The Danish/French Babette’s Feast is based on a story by Isak Dinesen, also the source of the very different Out of Africa (1985).
Stephane Audran plays Babette, a 19th century Parisian political refugee who seeks shelter in a rough Danish coastal town.
Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel), the elderly daughters of the town’s long-dead minister, take Babette in.
As revealed in flashback, Philippa and Martina were once beautiful young women (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup), who’d forsaken their chances at romance and fame, taking hollow refuge in religion. Babette holds a secret that may very well allow the older ladies to have a second chance at life.
This is one of the great movies about food, but there are way too many surprises in Babette’s Feast to allow us to reveal anything else at this point (except that Ingmar Bergman “regulars” Bibi Andersson and Jarl Kulle have significant cameo roles). -- allmovie guide
Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, New York, Toronto, Telluride, London, San Francisco
About this movie
Title: Babette's Feast | Babettes gæstebud (1987)
Directed by: Gabriel Axel
Date of birth: 18 April 1918, Aarhus, Denmark
Writing credits: Karen Blixen, Gabriel Axel
Music: Per Noergaard
Year: 1987
Country: Denmark
Language: Danish | Swedish | French
Color: Color
Runtime: 102 min.