chnutscher Still great on a second view.Well, so to say a comeback to my youth, and make some considerations and recapitulations. I saw this movie 30 years ago and it then made a lasting impression on me, as its generic story remained present. Now, rewatching it today, I'm still impressed how perfectly catching this movie is, it has a kind of hypnotical force where you can't exactly tell why. It's indeed hard to say also today what it really is about. My best interpretation, it is about the sometimes unacknowledged important fact, how powerful imagination, hopes and ambitions are in life, while you still vastly never achieve your goals, in the end. The lookout for the "unreachable" may indeed be more important than the accomplishments.Still impressing movie, as it is quite simplistic, no action, a limited, simple script. it looks like a chamber play put artfully into celluloid, and yet able to transport a lot of poesy.

giorgiogalassi I won't judge the visual quality and atmosphere of the film, which is certainly of good rate. I simply look upon the subject of the story, revolving around two beautiful girls, in the very bloom of their youth and (one imagines) sexual drive and liveliness, ready to embrace life at its full and enjoy freedom, pleasures and adventures, who on the contrary devote themselves to religious longing and prayer and fade away year after year sewing, sighing, singing and hanging out with old folks. I can't imagine any human being not growing insane in these conditions; it is definitely a good subject for a Michael Haneke's film, but to want to work a comedy out of this requires a very partial, not to say obtuse, comprehension of human nature. We often (and wrongly) quote authors like Pinter, Ionesco and Beckett as the representatives of the Theatre of the Absurd: well, we should rather start from this.

Jackson Booth-Millard Featuring in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I knew it was a Danish film I was going to watch no matter what, and it did sound really appealing as I found out more about it. Basically, set in the 19th Century, Denmark, adult sisters Martine (Birgitte Federspiel) and Philippa (Bodil Kjer) are spinsters living with their father, the founder of a strict Christian sect, in an isolated village. They have the opportunity in moments to leave the village and find another good life, but they stay loyal to their father, serving him in his church. Soon enough French refugee Babette Hersant (BAFTA nominated Stéphane Audran) comes knocking at their door begging them to let her stay with them, and serving as their maid, housekeeper and cook to earn her keep. The sisters' father has been dead for some time, and they decide to commemorate the one hundredth year of his birth, and this will see a group of friends invited for dinner, and this gives Babette a great opportunity to prove herself. She implores them to let her prepare the meal that they will eat at this celebration, and they do agree, but secretly they have their concerns for what food she will be serving them, and seeing the preparations of the food worries them as well, such as dead animals being used. They also worry because she is a foreigner that will have different tastes, and while they are Christian she is Catholic, but they let her carry on. It comes to the evening of the feast, and the guests attending are the members of the small church and important gentlemen, including General Lorens Löwenhielm (Jarl Kulle), and they are also relatively unsure what they will think of the food on offer. Babette serves them turtle soup with amontillado (sherry), buckwheat cakes with caviar and sour cream, quail in puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce, a salad featuring Belgian chicory and walnuts in a vinaigrette, "Les Fromages" featuring blue cheese, papaya, figs, grapes, pineapple, and pomegranate, and rum sponge cake with figs and glacéed fruits, with numerous rare wines. The feast is a tremendous success, and it is only afterwards that Babette reveals that she was in fact the famous former Chef of the Café Anglais, but she presumably stays with the sisters instead of returning to Paris. Also starring Jean-Philippe Lafont as Achille Papin, Gudmar Wivesson as Young Lorens Löwenhielm, Bibi Andersson as Svensk Hofdame, Hanne Stensgaard as Young Filippa and Vibeke Hastrup as Young Martine. The acting is relatively good, and it is an interesting enough story, but I will be honest, the best scenes are of course that the feast, the preparations are good viewing, and the guests enjoying the food served makes for a nice result, as it changes all their lives or whatever, all in all it is an entertaining period drama. It won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, it won the BAFTA for Best Film not in the English Language, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Direction for Gabriel Axel, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Very good!

Raoul Duke So I watched the critically acclaimed Babette's feast from 1987. Well is this movie a classic I say a resounding yes. Is it for everyone no! Am I possibly biased because, I like Babette am a true artist in the kitchen. That is possible but what about all the others who love this classic. This movie is about lost love, struggle, loss, religion, dedication, the paths we take, and the choices we make, it is about joy and acceptance, and learning to free oneself to be happy in the presence of a puritan God, all over a kick ass meal. However, most of all this movie is about that "kick ass" greatest meal ever. If transformers was not your favorite movie of the last decade, if you did not have to run to see Sex in the City, if your idea of talent is not Ben Affleck, then run don't walk to your computer and download this flick. Or just do what I did and catch it on satellite one day, but by all means see this film, it is really brilliant. if you like concise reviews of interesting films please read my other reviews at http://raouldukeatthemovies.blogspot.com/