Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gabriel Axel
Produced by	Just Betzer Bo Christensen Benni Korzen Pernille Siesbye
Screenplay by	Gabriel Axel
Story by	Karen Blixen
Narrated by	Ghita Nørby
Starring	Stephane Audran Birgitte Federspiel Bodil Kjer
Music by	Per Nørgård
Cinematography	Henning Kristiansen
Editing by	Finn Henriksen
Studio	Nordisk Film
Distributed by	Orion Classics (US)
Release date(s)	28 August 1987 (1987-08-28)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› Denmark
Language	Danish Swedish French
Box office	$4,398,938 (US)[1]

Babette's Feast (Danish: Babettes gæstebud) is a 1987 Danish film directed by Gabriel Axel. The film's screenplay was written by Axel based on the story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who also wrote the story which inspired the 1985 Academy Award winning film Out of Africa. Produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen, and Benni Korzen with funding from the Danish Film Institute, Babette's Feast was the first Danish cinema film of a Blixen story. It was also the first Danish film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.^[2]

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.^[3]

Plot

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The elderly and pious Christian 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 strict Christian sect. With their father now dead, and the sect drawing no new converts, the aging sisters preside over their dwindling congregation of white-haired, rural resident believers.

The story flashes back 49 years, showing the sisters in their youth. The beautiful sisters 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, sent to stay with his aunt in Jutland for the summer to correct bad behavior. Philippa is pursued by a star baritone, Achille Papin, from the Paris opera, on hiatus to the silence of the coast.

The young officer Lorens, upon meeting Martine, envisions "a higher and purer life without creditor's letters or parental lectures and with a gentle angel at his side." He attends the congregation's meetings, but feels unnoticed by Martine. Finally, he walks away feeling unworthy of Martine, having spent his life as a dissolute gambler.

When the French baritone attempts to take Philippa to Paris and gets carried away and kisses her during a rehearsal of a duet from Don Giovanni, Philippa decides to discontinue the lessons and turns down his offer of stardom and wealth.

35 years later, Babette Hersant (Stéphane Audran) appears at their door. She carries only a letter from Philippa's former suitor, the singer Achille Papin, explaining that she is a refugee from counter-revolutionary bloodshed in Paris, and recommending her as a housekeeper. The sisters take Babette in, and as their cook for the next 14 years, she serves as a modest but benign figure who gradually eases their lives and the lives of many in the remote village. 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 returns to Paris to arrange for supplies to be sent to Jutland. The ingredients are plentiful, sumptuous and exotic, and their arrival causes much discussion amongst the village. As the various never-before-seen ingredients arrive, and preparations commence, the sisters begin to worry that the meal will become a great 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 forego speaking of any pleasure in it, and to make no mention of the food during the entire dinner.

The final part of the film is the preparation and the serving of Babette's banquet, lavishly deployed in the unadorned austerity of the sisters' rustic home. The film, previously showing mainly winterly whites and grays, gradually picks up more and more colors, focusing on the various and delectable dishes.

Martine's former suitor, Lorens, now a famous general married to a member of the Queen's court, reappears as one of the guests with 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 attache 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 breaks 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.

Babette's menu begins with an amontillado and features "Potage à la Tortue" (turtle soup); "Blinis Demidoff au Caviar" (buckwheat cakes with caviar and sour cream); "Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine" (quail in puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce); a salad featuring Belgian chicory and walnuts in a vinaigrette; and "Les Fromages" featuring blue cheese, papaya, figs, grapes, pineapple, and pomegranate. The grand finale dessert is "Savarin au Rhum avec des Figues et Fruits Glacées" (rum sponge cake with figs and glacéed fruits). Numerous rare wines, including a 1845 Clos de Vougeot, along with an 1860 Veuve Clicquot champagne and spirits, complete the menu. Babette's purchase of the finest china, crystal and linen with which to set the table ensures that the luxurious food and drink is served in a style worthy of Babette, who is none other than the famous former Chef of the Café Anglais. Babette kept her past a secret she kept from the sisters for years, not revealing it until after the meal.

The sisters assume that Babette will now return to Paris, and when she tells them that all of her money is gone and that she is not going anywhere, the sisters are aghast. Babette then tells them that dinner for 12 at the Café Anglais 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."

