Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast (1987)

Babettes gæstebud

Artistic, sensual and sacred passions unite in Babette's Feast.

A French housekeeper with a mysterious past brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late 19th century Denmark.

Date of release
1987-08-11
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (460)
Runtime
1h 44m
Genres
Drama, History, Comedy
Director
Gabriel Axel

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: Babette's Feast
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 2. Including: Academy Award for Best International Feature Film; BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language

Babette's Feast is a 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. The screenplay, written by Axel, was based on the 1958 story by Isak Dinesen. It was produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen and Benni Korzen, with funding from the Danish Film Institute. It stars Stéphane Audran, Birgitte Federspiel, and Bodil Kjer.

Production

Blixen's original story takes place in a Norwegian village called Berlevåg, which coincidentally shares its name with the port village of Berlevåg, which has multi-coloured wooden houses on a long fjord. However, when Axel researched locations in Norway, he found the settings were too idyllic and resembled a "beautiful tourist brochure".

Axel altered the setting from a ship-filled harbor to fishermen's rowboats on a beach. He said the changes would highlight Blixen's vision of Babette's life in near complete exile.

There is a lot that works in writing, but when translated to pictures, it doesn't give at all the same impression or feeling. All the changes I undertook, I did to actually be faithful to Karen Blixen. – Gabriel Axel

The Nordisk Film production company suggested the cast of Babette's Feast should include only Danish actors to reduce production costs. However, Axel wanted Danish, Swedish and French actors to play the roles for the sake of authenticity. Axel was supported by the Danish Film Institute's consultant, Claes Kastholm Hansen, who also agreed the cast should include international stars.

Two other major parts were the characters of the elderly maiden sisters, Phillipa and Martine. Phillipa, the once-promising singer, was portrayed by Bodil Kjer, considered the first lady of Danish theater and namesake of the Bodil Award. Birgitte Federspiel, best known for Carl Dreyer's 1955 classic film Ordet, was cast as the staid, lovelorn Martine.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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