I should have known better when I saw that the writer of this little opus was Isak Dinesen who wrote "Out of Africa"--a film that I could barely tolerate after the first slow-moving hour in which the scenery was the star, hoping that something would happen to stir my interest.
I had the same feeling when I watched BABETTE'S FEAST. Sure, the bleak, barren landscape was suitably chosen for such a bleak, barren story about two sisters who have denied themselves love in order to stay with their father, a Lutheran minister, until his death in their isolated village. They then are middle-aged and impoverished but take in a woman who needs work as a housekeeper and calls herself Babette (STEPHANE AUDRAN).
She can do everything and they expect she will leave them when she unexpectedly wins the French lottery. Instead of leaving, she returns to the village with a caravan loaded with supplies for cooking a feast to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the minister's death.
And so, for the last segment of the film we see detailed preparations of a meal fit for a king--which is why no one should watch this film on an empty stomach.
But calling this a masterpiece (as some enthusiastic Isak Dinesen fans have) is really overdoing it. The story moves at a snail's pace commensurate with its 19th century setting with quaint manners and morals and seems to be going nowhere for most of the running time. The only mystery is in finding out just who Babette is and why she is so skillful at culinary arts.
And so a short story has been turned into a long, extended film with virtually very little in the way of a plot (and most of it irrelevant to the final feast). This is one of those art house films that never found its audience here in America but apparently has found an appreciative audience among those who've savored French food and enjoy watching Babette's meticulous cooking preparations.
I had the same feeling when I watched BABETTE'S FEAST. Sure, the bleak, barren landscape was suitably chosen for such a bleak, barren story about two sisters who have denied themselves love in order to stay with their father, a Lutheran minister, until his death in their isolated village. They then are middle-aged and impoverished but take in a woman who needs work as a housekeeper and calls herself Babette (STEPHANE AUDRAN).
She can do everything and they expect she will leave them when she unexpectedly wins the French lottery. Instead of leaving, she returns to the village with a caravan loaded with supplies for cooking a feast to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the minister's death.
And so, for the last segment of the film we see detailed preparations of a meal fit for a king--which is why no one should watch this film on an empty stomach.
But calling this a masterpiece (as some enthusiastic Isak Dinesen fans have) is really overdoing it. The story moves at a snail's pace commensurate with its 19th century setting with quaint manners and morals and seems to be going nowhere for most of the running time. The only mystery is in finding out just who Babette is and why she is so skillful at culinary arts.
And so a short story has been turned into a long, extended film with virtually very little in the way of a plot (and most of it irrelevant to the final feast). This is one of those art house films that never found its audience here in America but apparently has found an appreciative audience among those who've savored French food and enjoy watching Babette's meticulous cooking preparations.