Home For Christmas
Stars: Nina Andresen Borud, Trond Fausa Aurvaag, Arianit Berisha, Joachim Calmeyer | Written and Directed by Bent Hamer
Bent Hamer demonstrates restraint and poise in this collection of interlinked Christmas tales, set on Christmas Eve in a small Norwegian town. An estranged father must find a way to get his presents to his children, a doctor is called away from his home to assist a desperate couple, a Muslim girl forges a friendship with a fellow non-celebrator, a woman hopes to finally lure her lover away from his wife, an old man prepares for a guest and a homeless man struggles to get back to his hometown.
On the face of it, little seems to appeal: interlinked vignettes are somewhat old hat and it seems a little unseasonal for Christmas movies just yet. And besides, everybody knows that the only Christmas movies worth watching are Muppets’ Christmas Carol and Die Hard.
Stars: Nina Andresen Borud, Trond Fausa Aurvaag, Arianit Berisha, Joachim Calmeyer | Written and Directed by Bent Hamer
Bent Hamer demonstrates restraint and poise in this collection of interlinked Christmas tales, set on Christmas Eve in a small Norwegian town. An estranged father must find a way to get his presents to his children, a doctor is called away from his home to assist a desperate couple, a Muslim girl forges a friendship with a fellow non-celebrator, a woman hopes to finally lure her lover away from his wife, an old man prepares for a guest and a homeless man struggles to get back to his hometown.
On the face of it, little seems to appeal: interlinked vignettes are somewhat old hat and it seems a little unseasonal for Christmas movies just yet. And besides, everybody knows that the only Christmas movies worth watching are Muppets’ Christmas Carol and Die Hard.
- 10/23/2010
- by Jack Kirby
- Nerdly
Toronto International Film Festival
In the wonderfully droll "Kitchen Stories", Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer takes an already inspired premise and weaves it into a spry absurdist comedy that also manages to find some considerable warmth in its retro portrait of the ongoing struggle between science and human nature.
That irresistible combination of art and heart is the stuff of which foreign-language feature Oscar nominations are made, and, at the very least, the IFC Films release should attract an appreciative art house following.
The picture begins in documentary fashion, tracing the postwar efforts of efficiency experts to bring factory assembly-line precision to the kitchens of the average '50s Swedish housewife.
As one ad for today's brave new kitchen puts it, instead of having to walk a trek equivalent to that from Sweden to the Congo in one year of putting food on the table, some simple reorganization means the housewife now only has to walk to Northern Italy.
Having exhaustively mapped out the trajectory of the Swedish homemaker from fridge to stove to sink to counter to table, scientists at the Home Research Institute feel that the time has come to take their findings beyond geographical and gender boundaries. So they send 18 male observers to the rural Norway to observe the domestic habits of bachelors.
Among those recruited to be on 24-hour call is amiable Folke (Tomas Norstrom), who is dispatched along with his standard-issue pastel green, egg-shaped trailer to a remote farmhouse belonging to Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), an elderly widower.
To map out his subject's movements, Folke is required to sit upon a ridiculously high chair in Isak's kitchen. At no time during the observation is Folke allowed to communicate with Isak.
That's the plan anyway, but little by little, the effect of that chilly isolation begins to chip away at the formalities, and the story emerges as an intriguing little two-hander.
There's a universal moral to "Kitchen Stories": Sometimes all the scientific data on the planet can't corroborate the unpredictable effects of a little old-fashioned human contact.
Kitchen Stories
IFC Films
Credits:
Director-producer: Bent Hamer
Screenwriters: Bent Hamer
Jorgen Bergmark
Director of photography: Phlip Ogaard
Production designer: Billy Johansson
Editor: Paul Gengenbach
Costume designer: Karen Fabritius
Music: Hans Mathisen
Cast:
Isak: Joachim Calmeyer
Folke: Tomas Norstrom
Grant: Bjorn Floberg
Malmberg: Reine Brynolfsson
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In the wonderfully droll "Kitchen Stories", Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer takes an already inspired premise and weaves it into a spry absurdist comedy that also manages to find some considerable warmth in its retro portrait of the ongoing struggle between science and human nature.
That irresistible combination of art and heart is the stuff of which foreign-language feature Oscar nominations are made, and, at the very least, the IFC Films release should attract an appreciative art house following.
The picture begins in documentary fashion, tracing the postwar efforts of efficiency experts to bring factory assembly-line precision to the kitchens of the average '50s Swedish housewife.
As one ad for today's brave new kitchen puts it, instead of having to walk a trek equivalent to that from Sweden to the Congo in one year of putting food on the table, some simple reorganization means the housewife now only has to walk to Northern Italy.
Having exhaustively mapped out the trajectory of the Swedish homemaker from fridge to stove to sink to counter to table, scientists at the Home Research Institute feel that the time has come to take their findings beyond geographical and gender boundaries. So they send 18 male observers to the rural Norway to observe the domestic habits of bachelors.
Among those recruited to be on 24-hour call is amiable Folke (Tomas Norstrom), who is dispatched along with his standard-issue pastel green, egg-shaped trailer to a remote farmhouse belonging to Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), an elderly widower.
To map out his subject's movements, Folke is required to sit upon a ridiculously high chair in Isak's kitchen. At no time during the observation is Folke allowed to communicate with Isak.
