|
 |
Babette's Feast
|
by Orion Home Video
Sales Rank: 4388
Price: $19.99
|
|
|
Some movies can only be described as delicious. In <I>Babette's Feast</I>, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner--which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the sensual pleasure of Babette's cooking? <I>Babette's Feast</I> deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope. <I>--Bret Fetzer</I>
Viewer Reviews
Out of boredom,I was changing from channel to channel when I tuned in to the MGM cinema and saw this scene, an austere but beautiful young woman was being taught a French song by an amorous French voice coach. The woman's voice was heavenly, the setting was in an drab cottage. It gripped my attention and I saw the whole film without knowing what it was. At the end credits, the principal actress was identified, Stephanie Audran, and the costumes were by Karl Lagerfield, so I realized that it must have been a big production rather than a never heard and forever obscure movie.
The story goes on to the young woman's delicately refusing the overtures of the coach and his advise for her to go to Paris to be the opera sensation of the city. For such a heavenly voice, it would have been logical that she accepts, but she goes to her father and sister and tells them that she wants to discontinue her studies. She is deeply commited to her religion and life in the bleak village.
After, a young French woman arives, with a letter of introduction from her former vocal coach, it is Babette and she is fleeing disturbances in France. She is willing to work as the cook sans wages for the 2 sisters, whose father, the Protestant minister has already died. She is accepted by the 2 spinsters and taught how to cook simple Nordic dishes. She is shown how to pick a dried fish from a rack, salt it, immerse it in water and boil it. Babette's face is inscrutable. Next, she is shown how to prepare the bread to thicken the soup by breaking stale pieces and boiling them in broth.
The next scene is 14 years after, and Babette hasn't aged, though the sisters have-placidly, I suppose due to their religious peace while Babette's preservation is due to her French style. Babette receives a notice that she has won a lottery in Paris and before she goes back, she asks the sisters if she could prepare a French dinner for the small community. At this time, the community is rife with strife, the usual small town bickerings. It would be Main st. if they didn't speak in Danish. The sisters are helpless in guiding them.
Babette comes back with crystals and porcelain, quails and a live turtle, herbs and sugar. The sisters are shocked, such extravagance for the senses can only be the devil's work. They tell the community about their fears and ask them, for Babette's sake to partake but to be silent. A social star, a retired Swedish general is accidentally invited. In this case, he is the food and wine critic of the movie. Babette is continuosly in the kitchen slaving for the guests who are bewildered by the dishes served. The general is amazed and when the quail comes pronounces it as something he tasted in the Cafe Anglais in Paris and was created by a woman chef. The dish's title, quail in a sarcophagus. Slowly, the congregation appreciates the feast and are warmed by the wine, amontillado, champagne. When the meal ends, the general is romantically nostalgic and the querulous congregation files out in harmony and beatifically.
Babette confesses that she can no longer go back to Paris for she has spent all her winnings for the feast. A dinner for 12 at the Cafe Anglais is 10,000 francs. She is the former chef. And so she remains, a drudge in a bleak Scandinavian village.
I though that it must have been taken from a short story by Guy de Maupassant. The simple tale, the bitter sweet ending. Weren't they all foolishness? The woman with the heavenly voice, wasted in the sarchopagus of the village, Babette forever toiling to a routine and preparing boiled fish.
Back To Top
|
Babette's Feast
Available from Amazon
|
|
NOTICE: All product prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
Copyright © 2009, Dominant Systems Corporation
info@HowlingVideo.com
Privacy Policy
Last Modified : 1-7-2009
|
