Babettes gæstebud

Plot synopsis:
The elderly and pious Protestant sisters Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) live in a small village on the remote western coast of Jutland in 19th-century Denmark. Their father was a pastor who founded his own Pietistic conventicle. With their father now dead and the austere sect drawing no new converts, the aging sisters preside over a dwindling congregation of white-haired believers.
The story flashes back 49 years, showing the sisters in their youth. The beautiful girls have many suitors, but their father rejects them all, and indeed derides marriage. Each daughter is courted by an impassioned suitor visiting Jutland – Martine by a charming young Swedish cavalry officer, Lorens Löwenhielm, and Philippa by a star baritone, Achille Papin, from the Paris opera, on hiatus to the silence of the coast. Both sisters decide to stay with their father and spurn any life away from Jutland.
Thirty five years later, Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran) appears at their door. She carries only a letter from Papin, explaining that she is a refugee from counter-revolutionary bloodshed in Paris, and recommending her as a housekeeper. The sisters cannot afford to take Babette in, but she offers to work for free. Babette serves as their cook for the next 14 years, producing an improved version of the bland meals typical of the abstemious nature of the congregation, and slowly gaining their respect. 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 of 10,000 francs. Instead of using the money to return to Paris and her lost lifestyle, she decides to spend it preparing a delicious dinner for the sisters and their small congregation on the occasion of the founding pastor's hundredth birthday. More than just a feast, the meal is an outpouring of Babette's appreciation, an act of self-sacrifice; Babette tells no one that she is spending her entire winnings on the meal.
The sisters accept both Babette's meal and her offer to pay for the creation of a "real French dinner". Babette arranges for her nephew, a merchant, to go to Paris and gather the supplies for the feast. The ingredients are plentiful, sumptuous and exotic, and their arrival causes much discussion among the villagers. As the various never-before-seen ingredients arrive, and preparations commence, the sisters begin to worry that the meal will become a sin of sensual luxury, if not some form of devilry. In a hasty conference, the sisters and the congregation agree to eat the meal, but to forgo speaking of any pleasure in it, and to make no mention of the food during the dinner.
Martine's former suitor, Lorens, now a famous general married to a member of the Queen's court, comes as the guest of his aunt, the local lady of the manor and a member of the old pastor's congregation. He is unaware of the other guests' austere plans, and as a man of the world and former attaché in Paris, he is the only person at the table qualified to comment on the meal. He regales the guests with abundant information about the extraordinary food and drink, comparing it to a meal he enjoyed years earlier at the famous Café Anglais in Paris. Although the other celebrants refuse to comment on the earthly pleasures of their meal, Babette's gifts break down their distrust and superstitions, elevating them physically and spiritually. Old wrongs are forgotten, ancient loves are rekindled, and a mystical redemption of the human spirit settles over the table.
The sisters assume that Babette will now return to Paris. However, when she tells them that all of her money is gone and that she is not going anywhere, the sisters are aghast. Babette then reveals that she was formerly the head chef of the Café Anglais, and tells them that dinner for 12 there has a price of 10,000 francs. Martine tearfully says, "Now you will be poor the rest of your life", to which Babette replies, "An artist is never poor." Philippa then says: "But this is not the end, Babette. In Paradise you will be the great artist God meant you to be" and then embraces her with tears in her eyes saying: "Oh, how you will enchant the angels!", which is precisely how the short story ends.

Tags: romantic, cute, flashback

Review:
Babette will give everything she has, and in the process, will teach the sisters and their flock about grace, about sacrifice, about how sensual experience (as in the bread and wine of the Eucharist) can change lives, and about why true art moves us so deeply.
Flawlessly directed, written, performed, and filmed, this quiet and unpretentious Danish film is an example of cinema at its best, and if a person exists who can watch BABETTE'S FEAST without being touched at a very fundamental level, they are a person I do not care to know.The story is quite simple.
Although they do not really require her services, the sisters engage her as maid and cook--and as the years pass her cleverness and tireless efforts on their behalf enables the aging congregation to remain together and the sisters to live in more comfort than they had imagined; indeed, the entire village admires and depends upon her.One day, however, Babette receives a letter: she has won a lottery and is now, by village standards, a wealthy woman.
