Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast
Swedish movie poster
Directed by	Gabriel Axel
Produced by	Just Betzer Bo Christensen Benni Korzen Pernille Siesbye
Written by	Gabriel Axel Karen Blixen
Starring	Stéphane Audran Birgitte Federspiel Bodil Kjer
Music by	Per Nørgård
Cinematography	Henning Kristiansen
Editing by	Finn Henriksen
Release date(s)	August 28, 1987 March 4, 1988
Running time	102 min.
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish Swedish French
IMDb profile

Babette's Feast (Danish: Babettes gæstebud) is an Academy Award winning 1987 Danish movie. It was produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen, and Benni Korzen. Its screenplay was written by Gabriel Axel, who was also the director. It is based on a story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who also wrote Out of Africa, which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film.

Synopsis

Babette's Feast tells the story of Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran), a 19th century Parisian political refugee who flees on a boat to Frederikshavn in Denmark with the help of her nephew, and forms a relationship with two elderly and pious Christian sisters. The sisters, Martina (named for Martin Luther) and Philippa (named for Luther's friend and biographer Philip Melanchthon), are the daughters of a pastor who has founded his own religious sect. Babette, whose background as a great chef is unknown to the villagers, works as a cook and housekeeper for Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel) in their house in a small village on the remote and beautiful coast of Jutland. After introducing this setup, the film relates the story of two suitors of these once young, ravishing beauties (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup). Each suitor has ambitious plans both for himself and the "angel" he imagines by his side on the road to worldly renown. Each daughter deflects her pursuer, choosing, instead, a life of quiet piety. Babette shows up at the sisters' door many years hence with a letter from Philippa's former suitor, explaining her status as a refugee and recommending her as a housekeeper. Babette spends fourteen years as the sisters' cook. Her only link to her former life is a lottery ticket that a friend in Paris renews for her every year. One day, she wins the lottery and decides to use the money to prepare a delicious dinner for the sisters and their small congregation. More than just an epicurean delight, the feast is an outpouring of Babette's gratitude, with eucharistic echoes and is an act of self-sacrifice. The crux of the story (and of the humor) turns on the sisters' dismay and confusion at the arrival of Babette's "ingredients" (including live sea turtle, quail, and numerous wines). They confess to their late father's disciples that they suspect they have invited practices of witchcraft into their home. The congregation agree to make no mention of the food during the entire dinner. Another implied conflict is between the congregation's austere religion with its denial of earthly enjoyments (but its requirement of charitable gratitude), and the sumptuousness of the meal Babette prepares, as well as on the assumption by those feasting that this meal is a going-away present from Babette. The eucharistic celebration around the table shadows the "infinite grace… [that] had been alloted to them, and they did not even wonder at the fact, for it had been but the fulfillment of an ever-present hope."^[1]

Awards

Babette's Feast won the 1988 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards; the other nominees were Asignatura aprobada of Spain, Au revoir, les enfants of France, La Famiglia of Italy and Ofelas of Norway. It also won a BAFTA Film Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Popular culture

• One of Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons showed a group of grimacing people in beds in a hospital ward. It was titled: Babette's Botulism: The Sequel.

See also

• Big Night
• The Chinese Feast
• Chocolat (2000 film)
• Eat Drink Man Woman
• God of Cookery
• Like Water for Chocolate
• Tortilla Soup
• The Wedding Banquet

Notes

External links

• Babette's Feast at the Arts & Faith Top100 Spiritually Significant Films list
• An extensive collection of links about Babette's Feast at KarenBlixen.com