Description: Artistic, sensual and sacred passions unite in Babette's Feast. Written and directed by Gabriel Axel, from a short story by Out of Africa's Isak Dinesen, this Oscar(r)-winning*film offers "an irresistible mixture of dry wit and robust humanity" (Newsweek). Onthe desolate coast of Denmark live Martina and Philippa, the beautiful daughters of a devout clergyman who preaches salvation through self-denial. Both girls sacrifice youthful passion to faith and duty, and even many years after their father's death, they keep his austere teachings alive among thetownspeople. But with the arrival of Babette, a mysterious refugee from France's civil war, life for the sisters and their tiny hamlet begins to change. Soon, Babette has convinced them to try something truly outrageousa gourmet French meal! Her feast, of course, scandalizes the local elders. Just who is this strangely talented Babette, who has terrified this pious town with the prospect of losing their souls for enjoying too much earthly pleasure? *1987: Foreign Language Film
Amazon.com: Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner--which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the sensual pleasure of Babette's cooking? Babette's Feast deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Philosophical legend
As the title says, this legned was put on the background of french revolution, but its philosophical significance reaches far beyond, before and after that specific historic period. Issue has been probably pursued by human being since they became civilized gradually: what is the persistant value of life, relatively unchanged by uncertainty of world. The movie offers some clue for people to follow to practically explore in today's real world.
Rating: - Babette's Feast
Very interesting but a little hard to follow. We finished a bood study in church Sunday School Class on Heaven. the book referred to this book.
Rating: - yeah, very slow start
yeah, i'm agreeing with the latest reviews. I've watched one hour of the movie, and see that we're finally going to get to the meat (excuse the pun) of the story. I expect a better second half. The first half is very slow and fairly pointless. I understand they're setting up the story, but it should have been done in a half hour or less. I guess we're all impatient 21rst centuryers. (-:
Rating: - Gets better, but what an awful, awful beginning.
Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987)
Babette's Feast, 1987 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, starts off painfully slowly. While the movie does get quite good after that, I have to wonder whether the Academy simply fast-forwarded through the first half-hour of their screeners when deciding to give the award to this rather than, say, Au Revoir les Enfants. (But then, it was the eighties, when the Academy were collectively demented; anything was possible. I mean, come on, Reds won Best ... Read More
Rating: - Oh what a Feast...struggled with wrapper around it
2 beautiful sisters who live in a desolate region of Denmark pass up chances for marriage, stage performance and seeing the world in exchange for caring for their aging and pious Father.
A French war refugee (Babette) flees Paris after her husband and child are murdered and she stays with the sisters and works for them as a cook/maid. Babette wins the lotto (keep in mind this is 19th century setting) and she decides to spend her largess on preparing a feast for the town to celebrate ... Read More