Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

A Brilliant Conflict

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

I remember grabbing this thing from the foreign film section at the local Blockbuster, seeing the accolades on the DVD cover, reading the captions on the back of the box, reading the plot summary, grinning, and then renting it.Well, "The French Lieutenant's Woman" it ain't. As like a lot of foreign films out of the 80s it was meant for a 40+ and older crowd. And not to sound too cliché nor to put to fine a point on it, but I got that. And yet when I watched it I was not drawn into the story in the least.The concept of how French cuisine can curb and soften the Danish religious moral fiber, to me, is boring in concept and execution. And boy did this film deliver on both.If you're going to make this kind of movie, and hope that accolades heaped on it will not be from a kind of incestuous older crowd of film critics, then you do need to *ahem* "spice up the film", so to speak (pun intended). Babette was not dynamic in the least. The villagers were cliché inbred small town types, only with European heritage. And the grand finale at the end was typical of so called high minded art for the masses (read that as poor story concept dressed up as finely shot film and fobbed off as great art). And when I saw the big buildup to the grand finale, I just stared at the screen with a cool level gaze, wondering how anybody raised the cash to shoot this thing.Breaking religious taboos with food is interesting on paper, but this is the kind of concept that needs a short made of it first so that it can be developed. Because as it stands now it's the proverbial boring foreign (French/Danish) film. And sure enough, when it was over, I think I popped in Star Trek II the Wrath of Kahn or possibly a Kurosawa samurai actioner. Babbette's cooking didn't agree with me.Shots of food being made, inane conversations between the characters, an amount of intrigue that simply is unbelievable about a single Gallic female cook, and of course, the actual meal itself whereupon religious notions and taboos are busted wide open (allegedly).Do your brain a favor and rent something else.

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.

If I had to create a shortlist of my favorite films of all time, "Babette's Feast" would be among them. It is simply sublime. The story, the screenplay, the setting, the actors, their performances -- everything about this film is A-One.This film is a love story to Scandinavia, France, love, friendship, patience and loyalty. But, mostly, it is an homage to really, really good cooking, and how a single meal can transport and transform the human soul.I watched "Babette's Feast" a few weeks ago, and it has really stood the test of time. It's just a beautifully filmed, acted, scripted and staged piece of art.

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!