The meal and the evening it is served is indeed a night to remember--but not for reasons that might be expected, for Babette's feast proves to be food for both body and soul, and is ultimately her gift of love to the women who took her in and the villagers who have been so kind to her.The film is extraordinary in every way, meticulous in detail yet not overpowering in its presentation of them.
As the film progresses, we come to love the characters in both their simple devotion to God and their all-too-human frailties, and the scenes in which Babette prepares her feast and in which the meal is consumed are powerful, beautiful, and incredibly memorable.
There have been several films that have used food as a metaphor for love, but none approach the simple artistry and beauty of BABETTE'S FEAST, which reminds us of all the good things about humanity and which proves food for both body and soul.
Seeing it years ago--as it was gaining a great deal of notoriety at the audaciousness of its subject matter--half the movie being a single dinner--the audience was "oohing and aahing" as some of the courses took their finalglorious shape, laughing at the reaction of the diners, as they became totally seduced by the gustatorial pleasures being introduced to them by Babette, and being totally surprised at the turn of events at the end of the film.
The film'smeditation on the passage of time and the way it uses a seemingly simple story to comment on life and love and art and generosity is truly something tocherish..
Their personal differences of passion or conviction are not as important as the ways in which they can connect with each other.How shockingly refreshing.There is an undercurrent to this film that gives it the feel of a Garrison Keillor monologue, in that it is built around people's personal foibles and quirks.Even more refreshing is how "Babette's Feast" manages to be nice without becoming cloying, saccharine, facile, superficial or insincere.
People's personal passions are portrayed not only from their own perspective, but from the perspective of the people they affect, with more realism than you usually get in film, yet also with sincere and infectious optimism.If you don't come away from "Babette's Feast" smiling and feeling better, then you must have been distracted from giving it your full attention.
Babette's Feast!Our story (from an Isak Dinesen short story) is of two lovely maiden sisters from Jutland, the pious daughters of a stern and dictatorial minister, who spurn their chance for love to remained devoted to their austere Protestant creed and to their puritanical and selfish father.
This movie came aside as a shock in the eighties.Far from trends,that is to say in the heart of sincere creativity,Babettes gaestebud stands as one of the finest movies of its time.Stephane Audran,the wonderful actress of her ex-husband Claude Chabrol's greatest achievements (le boucher,la rupture,les noces rouges,all unqualified musts for movie buffs)gave a lifetime performance.To see her prepare with love and affection her meal is a feast for the eyes.All the people who saw this masterpiece actually tasted,ate Babette's culinary triumph.
But the most moving part of the story is its conclusion:Babette was a great French chef,she was famous,now she found a new homeland but her heyday is behind her and she won't never be allowed to come back to her dear France.So the two old sisters do comfort her:In heaven,there will be huge kitchens where she'll cook for eternity.While sharing her fortune with her new friends,Babette changed their life,she gave them pleasure and a magic evening they would remember forever.In this simple but extraordinary screenplay,human warmth is everywhere,and I wish everybody a Babette's feast,would it be only for one starry night....
I figure it's also her point that Christ answers the doubts and regrets of those who give up worldly success (Philippa's sister Martina rebuffs efforts by a visiting baritone (Jean-Philippe Lafont whose jolliness creates an uplifting counterpoint to the sparsity of spirit that surrounds his discovery) to turn her into an opera star; the title character leaves France and an enviable reputation and seeks sanctuary as the servant of two spinster sisters) to pursue artistic triumphs for only God and those closest to Him to witness.
Anyway, as the film progressed it got better and better and the viewer is rewarded for his/her patience.Being a fan of the movie, "Out Of Africa," this film piqued my interest because it's based on a short novel by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), the major character in that film.The meal - Babette's feast - was amazing.
She returns laden with exotic cargo, the makings of a single meal commemorating the birthday of the sister's father, the community's founder.This meal looms darkly in the minds of the pleasure-denying faithful but its subtleties are translated by an aging military officer who, as a young man in Paris, learned to appreciate the sensory experience unfolding here.
Watching the movie in a cold snowy late afternoon can cause you to approach this evening dinner with some sumptuous expectations ...The final sentence that give a title to Babette's sacrifice far from Paris: An artist is never poor.Superb photography.
You share General Loewenhielm's exquisite joy in his partaking of the Cailles en Sarcophage even though you are just watching a movie - but you do wish for just a small sample to savor.Babette is an artist whose medium is food.
