Babette's Feast [1987] | ![Babette's Feast [1987]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D5GNX0MFL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Gabriel Axel
Actors: Stéphane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle, Jean-philippe Lafont
Studio: MGM Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: £15.99
Buy New: £3.34
You Save: £12.65 (79%)
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 2158
Format: Dubbed, Pal, Widescreen
Languages: Danish (Original Language), French (Original Language), Swedish (Original Language), English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled)
Rating: Universal, suitable for all
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5050070008111
ASIN: B000067A9Q
Theatrical Release Date: March 4, 1988
Release Date: July 1, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Established national distributor of entertainment products in the UK. All of our products are new, sealed and delivered by first class post.
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Released in 1987, Babette's Feast is a film which depicts so little, yet says so much. Set in a rural Danish community, it centres around the twin sisters of the village pastor and the French women who serves them after fleeing the 1871 revolution. On winning the lottery she plans a feast to mark the centenary of the sisters' father, bringing a dimension of fine living into the lives of the God-fearing Lutherans and healing festering personal animosities in the process. Director Gabriel Axel captures the rugged timelessness of the Jutland landscape, and draws inspired performances from Stéphane Audran as Babette, and Bodil Keyer and Birgitte Federspiel as the sisters Filippa and Martine. Per Norgard's sparse but affecting score captures the mood of the film perfectly. Altogether it's a heart-warming and affecting experience. On the DVD: Babette's Feast on disc reproduces the vivid colour photography well in widescreen. There's dubbing and subtitles in English, French and Italian. Both the trailers for the English- and Danish-speaking markets are included, the latter an effective summary of the film.--Richard Whitehouse
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
 The cooking is fine, but the movie is about love, wisdom and friendship...without sentimentality July 30, 2008
C. O. DeRiemer (San Antonio, Texas, USA)
I don't know whether this film hits my heart the way it does because of the feelings of friendship, love, closeness to others or the warmth of that transformation Babette's cooking creates, but when the feast starts and for the rest of the movie, I choke up often.
Yes, this is a feel-good movie, but without a speck of mawkishness or facile sentimentality. Please note that elements of the plot are discussed. Babette's Feast tells its story with restraint and care, and it lets us discover for ourselves the values of grace and love. All we need to know is that Babette Harsant (Stephane Audran) was a French refugee who was given shelter by two aging sisters in a tiny community on the coast of Jutland. The sisters lead what remains of their father's flock. He was a pastor of conviction who taught that salvation comes through self-denial. The sisters made their sacrifices to duty and faith. Those who still remain honor the now long dead pastor's teachings and his spiritual guidance. Still, as they have grown older the tiny community has become querulous and argumentative. The sisters do what they can. For the pastor's 100th birthday, Babette wishes to cook the dinner for the small group the sisters will invite. The sisters reluctantly agree, but when they see the supplies Babette has ordered, they and their guests become uneasy. They are used to the community's usual fare of dried cod, boiled, and a soup made of bread, water and a little ale. Even though Babette over time has made improvements, what they are seeing now seems close to godlessness. At the dinner also will be a visitor, General Lorens Lowenhielm, who years earlier had chosen ambition over his love for one of the sisters.
What do we experience? There is the austerity of the aging community's faith and the stone, wind-swept cottages they live in. There is the warmth by candlelight of the sisters' small, crowded dining room. And then there is the transforming power of Babette's artistry as we watch her cook, watch Erik, a young boy helping her, serve and pour, and watch the old parishioners, with the help of fine wine and exquisite cooking, gradually rediscover their community and love and friendship. The General serves as our unexpected guide because he is the only one who knows what extraordinary dishes they are eating. The General tells a story to his uncomprehending dinner companions, a story about a famed woman who was the exemplary chef at the famed Café Anglais in Paris. "...this woman, this head chef, had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair...a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite." He, too, is being transformed into a man who will accept what he has become and yet will always know the value and the love of what long ago he chose not to accept. An old couple kiss. Two old men remember past friendships. And Babette, who spent all that she had won in a lottery on this dinner, has had an opportunity to be the artist she once was in France, an opportunity she accepted with love and friendship.
Babette, now as poor as she was when she arrived penniless years earlier, will continue with the sisters. The general in a carriage with his aunt returns to her estate. And the elderly guests leave the sisters' home to return to their own cottages. They pause and look at the clear night sky and the stars overhead. They spontaneously hold hands in a circle and dance and sing this hymn...
"The clock strikes and time goes by
Eternity is nigh.
Let us use this time to try
To serve the Lord with heart and mind.
So that our true home we shall find.
So that our true home we shall find."
They smile at each other. All has been reconciled.
