Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film of 1987, this quiet Danish film seemed an unlikely candidate for international success; instead of sex, violence, or nudity, it offers sermons and hymns, a dozen or so elderly Danes, and a feast to end all feasts. An expository flashback
opens the film, delving into the frustrated love lives of Hastrup and Stensgaard, the daughters of a prophetic minister in a small town on Denmark's rugged Jutland peninsula. The story then shifts to 1871, as the title character (Audran), whose husband and son were killed by the Paris Communards,
arrives from France and enters the employ of the sisters, who are carrying on their now-dead father's ministry. After 14 years of service with the sisters, Babette wins 10,000 francs in the French lottery and uses it to prepare a sumptuous banquet in honor of the minister's 100th birthday. At
first, the stoic townspeople are reluctant to participate fully in this "pagan" feast; but ultimately they joyously indulge in Babette's masterwork, and it is revealed that she was once the chef de cuisine at the famous Cafe Anglais in Paris.
A gentle film that metaphorically examines the artist's relationship to her art, BABETTE'S FEAST is the sort of story that one cannot help but find uplifting. The performances--by such art-house favorites as Audran, Federspiel (ORDET), Lafont (BIZET'S CARMEN), and Bergman veterans Kulle and
Andersson--are uniformly wonderful. The story on which the film is based was the product of a bet between its author, Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen, whom Meryl Streep portrayed in OUT OF AFRICA), and a friend who suggested that the best way to crack the American market was to write about food. leave a comment