Perhaps no other art form allows the artist to share her creations so directly.The main theme of this movie, the potential that the sharing of food has to transform how people see each other and how they see the world, is much the same as the theme of "Chololat," but "Babette's Feast" does not hit you over the head with its message.
Karen Blixen is perhaps best-known in the English-speaking world as the character played by Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa", but she is a celebrated author in her native Denmark, and "Babette's Feast" was the first Danish film to be based on her writing.
The film is set in a small Danish village in the 19th century and tells the story of two elderly sisters, Martine and Philippa, the leaders of a small religious sect founded by their father, and of the sumptuous feast cooked for them and their followers by Babette, their French housekeeper.The film's main theme is the interaction between the religious life, particularly the puritanical traditions of Scandinavian Lutheranism, and the life of the senses.
After fourteen years as a refugee, Babette wins 10,000 francs in the French lottery and uses this money to prepare her feast, using the most costly ingredients to cook dishes like turtle soup, "Blini Demidoff au Caviar" and "Cailles en Sarcophage", all accompanied by fine wines.
Martine, Philippa and their followers are, of course, completely unused to food of this sort; they are too poor for luxuries and even if they could afford them would regard them as sinful; they agree to the meal, however, out of respect for Babette's feelings.The film is not in any sense anti-religious.
The literal meaning of the term "Eucharist" in Greek is "thanksgiving", and Babette intends her meal to be an act of thanksgiving, to Martine and Philippa for the kindness they have shown her and to God for the talents which He has given her.The film's religious emphases are also brought out in the brief speech given after the meal by Lowenhielm, now a General and the one guest with previous experience of such delicacies, beginning with words taken from Psalm 85: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed one another." The idea of spirituality is also contained in Philippa's final words to Babette, that in paradise she will indeed be the great artist God intended her to be.
The acting is also of a particularly high standard, especially from Stéphane Audran as Babette and Bodil Kjer and Birgitte Federspiel as the two sisters."Babette's Feast" won the 1987 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
But all that changes with the arrival from Paris of an attractive refugee (the story takes place during the French Revolution) who thanks her benefactors, and tests their strict religious principles, by preparing a sinfully delicious gourmet feast for the entire town.
Babette, however, brings something more to the relationship than merely good food--she gives the older ladies, who both passed up opportunities for fame and romance as young women, a taste of the beauty that life away from their tiny village contains..
Though the director may have been making a statement about the purity of art - "A true artist is never poor" -  what came through for me was the joy of full Christian living, as exemplified by Jesus' injunction to "Live life, and live it fully." Babette, like Christ, sacrificed all she had to change the dour Danes into the joyous, childlike villagers they were at the end, singing and holding hands under the stars.
This film is about sisters who have dedicated their life to their father who was a religious sect leader in their small Dutch village.
this is one of the finest movies i have ever seen....the stark scenery...the isolation...the ignorant bigoted people hiding behind their religion...a backdrop for some wordliness and sophistication...the acting is completely natural...but for me as a"foodie' the best is the actual choosing and preparation of the feast..i have spent time in paris and know the cuisine well...whether or not the cafe anglais really exists i don't know but i do know of similar establishments and babette's menu and choice of wines are authentic...and of course the end where despite themselves the perfect meal mellows them back to friendship is the only ending there could be..this is a 10 out of 10 film and should be seen by anyone with enough brain and taste to understand it.
Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast, adapted from Karen Blixen's short story of the same name (written under the pen name Isak Dinesen) and winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, is about both the richness of true artistry and the spiritual necessity of sampling what few pleasures life has to offer during our short time on Earth.
Like an exquisite, expensive meal, it moves at a slow pace and requires you to savour the delicate starters before the wholly satisfying climax arrives like a rich dessert and fine malt whiskey, resulting in the most romantic film about living a quiet, pious life ever made.Two elderly sisters, Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Filippa (Bodil Kjer), have lived in a windy, remote hamlet in Jutland, Denmark their entire life.
The sisters are courted in their youth by two men - cavalry officer Lorens Lowenhielm (Jarl Kulle), who falls in love with Martine, and opera singer Achille Papin (Jean-Philippe Lafont), who happens to hear Filippa's flawless singing voice and longs to make her a star.
