Babette's Feast (U.)
Directed by Gabriel Axel.
Starring Stephane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle and Bibi Andersson. 1987. In Danish with subtitles.102 mins
How did something as exquisite as Babette’s Feast slip our mind? Released the year after Out of Africa swept the Oscars, during that brief period of Karen Blixen /Isak Dinesen mania, this simple little film version of her short stories was something of a sensation at the time but had been rather forgotten since.
This tale of a luxurious, indulgent French meal cooked for a community of frugal, abstemiousness Lutherans living in a small village on the bleak, forsaken coast of Jutland in the late 19th century has a great comic premise but delivers something much richer, much more fulfilling.
Like John Huston’s film of The Dead, it is that rare literary adaptation that doesn’t leave you feeling short-changed if you haven’t read the original. The two films are very similar in other ways. They are both films that predominantly consist of build up. Most of their running time is taken up slowly manoeuvring characters and situations into place for the pay off, a point in the final reel when all the craft that has gone into it comes together and the film suddenly floors you with a great wallop of emotion. This wallop is all the more affecting because it isn’t quite clear what the emotions consist of, or what exactly has provoked them. It is though a dizzying mix of euphoria and melancholy
It’s a marvellous surprise when you first see it, because for most of its length you can’t see what all the fuss was about. Repeat viewings are more precarious pleasures, uncertainly waiting to see if it can still deliver that knockout blow. Rest assured, it can, it most certainly can.
Directed by Gabriel Axel.
Starring Stephane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel, Jarl Kulle and Bibi Andersson. 1987. In Danish with subtitles.102 mins
How did something as exquisite as Babette’s Feast slip our mind? Released the year after Out of Africa swept the Oscars, during that brief period of Karen Blixen /Isak Dinesen mania, this simple little film version of her short stories was something of a sensation at the time but had been rather forgotten since.
This tale of a luxurious, indulgent French meal cooked for a community of frugal, abstemiousness Lutherans living in a small village on the bleak, forsaken coast of Jutland in the late 19th century has a great comic premise but delivers something much richer, much more fulfilling.
Like John Huston’s film of The Dead, it is that rare literary adaptation that doesn’t leave you feeling short-changed if you haven’t read the original. The two films are very similar in other ways. They are both films that predominantly consist of build up. Most of their running time is taken up slowly manoeuvring characters and situations into place for the pay off, a point in the final reel when all the craft that has gone into it comes together and the film suddenly floors you with a great wallop of emotion. This wallop is all the more affecting because it isn’t quite clear what the emotions consist of, or what exactly has provoked them. It is though a dizzying mix of euphoria and melancholy
It’s a marvellous surprise when you first see it, because for most of its length you can’t see what all the fuss was about. Repeat viewings are more precarious pleasures, uncertainly waiting to see if it can still deliver that knockout blow. Rest assured, it can, it most certainly can.
