Watch Babette's Feast For Free

I love this movie so much

Sick Product of a Sick System

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

When this movie first came out on VHS - remember those? - 29 years ago, I rented it often. I'm not sure why anymore.But what I am sure of, having watched it again tonight, is that this is, indeed, a flawless movie. It is not just the simple but wonderful story, that truly good food and drink, consumed in good company, are one of the transcendent pleasures of life. You have only to watch the general in the movie to see that.It is also a paean to the pleasure of doing what you do very well to your very best, even when no one can truly appreciate it. As Babette says at the end of the movie, an artist takes joy in creating something wonderful.Every little detail of this movie is worked out perfectly. It could easily have been overdone and exaggerated; it never is. It is all perfectly balanced, perfectly tempered. It is, like Babette's feast, a work of art brought off to perfection.Some quiet night when you have no distractions, turn off your cellphone and treat yourself to this feast. You won't gain an ounce, but you will leave the movie totally satisfied.

In a remote 19th Danish century village two sisters lead a rigid life centered around their father, the local minister, and their church. Both had opportunities to leave the village: one could have married a young army officer and the other, a French opera singer.Upon its release in 1987, "Babette's Feast" received overwhelmingly positive reviews. The film won the 1987 Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. It also received the BAFTA Film Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. In Denmark, it won both the Bodil and Robert awards for Best Danish Film of the Year. The film was nominated and/or won several other awards including a Golden Globe nomination, the Grand Prix (Belgian Film Critics Association) award and a Cannes Film Festival special prize.Pope Francis identified "Babette's Feast" as his favorite film. Of all the films out there, this is the one he picked. After the film's release, several restaurants offered recreations of the film's menu. In "The Archers", Jennifer Aldridge hosted a party to celebrate the installation of her new kitchen where the food was inspired by "Babette's Feast".This really is the finest example of modern Danish cinema. We tend to think of Scandinavia as a dark, sad place... few directors are really known internationally from there, besides perhaps Bergman and Dreyer. Today, of course, we have von Trier, but it seems that "Babette's Feast" must have opened a few doors.

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.

As someone who has read the short story by Isak Dineson along with the movie, I agree with many others that this movie is not simply a "foodie flick," but offers a psychological and religious depth perspective on the life of a woman who's lost everything near and dear to her and how she manages to rise above her grievous losses. The book portrays Babette as a dark, formidable presence in the lives of Martina and Philippa. Axel downplays this aspect, but does maintain it in subtle ways. Axel does go beyond Dineson's portrayal by suggesting Babette is a kind of Christ figure. For more on these themes, a simple online search for critical articles about the movie yields many fine writings (see esp. the Journal of Religion and Film and the Carl Jung page).