Both reject their suitors advances out of loyalty to their marriage- spurning father, and remain alone together for the remainder of their lives.One day, a French refugee named Babette (Stephane Audran) arrives having being sent by the ageing Papin to escape the bloody Paris Commune.
Based on a short story by Isak Dinesen (also known as Karen Blixen), this is a lovely and quietly contemplative film about two elderly Danish women and the French refugee they take in as their cook and who ends up transforming their life.
Stephane Audran plays the eponymous heroine who escapes from Paris in the 1870s during a time of turmoil and lives for many years in a hamlet on the coast of Jutland in Denmark as a cook and servant for a pair of spinsters who made their own choices in their youth to stay with their father, the pastor of the community.Like many European films, nothing much happens but the atmosphere, acting, and production are superb and the film leaves you at the end just as satisfied as if you had partaken of the feast yourself..
Scenery and locations are lush, you want to live there.Characters are easy to know,likable,and well developed.But the scenes involving foodstuffs,from the market to the table, the rituals and ceremony for the purchase, preparation and presentation of Babettes  Feast left me hungry; for not just the beautiful food but for the time when such ceremony was the norm.
Babette's Feast is considered among the top movies of all time.It moves in it's own time, which may frustrate those who expect instant gratification.It is also not in English, so English speakers will have to read the subtitles.What it is, is just about the perfect film.
I should have known better when I saw that the writer of this little opus was Isak Dinesen who wrote "Out of Africa"--a film that I could barely tolerate after the first slow-moving hour in which the scenery was the star, hoping that something would happen to stir my interest.I had the same feeling when I watched BABETTE'S FEAST.
The only mystery is in finding out just who Babette is and why she is so skillful at culinary arts.And so a short story has been turned into a long, extended film with virtually very little in the way of a plot (and most of it irrelevant to the final feast).
This is one of those art house films that never found its audience here in America but apparently has found an appreciative audience among those who've savored French food and enjoy watching Babette's meticulous cooking preparations..
My Rating : 8/10First Danish film to win an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film, 'Babette's Feast' is a well-crafted, sweet and cleverly executed drama about a Parisian refugee named Babette (Stéphane Audran) who serves as the family cook to two religious sisters in 19th century coastal Jutland, Denmark.Starts off slowly but when the main event begins towards the second half it's pure delight.Worth a watch if you want to explore a good upbeat drama piece..
One thing: the dinner will be French and once the ingredients start to arrive, the unsophisticated villagers suspect that something unholy is about to take place.Based on a short story by Karen Blixen (of Out Of Africa fame), this is an engaging, though not overly profound, movie.
Babette's Feast (1987)This movie made my eyes damp a few times.It takes place in a small village on the west coast of Denmark, where two spinster sisters carry on their deceased father's spiritual work.Babette comes to the village after her family is killed in a French revolt.She cooks for the sisters, mainly fish soup and bread mixed with ale.The after 14 years, Babette receives a letter saying she was won the French lottery -$10,000 francs.The two sisters had planned a dinner party to honor what would have been their father's 100th birthday.Babette decides to spend her lottery money by cooking a real French dinner with many courses for the occasion.She sends for what she needs, which includes a large live turtle, a dozen live baby quails, the finest wines and champagne, truffles and much other stuff.When the sisters see the big turtle on the kitchen counter they react as if it were the devil's food, and pre-warn their guests not to mention the food at the party.The day arrives, and shows Babette cooking each dish and desert, and has a neighbor boy serve the table.
This film says everything there is to say about religion - I wish it were required viewing for all bigots and would-be clericals.The story, set in a turn-of-the-century Danish villages is about two very religious sisters whose late father was a rigid priest who discouraged all their dreams of love and exploring the world and its many beauty.
The life in the village is simple and the stark direction reflects that.When Babette wins the lottery, she requests a chance to prepare a feast - a true labour of love.
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.
Passion Is What You Make Of It. A story of scant Scandinavian living that is dotted with moments of passion is in a nutshell what the movie Babette's Feast is about.
Their belief in God is very strong and they believe that living a simple life brings them closer to Him. At the time of the feast they tell the congregation to say nothing of the food and drink that Babette has prepared and simply sit in silence because the meal is the work of the devil.
It quickly becomes obvious that cooking is Babette's passion and over the course of the meal the sisters and other members of the congregation enjoy the food more and more.
If I had to create a shortlist of my favorite films of all time, "Babette's Feast" would be among them.