Cast

• Stephane Audran as Babette Hersant
• Bodil Kjer as Filippa
• Birgitte Federspiel as Martine
• Jarl Kulle as General Lorens Löwenhielm
• Jean-Philippe Lafont as Achille Papin
• Bibi Andersson as Swedish courtier
• Ghita Nørby as Narrator
• Asta Esper Hagen Andersen as Anna
• Thomas Antoni as Swedish lieutenant
• Gert Bastian as Poor Man
• Viggo Bentzon as Fisherman in Rowboat
• Vibeke Hastrup as Young Martine
• Therese Hojgaard Christensen as Martha
• Pouel Kern as The Minister
• Cay Kristiansen as Poul

Production

Location

Blixen's original story takes place in the Norwegian port town of Berlevåg, a setting of multi-colored wood houses on a long fjord.^[4] However, when Axel researched locations in Norway, he found the setting was too idyllic and resembled a "beautiful tourist brochure."^[5] He shifted the location to the flat windswept coast of western Jutland and asked his set designer, Sven Wichmann, to build a small grey village resembling a one-horse town. Mårup Church, a plain Romanesque church built around 1250 on a remote seaside cliff near the village of Lønstrup, was used as a backdrop.^[6]

Axel altered the setting from a ship-filled harbor to fisherman's rowboats on a beach. He said the changes would highlight Blixen's vision of Babette's life in near complete exile.^[5]

"There is a lot that works in writing, but when translated to pictures, it doesn't give at all the same impression or feeling. All the changes I undertook, I did to actually be faithful to Karen Blixen." – Gabriel Axel^[7]

Casting

The Nordisk Film production company suggested the cast of Babette's Feast should include only Danish actors in order to reduce production costs. However, Axel wanted Danish, Swedish and French actors to play the roles for the sake of authenticity. Axel was supported by the Danish Film Institute's consultant, Clæs Kastholm Hansen, who also agreed the cast should include international stars.^[8]

The title character of Babette was initially offered to Catherine Deneuve. Deneuve was interested in the part but was concerned because she had been criticized in her past attempts to depart from her usual sophisticated woman roles.^[9] While Deneuve deliberated for one day, Axel met with French actress Stéphane Audran. Axel remembered Audran from her roles in Claude Chabrol's films Violette Nozière and Poulet au vinaigre. When Axel asked Chabrol (who was her ex-husband) about Audran's suitability, Chabol said Audran was the archetype of Babette.^[10] Axel gave the script to Audran, told her that Deneuve was contemplating the role, and asked her if she might be able to respond before the next day. Audran called two hours later and said she wanted the role. The following day, Deneuve declined, and Audran was officially cast.^[11]

Two other major parts were the characters of the elderly maiden sisters, Phillipa and Martine. Phillipa, the once-promising singer, was portrayed by Bodil Kjer, considered the first lady of Danish theater and namesake of the Bodil Award.^[12] Birgitte Federspiel, best known for Carl Dreyer's 1955 classic film Ordet, was cast as the staid, love forlorn, Martine.

The role of the Swedish General Lorens Löwenhielm, the former suitor of Martine, was accepted by Jarl Kulle and the Swedish Court Lady by Bibi Andersson. Both had achieved international recognition as two of Ingmar Bergman's favorite actors, appearing in many of his films.^[13][14]

The group of elderly villagers was composed of Danish actors, many of whom were well known for their roles in the films of Carl Theodor Dreyer. These included Lisbeth Movin as the Old Widow, Preben Lerdorff Rye as the Captain, Axel Strøbye as the Driver, Bendt Rothe as Old Nielsen and Ebbe Rode as Christopher.

The popular Danish actress Ghita Nørby was cast as the film's narrator. Although production consultants complained to Axel that the use of a narrator was too old-fashioned, Axel was adamant about using one. He said it wasn't about being old-fashioned, but only about the need: "If there is need for a narrator, then one uses one."^[5]

Reception

Babette's Feast received almost universally positive reviews; it currently holds a 93% 'fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[15]

Awards

Babette's Feast won the 1987 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. 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. It won both the Bodil and Robert awards for Best Danish Film of the Year.

References

External links

• Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) at the Internet Movie Database
• Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) at AllRovi
• Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) at Box Office Mojo
• Babettes gæstebud (Babette's Feast) at Rotten Tomatoes
• An extensive collection of links about Babette's Feast at KarenBlixen.com
• Babettes gæstebud at the Danish Film Institute (in Danish)
• Voted #3 on The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films (2010)