Babette's Feast (1987)

Elegant, charming, and overall pleasant to watch.

It is Babette’s Feast!

Such a sweet movie.

I have liked just about every movie made from Isak Dinesen's work: this, "The Immortal Story," "Out of Africa," "Ehrengard." I hope someday they make a film of "The Deluge at Norderney."

One of my favorite films.

Stephane Audran, star of Babette’s Feast, and Eric Porter were to star in In Touch with Colin Firth.

I grew enchanted with Stephane Audran, when she played Cara in "Brideshead Revisited."

Stephane Audran was also in the French classic The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

I believe at one time in Atlanta years ago there was a restaurant called Babette's, maybe even Babette Feast.

One of the greatest films of all time. And its power just sneaks up on you... life, enjoying life, accepting beauty in all its complexity, giving not grasping... still affected, even just seeing its title.

More movies like this should be made

The marvelous Stéphane Audran passed away just last year, I think. I love how her character's gratitude toward the spinster sisters is expressed with such elegant Parisian restraint in the film. It is such a great study of the virtues of the metropolitan coming up against the virtues of the provincial.

*

Devastaing. Simply devastating.

R13 How?

R6 I forgot! It was Stephane Audran with Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Phoebe Nicholls, Sir John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, and Laurence Olivier.

What a great miniseries and an even better cast!

A love letter to Denmark.

Still thinking about this movie!

Just watched it for the first time after putting it off for almost twenty years. It was okay. I think I'm just too dead inside to be able to appreciate it fully. I'd probably be in ecstasy if I saw it as a teenager.

I am so glad they didn't use the Director's cut where after the meal, Babette reveals herself to be a vampire and starts HER feast.

As an antidote to this try the movie "The Platform."

It's a cure to all sentimentality over food.

Wonderful movie, but don ‘t watch it if you’re hungry.

The film does pair well with a glass of Bordeaux

Bumping this thread because it is a beautiful film

I might watch it because I’ve been having difficulty falling asleep. This just might do the trick

Thanks for starting this thread, OP! It took me 30 years to realize that this is really a recreation of the Last Supper, wherein Babette plays the Christ figure who gives, literally, EVERYTHING she has to feed 12 people to bring them closer to God. My favorite part is when they are enjoying coffee in the parlor and Phillipe plays/sings "Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten" on her old piano while the brothers and sisters reconcile with each other. A perfect film for those who can appreciate its many layers.

I feel like the actresses who played the younger versions of the sisters should've switched parts. The resemblances were backwards.

R22 - NEVER a Bordeaux! Rather a Burgundy; a Clos de Vougeot 1845, to be exact!

Time to brush my pubic hair

Anyone have a good recipe for Cailles en Sarcophage?

Love that movie.

I just realized something from R29's post: Cailles en Sarcophage (Quail in Puff-pastry) is a direct reference to Exodus 16:11-14 (which is a foreshadowing of the Last Supper):

11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”

13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.

Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.’”

R29 - For you:

Stephane Audran also was great in Claude Chabrol’s Le Boucher.

Deneuve and Tina Louise were originally considered for the role of Babette.

My parents loved this film when I was little. It made me... just so hungry.

A close friend of mine recreated the meal for me for my 35th birthday. He was a very fine cook. The portions were much smaller of course, because he wasn't cooking for 12. It was a tour de force. We had watched the film together in the theater and I think he enjoyed the challenge. Some ingredients (just a very few) were unobtainable.

The expression on the chef's face when the sisters tried to explain to her how to make a meal our of the dry salted cod, starting with soaking it....priceless.

I love this movie so much that I could watch it many more times. I love the deep reflectiveness of everything and the characterizations. Every time I sip sherry, I say, if only to myself, "Amonti-Lado" (with the non-Spanish pronunciation). I agree that the actresses playing the younger sisters should have been cast the opposite way.

The last time I saw this film, I had forgotten how disgusting some of the dishes were--that poor old turtle groaning in the kitchen before he gets the axe, and of course the tiny whole birds. :( But there are so many beautiful moments that I could hardly pick out even a few to mention. And my reaction to the ending now is much different than when I saw it the first time. At first, I thought it was so tragic that she spent everything and wouldn't be going back to France. Now that I'm much, much older, I think, "Of course." There was nothing there for her anymore, she was filled with gratitude to the sisters and grief for all she'd lost, and she was at peace that this was where her life was now.

Thank you, R37! I went through the same process(ing). This is definitely a film to watch over and over again, because it WILL BE a different film after every viewing.

Yes! So much of how you view it depends on where you are in your life. As older people, we know that not all choices are open to you at any time, and you can only be philosophical about your losses and what led you to today.

Same thing, I guess, with the sisters having given up their early alternatives to staying in the town and living with their father as part of their little religious community and carrying on his life's work. Seemed like a waste to a younger me, but I get it more now.

r32 she was married to Chabrol and starred in most of his movies in the 70s. I like Violette where she played the mother to spoiled psycho Isabelle Huppert.

R12, you’re a glorious joy.

For some reason the chef scolding the kid for tasting the wine stands out in my memory. It's been years since I've seen it.

R42 - YES!!! But, notice that he ends up taking a swig off of an unfinished glass on the table after everyone goes into the parlor. GREAT OBSERVATION!!!

I finally saw this a few weeks ago. It was good but the stark scenery and Puritanism of the sisters was depressing. I can't imagine living in such a place.

R44 - Which is why the sumptuous splendor of the Feast contrasts so greatly with the previous stark existence. Another great observation!!

Except there's nothing in the camerawork, lighting, editing etc. that changes during the feast, to show that the sense have been (re)awakened in some meaningful way. I thought that was profoundly unimaginative on the filmmaker's part, which is why I thought the movie was just okay. In other words, the feast doesn't have enough of a sensuous punch it could have had in defter hands.

Ah, R46! I understand completely!! It has taken me 40 years to slowly unveil the subtle meanings and references in this film! The FEAST isn't the point; it's a catalyst to the point, which is forgiveness, reconciliation and peace. Remember: the townsfolk vowed not to taste the food (like at the Wedding at Cana), and ultimately the food itself WASN'T of any importance - it was Babette's love, artistry, and selflessness (like that of Christ at the Last Supper) that united the quarreling flock. Please re-watch the General's Speech and the hymn in the parlor. This is where everything shifts and the meaning of the film is revealed.

The General's speech:

Reconciliation after the meal:

I didn't think the food looked that great especially the turtle soup.

R50 really? How would you have done it differently?

R50 Haute cuisine of another century... not for the timid.

The food that consisted the feast does not look appetizing- at least by today’s standards. Then again I was never a worshiper of French cuisine.

The director, Gabriel Axel, had a long career in Danish and French film and TV and was almost 70 when he directed "Babette's Feast," which was his belated masterpiece served up to a grateful world, like the feast in the movie.

It has a very Ingmar Bergman feel