish co-production depicts 1950's Swedes studying bachelors in their kitchens to improve their lives. Swedish scientist Folke, in a high chair like some infantile god, observes Norwegian Isak under the restriction that he must not interact with Isak.

    The humor comes from the stereotypical Swede as uptight and organized and the Norwegian as slow but solid. The silliness of the experiment itself is obvious and the restriction ludicrous because of course they will interact, in fact bond, given the loneliness of Norway's winter and the need for humans to be sociable. That the story turns on male bonding is a bonus, especially because neither country is considered a bastion of sociability. When Isak lets Folke listen to the radio on his teeth fillings, I figure the guys are in for some warm nights.

    In another way, this film could be as good as it gets for analyzing the effect observers have on their subjects, be it laboratory or media. A question probably unanswerable even today is how much anyone changes under observation. In the case of the central characters in `Kitchen Stories,' the change is considerable, but more so just because of another human being's presence in an otherwise lonely world. The credibility of documentaries and scientists is on the table here.

    The minimal dialogue and occasional joke, spiced with subtle racial stereotyping, makes me think of not only Kaurismaki but also Beckett, whose waiting characters sometime talk nonsense, but most of the time profundity under the guise of simplicity. `Kitchen' is a slow but rewarding film that strips life of its pretensions to study more closely the tissue that binds humanity with communication.

    Diplomat Dag Hammarskjold in his Markings caught the minimalism of this film: `Friendship needs no words-it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.'

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    Related interests

    Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
    Satire
    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      At the beginning of the film, Malmberg (a Swede) becomes ill after having to drive on the right side of the road in Norway. Today both countries drive on the right. In 1967, Sweden switched to the right because making two versions of cars like Volvos and Saabs for domestic and foreign sales was inefficient. Also, there are many unguarded, unmarked border crossings points (unlike the crossing in the film); people would not realize which country they were in and sometimes ended up driving on the wrong side.
    • Connections
      Spoofed in Brødrene Dal og mysteriet med Karl XIIs gamasjer: Episode #1.1 (2005)
    • Soundtracks
      Visa Från Utanmyra
      Performed by Jan Johansson

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    FAQ17

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 17, 2003 (Norway)
    • Countries of origin
      • Norway
      • Sweden
    • Languages
      • Norwegian
      • Swedish
    • Also known as
      • Kitchen Stories
    • Production companies
      • Bulbul Films
      • BOB Film
      • SF Norge A/S
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $351,235
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $48,103
      • Feb 22, 2004
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,823,472
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 35m(95 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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