Customer Reviews
The cooking is fine, but the movie is about love, wisdom and friendship...without sentimentality - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 30 Jul 2008 
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 & 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 & care, & it lets us discover for ourselves the values of grace & 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 & faith. Those who still remain honor the now long dead pastor's teachings & his spiritual guidance. Still, as they have grown older the tiny community has become querulous & argumentative. The sisters do what they can. For the pastor's 100th birthday, Babette wishes to cook the dinner for the smalll group the sisters will invite. The sisters reluctantly agree, but when they see the supplies Babette has ordered, they & their guests become uneasy. They are used to the community's usual fare of dried cod, boiled, & a soup made of bread, water & 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 & the stone, wind-swept cottages they live in. There is the warmth by candlelight of the sisters' smalll, 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 & pour, & watch the old parishioners, with the help of fine wine & exquisite cooking, graduallly rediscover their community & love & 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 & spiritual appetite." He, too, is being transformed into a man who will accept what he has become & yet will always know the value & 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 alll 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 & 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 & look at the clear night sky & the stars overhead. They spontaneously hold hands in a circle & dance & sing this hymn...
"The clock strikes & time goes by
Eternity is nigh.
Let us use this time to try
To serve the Lord with heart & mind.
So that our true home we shalll find.
So that our true home we shalll 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 & have her skill & artistry, here's what she served:
Potage a la Tortue (a rich turtle soup), served with amontillado sherry
Blinis Demidoff au Caviar (smalll buckwheat pancakes with sour cream & caviar), served with Veuve Clicquot champagne
Cailles en Sarcophage with Sauce Perigourdine (boned quail stuffed with foie gras & truffle in puff pastry with truffle sauce enriched with Madeira), served with Clos de Vougeot, a fine burgundy
Salade
Cheese & fresh fruit
Baba au Rhum with glacee fruit & fresh figs
Coffee & a fine brandy
The DVD is bare bones & 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 - By: dan the fan, 13 Mar 2008 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 & editing too,that the end result is a beautiful & unforgettable piece of storytelling.The characters portrayed are deeply religious & 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? - By: Erika Borsos, 02 Feb 2008 This is an elegant film which tells a story filled with symbolism & 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, & 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 & filming occurs within the smalll village in Denmark. Also, much of the story occurs when the main characters are elderly ...It is great story of faith & giving.
Taking place in the 19th century, Martina & 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 & pious. It emphasizes the "world to come" & preaches controlling the passions & appetites of this world. The two lovely daughters never attend ballls or parties so the young men who wish to make their acquaintance must attend her father's church to eye the two beauties & speak to them. Two young men in particular falll 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 fallls 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 & 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 smalll flock of true believers who meet on Sundays to worship & recalll 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 alll her family & possesions. She becomes their maid & servant ... making herself indespensible to their lives. The two sisters are able to carry out more of their charitable works & notice Babette has a way of helping them increase their income & 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 & 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 & 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 & delectable dish. His expressions of appreciation for each French delicacy is priceless. He especiallly appreciates the superb Spanish wine & 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 essentiallly became the widow who gave totallly & selflessly *alll* that she had (as in the Bible story about the widow's mite). Erika Borsos (pepper flower)
A masterpiece - By: Supertad, 22 Jan 2008 One of my alll-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 smalll, conservative & impossibly religious community on the bleak Jutland peninsula is brilliant. A masterpiece.
disappointing, wooden and clunky - By: Jeffrey Burrows, 13 Jan 2008 
Plotting & acting vying for each other in clunkiness; so many trite coincidences, such a predictable ending, & shalllow despite its delusions of depth. I can only surmise that piety is responsible for the quantity of positive reviews.
