David O'ConnellBabette's Feast
October 22nd 2008 02:58
Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film of 1986, Gabriel Axel’s exquisitely crafted film - based on a story by Isak Dinesen, the pen name of Karen Blixen who also wrote Out of Africa - is a feast for the senses as well as quelling its recipients’ appetites!
Focusing on two religiously devout sisters in a small Danish village near the Jutland Coast in the mid 1800’s - Philippa (Bodil Kjer), and Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) - the film reveals the temptations of their past, involving two key figures – for Martine a chance at love with a French army officer (Jarl Kulle), and for Phillipa a chance at fame with her beautiful voice, under the guidance of a Parisian opera singer (Jean-Phillipe Lafont) who is equally besotted with her.
But they deny themselves these opportunities, devoted to their pious existence under the eye of their father (Pouel Kern), the village’s pastor and spiritual figurehead. For all of them, adhering to puritan values is of foremost importance in life, with love and marriage seen as hollow illusions.
We track forward a few years to find the pastor deceased but his daughters carrying on in his name, when a stranger appears at their doorway one stormy night. She is Babette Hersant (Stephane Audran), sent to them by the opera singer; civil war has erupted in France and Babette’s family has been killed, leaving her bereft and with little reason to stay.
With her loyalty and thrifty ways she becomes a perfect fit for the sisters whose nourishment mostly comes from boiled fish and bread soup!
Fast forwarding another 14 years we see the sisters still obeying their higher command despite an increasing level of discord amongst their ranks, whilst Babette comes upon a stunning windfall from a lottery win in France, shared with a relative back home.
She determines to use it for a traditional French feast on the birthday of the late, influential pastor for the sisters and a select group from the community. The sisters are hesitant when confronted with the elaborate plans Babette concocts, fearing sacrilegious excesses, and assuring their neighbours of a “witches’ Sabbath!”
The last half an hour of the film is built beautifully around the ravishing feast and it’s enough to whet any appetite! The villagers are determined to not mention their food, for the human tongue’s only purpose is to spread the word of God. But the French general is in attendance as well, having returned from duty, and he’s flabbergasted by course after extravagant course, unable to withhold his exuberant praise.
In his assessment too comes a hint to Babette’s secret past in France, and a final pronouncement of how this feast is the culmination of all the greatest gifts of both heaven and earth, moments of spiritual enlightenment sporadically touching the humble but sated villagers.
None of them have ever experienced anything like it and are finally won over with equal fervour - as too are we by Axel’s magnificent film with its determination to show how life can be finally distilled down into its simplest and purest pleasures.
Babette’s Feast may appear on the surface to be a modest, undemanding film, but it has hidden and sumptuous delights which were a joy to discover - even if it took me over twenty years to unearth them! It's a true celebration of both life and art - in all their worthy and surprising manifestations.
Focusing on two religiously devout sisters in a small Danish village near the Jutland Coast in the mid 1800’s - Philippa (Bodil Kjer), and Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) - the film reveals the temptations of their past, involving two key figures – for Martine a chance at love with a French army officer (Jarl Kulle), and for Phillipa a chance at fame with her beautiful voice, under the guidance of a Parisian opera singer (Jean-Phillipe Lafont) who is equally besotted with her.
But they deny themselves these opportunities, devoted to their pious existence under the eye of their father (Pouel Kern), the village’s pastor and spiritual figurehead. For all of them, adhering to puritan values is of foremost importance in life, with love and marriage seen as hollow illusions.
We track forward a few years to find the pastor deceased but his daughters carrying on in his name, when a stranger appears at their doorway one stormy night. She is Babette Hersant (Stephane Audran), sent to them by the opera singer; civil war has erupted in France and Babette’s family has been killed, leaving her bereft and with little reason to stay.
Sisters Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) are tended to by Babette (Stephane Audran)
With her loyalty and thrifty ways she becomes a perfect fit for the sisters whose nourishment mostly comes from boiled fish and bread soup!
Fast forwarding another 14 years we see the sisters still obeying their higher command despite an increasing level of discord amongst their ranks, whilst Babette comes upon a stunning windfall from a lottery win in France, shared with a relative back home.
She determines to use it for a traditional French feast on the birthday of the late, influential pastor for the sisters and a select group from the community. The sisters are hesitant when confronted with the elaborate plans Babette concocts, fearing sacrilegious excesses, and assuring their neighbours of a “witches’ Sabbath!”
Babette hard at work on her Feast
The last half an hour of the film is built beautifully around the ravishing feast and it’s enough to whet any appetite! The villagers are determined to not mention their food, for the human tongue’s only purpose is to spread the word of God. But the French general is in attendance as well, having returned from duty, and he’s flabbergasted by course after extravagant course, unable to withhold his exuberant praise.
In his assessment too comes a hint to Babette’s secret past in France, and a final pronouncement of how this feast is the culmination of all the greatest gifts of both heaven and earth, moments of spiritual enlightenment sporadically touching the humble but sated villagers.
None of them have ever experienced anything like it and are finally won over with equal fervour - as too are we by Axel’s magnificent film with its determination to show how life can be finally distilled down into its simplest and purest pleasures.
Babette’s Feast may appear on the surface to be a modest, undemanding film, but it has hidden and sumptuous delights which were a joy to discover - even if it took me over twenty years to unearth them! It's a true celebration of both life and art - in all their worthy and surprising manifestations.
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Comment by Joanne Fedler
Love it, agree with everything you've written about it. It is also for me about her generosity and the abundance of living life to the full in each moment.
Jo
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
Comment by MelG
Comment by David O'Connell
Screen Fanatic
It's a beautiful film and yes, the transformation in the villagers eyes over the course of the meal, from blank neutrality to barely-containable delight, is a lot of fun to witness! !
Comment by MelG
Comment by Cibbuano
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