Babette's Feast [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Gabriel Axel

Overview

The Danish/French Babette's Feast is based on a story by Isak Dinesen, also the source of the very different Out of Africa (1985). Stephane Audran plays Babette, a 19th century Parisian political refugee who seeks shelter in a rough Danish coastal town. Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel), the elderly daughters of the town's long-dead minister, take Babette in. As revealed in flashback, Philippa and Martina were once beautiful young women (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup), who'd forsaken their chances at romance and fame, taking hollow refuge in religion. Babette holds a secret that may very well allow the older ladies to have a second chance at life. This is one of the great movies about food, but there are way too many surprises in Babette's Feast to allow us to reveal anything else at this point (except that Ingmar Bergman "regulars" Bibi Andersson and Jarl Kulle have significant cameo roles)..

Product Details

Release Date:	07/23/2013
UPC:	0715515107518
Original Release:	1987
Rating:	G
Source:	Criterion
Region Code:	A
Sound:	[Dolby Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:44:00
Sales rank:	11,419

Special Features

New interviews with director Gabriel Axel and actor St?phane Audran; Karen Blixen-Storyteller, a 1995 documentary about the author of the film's source story, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen; New visual essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda; New interview with sociologist Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson about the significance of cuisine in French culture; Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

St?phane Audran	Babette Hersant
Birgitte Federspiel	Martine
Ghita N?rby	Narrator,Narrator,la narratrice
Bodil Kjer	Filippa
Jarl Kulle	Lorens
Jean-Philippe Lafont	Achille,Actor
Vibeke Hastrup	Young Martine
Gudmar Wivesson	Lorenz Lowenhielm as a Young Man
Bibi Andersson	Swedish Court Lady-in-Waiting
Hanne Stensgaard	Young Philippa
Bendt Rothe	Old Nielsen
Ebbe Rode	Christopher
Lisbeth Movin	The Widow
Michel Bouquet	Narrator
Preben Rye	The Captain,le capitaine
Pouel Kern	The Vicar
Axel Str?bye	Driver
Tina Kiberg	Philippa [singing]
Ebba With	Lorens' Aunt
Else Peterson	Solveig
Therese Hojgaard Christensen	Martha
Asta Esper Andersen	Anna
Finn Nielsen	Grocer
Erik Petersen	Young Erik,Solveig
Lars Lohmann	Fisherman
Holger Perfort	Karlsen
Tine Miehe-Renard	Lorens' Wife
Thomas Antoni	Swedish Lieutenant
Gert Bastian	Poor Man
Viggo Bentzon	Fisherman in Rowboat
Cay Kristiansen	Poul
Jean-Phillippe La Font	Actor
Per Norgaard	Composer

Technical Credits

Gabriel Axel

Karen Blixen

Henning Bahs	Special Effects
Just Betzer	Producer,Executive Producer
Bo Christensen	Producer
Gabriel Axel	Screenwriter
Karen Blixen	Screenwriter
Benni Korzen	Producer
Pernille Siesbye	Producer
Karen Bentzon	Sound Effects
Michael Dela	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

The sophisticated and subtle screenplay for Babette's Feast, adapted by director Gabriel Axel, is based on a story written by Isak Dinesen, the writer memorably played by Meryl Streep in the biopic Out of Africa. In the film's first half, the emotional detachment of the pious characters is mirrored in the directorial approach, which allows the narrator to explain the matters before us, keeping us at a distance. When the feast begins, the narrator steps aside, Axel's direction becomes more evocative, and our participation becomes more active. Axel plays things low-key: his camera doesn't swoop or dance, but lingers lovingly over every aspect of the meal. The soundtrack includes some beautiful period music, but Axel mostly allows the sounds of the meal to become the symphony of the feast. Made out of humility and love, the feast is Babette's supreme artistic expression, and her hedonistic present encourages the feasters to look a little more closely at their own lives, as the magical and voluptuous feast dramatically counterpoints their puritanical existence. Babette's offering is a ritual sacrifice, intended to encourage the austere characters with the possibility that their material nourishment may provide spiritual sustenance as well. The film also contains a cultural context, as the political revolutions in 19th century Europe lead to Babette's displacement and the resultant cultural blending of Babette's southern European Catholic sensuality with sober northern European Protestantism. Their pact, to say nothing about the magnificence of the feast, ironically reveals the ineffable truth that Babette's artistic expression of love cannot be properly praised with words. Like the guests' spiritual values, it exists on a higher plane, where simple acts of generosity can erase personal prejudices. The film leaves us with a haunting echo of the roads not taken, as the characters must ponder the paths they have chosen and ask themselves: have they made the most of their gifts? Babette's Feast won several major awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and the British BAFTA Award for Best Film of 1987.