Foreign, Swedish. This is a very good movie! This movie is completely different from anything I have ever seen, but good! It's about a group of Swedish, kitchen gadget, census takers that have been sent to Norway to map a housewives kitchen travels for future product production. This was a very good movie and was done very well. I highly recommend it!
Plot synopsis: Inspired by an esoteric 1950s Swedish study, this unusual tale about comradeship and camaraderie starts as a research project in which an observer, Folke, watches his subject, Isak, as he goes about his daily routine. When the two old men break the rule about not talking to each other, they start to forge a friendship stronger than they ever imagined they could have.
This seems to be my week for male buddy movies. At the loud and exotic end of the spectrum was The Matador. Kitchen Stories lands at the quiet, domestic, and droll end. This is a slow, slight movie, almost completely predictable, and whose premise requires a large suspension of disbelief. But it taps into such a strong human desire ? the need for companionship ? that you can overlook these flaws, and enjoy its gentle humor and warm heart.
I would write more if I had something extra to add to the existing universe of reviews about this movie. The critic James Berardinelli, however, has captured the essence of my reaction well, so I'll leave further commentary to him: http://movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies/k/kitchen_stories.html.
In Norway, one elderly man sits in a chair in the corner of another old man's kitchen, observing his moves so he can design kitchens more efficiently. The men are not supposed to interact, but they do. Different and charming.
I wasn't really thrilled to hear that I would be watching this film in my SOC 200 class, since I had never heard of it and I'm not a big fan of my professor's taste in...well, anything... but this movie was actually surprisingly good. It has such a wonderful story of friendship, loneliness and the idea that we can never truly understand another person until we try to get to know them.... Heartfelt and funny (which I found surprising), a great movie to see!
Bizarre de voir ce film dans ce site. C'est un film scandinave que l'on avait étudié dans un cours de doctorat de méthodologie qualitative. À part de discuter du rejet du positivisme comme épistémologie valable pour l'étude des sciences sociales... je me demande bien qui ça peut intéresser!
MCT:June 21, 2008
MCT:July 30, 2008
MCT:July 19, 2008
MCT:November 11, 2007
MCT:October 27, 2006
MCT:May 29, 2006