That's the plan anyway, but little by little, the effect of that chilly isolation begins to chip away at the formalities, and the story emerges as an intriguing little two-hander.
There's a universal moral to "Kitchen Stories": Sometimes all the scientific data on the planet can't corroborate the unpredictable effects of a little old-fashioned human contact.
Kitchen Stories
IFC Films
Credits:
Director-producer: Bent Hamer
Screenwriters: Bent Hamer
Jorgen Bergmark
Director of photography: Phlip Ogaard
Production designer: Billy Johansson
Editor: Paul Gengenbach
Costume designer: Karen Fabritius
Music: Hans Mathisen
Cast:
Isak: Joachim Calmeyer
Folke: Tomas Norstrom
Grant: Bjorn Floberg
Malmberg: Reine Brynolfsson
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Toronto International Film Festival
In the wonderfully droll "Kitchen Stories", Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer takes an already inspired premise and weaves it into a spry absurdist comedy that also manages to find some considerable warmth in its retro portrait of the ongoing struggle between science and human nature.
That irresistible combination of art and heart is the stuff of which foreign-language feature Oscar nominations are made, and, at the very least, the IFC Films release should attract an appreciative art house following.
The picture begins in documentary fashion, tracing the postwar efforts of efficiency experts to bring factory assembly-line precision to the kitchens of the average '50s Swedish housewife.
As one ad for today's brave new kitchen puts it, instead of having to walk a trek equivalent to that from Sweden to the Congo in one year of putting food on the table, some simple reorganization means the housewife now only has to walk to Northern Italy.
Having exhaustively mapped out the trajectory of the Swedish homemaker from fridge to stove to sink to counter to table, scientists at the Home Research Institute feel that the time has come to take their findings beyond geographical and gender boundaries. So they send 18 male observers to the rural Norway to observe the domestic habits of bachelors.
Among those recruited to be on 24-hour call is amiable Folke (Tomas Norstrom), who is dispatched along with his standard-issue pastel green, egg-shaped trailer to a remote farmhouse belonging to Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), an elderly widower.
To map out his subject's movements, Folke is required to sit upon a ridiculously high chair in Isak's kitchen. At no time during the observation is Folke allowed to communicate with Isak.
That's the plan anyway, but little by little, the effect of that chilly isolation begins to chip away at the formalities, and the story emerges as an intriguing little two-hander.
There's a universal moral to "Kitchen Stories": Sometimes all the scientific data on the planet can't corroborate the unpredictable effects of a little old-fashioned human contact.
Kitchen Stories
IFC Films
Credits:
Director-producer: Bent Hamer
Screenwriters: Bent Hamer
Jorgen Bergmark
Director of photography: Phlip Ogaard
Production designer: Billy Johansson
Editor: Paul Gengenbach
Costume designer: Karen Fabritius
Music: Hans Mathisen
Cast:
Isak: Joachim Calmeyer
Folke: Tomas Norstrom
Grant: Bjorn Floberg
Malmberg: Reine Brynolfsson
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In the wonderfully droll "Kitchen Stories", Norwegian filmmaker Bent Hamer takes an already inspired premise and weaves it into a spry absurdist comedy that also manages to find some considerable warmth in its retro portrait of the ongoing struggle between science and human nature.
That irresistible combination of art and heart is the stuff of which foreign-language feature Oscar nominations are made, and, at the very least, the IFC Films release should attract an appreciative art house following.
The picture begins in documentary fashion, tracing the postwar efforts of efficiency experts to bring factory assembly-line precision to the kitchens of the average '50s Swedish housewife.
As one ad for today's brave new kitchen puts it, instead of having to walk a trek equivalent to that from Sweden to the Congo in one year of putting food on the table, some simple reorganization means the housewife now only has to walk to Northern Italy.
Having exhaustively mapped out the trajectory of the Swedish homemaker from fridge to stove to sink to counter to table, scientists at the Home Research Institute feel that the time has come to take their findings beyond geographical and gender boundaries. So they send 18 male observers to the rural Norway to observe the domestic habits of bachelors.
Among those recruited to be on 24-hour call is amiable Folke (Tomas Norstrom), who is dispatched along with his standard-issue pastel green, egg-shaped trailer to a remote farmhouse belonging to Isak (Joachim Calmeyer), an elderly widower.
To map out his subject's movements, Folke is required to sit upon a ridiculously high chair in Isak's kitchen. At no time during the observation is Folke allowed to communicate with Isak.
That's the plan anyway, but little by little, the effect of that chilly isolation begins to chip away at the formalities, and the story emerges as an intriguing little two-hander.
There's a universal moral to "Kitchen Stories": Sometimes all the scientific data on the planet can't corroborate the unpredictable effects of a little old-fashioned human contact.
Kitchen Stories
IFC Films
Credits:
Director-producer: Bent Hamer
Screenwriters: Bent Hamer
Jorgen Bergmark
Director of photography: Phlip Ogaard
Production designer: Billy Johansson
Editor: Paul Gengenbach
Costume designer: Karen Fabritius
Music: Hans Mathisen
Cast:
Isak: Joachim Calmeyer
Folke: Tomas Norstrom
Grant: Bjorn Floberg
Malmberg: Reine Brynolfsson
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/13/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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