Babette's Feast is a wonderful movie, full of restrained emotion, unspoken understandings, wisdom...and, of course, a meal that will leave you with a growling stomach as you exit the theater. If you win a lottery so you could afford what Babette created and have her skill and artistry, here's what she served:
Potage a la Tortue (a rich turtle soup), served with amontillado sherry
Blinis Demidoff au Caviar (small buckwheat pancakes with sour cream and caviar), served with Veuve Clicquot champagne
Cailles en Sarcophage with Sauce Perigourdine (boned quail stuffed with foie gras and truffle in puff pastry with truffle sauce enriched with Madeira), served with Clos de Vougeot, a fine burgundy
Salade
Cheese and fresh fruit
Baba au Rhum with glacee fruit and fresh figs
Coffee and a fine brandy
The DVD is bare bones and looks fine. If you don't speak Danish, use the English subtitles.
a beautiful film about food and religion that leaves a nice taste in the mouth March 13, 2008
dan the fan (england,uk)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a film which,if someone had showed you a script,you would have thought was going to be boring as hell.But the acting is of such a high standard,and the cinematography and editing too,that the end result is a beautiful and unforgettable piece of storytelling.The characters portrayed are deeply religious and whether you're an atheist or a believer you should find this movie deeply moving.
Who Can Resist the Evil Power of a French Dinner? February 2, 2008
Erika Borsos (Gulf Coast of FL, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an elegant film which tells a story filled with symbolism and meaning. The cinematography is outstanding. It is a highly focused story where dialogue is minimal but used to maximum effect. It is about committment, family loyalty, devotion to religion, love, charity, and worldly temptations. The film is based on a short book by Isak Dinesen titled "Anecdotes of Destiny". Most interesting is how much of the story and filming occurs within the small village in Denmark. Also, much of the story occurs when the main characters are elderly ...It is great story of faith and giving.
Taking place in the 19th century, Martina and Phillipa are the beautiful daughters of a Lutheran pastor in a fishing village in northern Denmark. Their father started a religious sect which is very austere and pious. It emphasizes the "world to come" and preaches controlling the passions and appetites of this world. The two lovely daughters never attend balls or parties so the young men who wish to make their acquaintance must attend her father's church to eye the two beauties and speak to them. Two young men in particular fall in love with these ladies but it is not within their destinies to fulfull their desires. Officer Lorens Lowenhielm enters the scene when he is sent back by the Army to live in the palace with his wealthy Aunt for a time. He falls in love with Martina when he first sees her while riding on the hillside of the village when she is drawing water from the well. She chooses to live with her father rather than marry this handsome officer. Phillipa's soprano voice is heard by a French visitor to the village, Achilles Papin who performs opera on the stage in Paris. He approachers her father to offer Phillipa private voice lessons. Achilles Papin is convinced Phillipa will "wow" the Parisians where she would become a diva ... Phillipa also declines to pursue this worldy temptation and remains living in the village with her father instead.
As the years pass, the beauty of the two sisters fades but never disappears. They perform works of charity for the poor, carrying on the devoted life to which they became accustomed after their father died. There remains a small flock of true believers who meet on Sundays to worship and recall the teachings of this pious man of the cloth. The two sisters receive a letter from Achilles Papin from Paris, asking the sisters to receive Babette into their home. She is a French lady who survived the French Revolution but lost all her family and possesions. She becomes their maid and servant ... making herself indespensible to their lives. The two sisters are able to carry out more of their charitable works and notice Babette has a way of helping them increase their income and livlihood as well.
Good fortune shines on Babette, after many years of servitude, she won the French lottery, a princely sum of 10,000 francs. On the 100th birthday of their father, Babette offers to cook a dinner for the sisters and the congregation. Despite some misgivings, the sisters agree. Everyone who attends promises not to show any pleasure in what they eat but to act "just as if we never had a sense of taste" for to enjoy would surely be viewed as a sin. They determine not to mention anything about the food when partaking of it.
It is a sensuous delight to watch Babette prepare the various courses ... The camera does a superb job of capturing the parishioner's faces who do their damndest to look sullen and neutral while eating this gourmet feast. There is a special dinner guest from the past ... It so happens he did *not* promise to deny his pleasure in dining on this feast. It is highly amusing to watch the guests respond with remarks about the weather as this special guest describes each succulent and delectable dish. His expressions of appreciation for each French delicacy is priceless. He especially appreciates the superb Spanish wine and champagne, which it is noted none of the parishioners refuse. It is quite funny, watching them imitate the guest as he eats each course. The film has a most impressive ending which symbolizes how Babette essentially became the widow who gave totally and selflessly *all* that she had (as in the Bible story about the widow's mite). Erika Borsos (pepper flower)
A masterpiece January 22, 2008
Supertad (Cape Town, South Africa)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of my all-time favourite films. The acting, script, cinematography, directing - everything is spot on. The story of the passionate yet wonderfully restrained Babette bringing unexpected surprises to a small, conservative and impossibly religious community on the bleak Jutland peninsula is brilliant. A masterpiece.
 disappointing, wooden and clunky January 13, 2008
Jeffrey Burrows
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Plotting and acting vying for each other in clunkiness; so many trite coincidences, such a predictable ending, and shallow despite its delusions of depth. I can only surmise that piety is responsible for the quantity of positive reviews.
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