Babettes gæstebud (1987)

The French cook of two pious elderly sisters conjures up a lavish banquet in this funny, touching and mouthwatering fable about faith, missed opportunities and the good things in life.
Adapted with great sensitivity and invention from Isak Dinesen’s short story (itself inspired by The Tempest), this truly lovely tale of everyday passion, magic and miracles is a delicacy to savour. Relocating the story from a bourgeois Norwegian port to a remote, windswept Jutland hamlet so steeped in Lutheran spirituality it feels like something out of a Dreyer film, Axel traces the strange chain of events that led to the two elderly daughters of a famously pious pastor taking on, as their cook, a Parisienne who was until the advent of the Commune one of the city’s most celebrated chefs. At once poignant and funny, gently ironic and quietly compassionate, the story – beautifully performed by all concerned (some faces are familiar from Dreyer and Bergman), but most especially by Audran, clearly relishing her role as a gastronomic wizard – casts its spell carefully yet confidently, culminating in the titular banquet: improbable, mouthwatering, supremely regenerative. A serenely joyous hymn to human creativity, all sorts of love and the small glories of life on earth.
1987 Denmark
Directed by
Gabriel Axel
Produced by
Just Betzer, Bo Christensen
Written by
Gabriel Axel
Featuring
Ghita Nørby, Stéphane Audran, Bodil Kjer
Running time
103 minutes