Babette's feast
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Babette's feast |
| Original title | Babettes gæstebud |
| Country of production | Denmark |
| original language |
Danish Swedish French |
| Publishing year | 1987 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gabriel Axel |
| script | Gabriel Axel Karen Blixen (novella) |
| production |
Just Betzer Bo Christensen |
| music | Per Nørgård |
| camera | Henning Kristiansen |
| cut | Finn Henriksen |
| occupation | |
| |
Babettes Fest is a Danish film from 1987 based on Karen Blixen's novella Babettes Gastmahl (original title: Babettes gæstebud ). The director was Gabriel Axel , who also wrote the script. The main roles were played by Stéphane Audran , Birgitte Federspiel and Bodil Kjer . The film has won several awards, including the Oscar for best foreign language film.
action
The two sisters Martina and Philippa are considered the most beautiful girls in a small Jutland fishing village in 19th century Denmark. Her father, the pastor of the village, is the founder of a pietistic convent . He gave the siblings the feminine forms of the first names of his role models Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon and raised them to be pious, humble and celibate people. However, the mood in the community is marked by dissatisfaction and sometimes open conflicts.
The young officer Lorens Löwenhjelm, who was sent to his aunt near the village for educational purposes because of high gambling debts, falls in love with Martina - without this love being expressed by him or her. He leaves the village with deep sorrow in his heart, but knows how to use the introduction to piety to his reputation and his career. Philippa is also being courted; the French opera singer Achille Papin, who is in the village for a cure, gives her singing lessons with the consent of her father and recognizes in her voice the potential for a career on the opera stage. But when she notices his affection, she shrinks back and breaks off the class. Papin returns to France disappointed.
After the death of their father, Martina and Philippa take over the household and ensure the cohesion of the community. In 1872, the French woman Babette Harsant arrives in the village with a letter from Achille Papin asking the sisters to host and employ Babette, who fled the bloody suppression of the revolution by General Galliffet . Babette is supposed to do the kitchen work and is carefully instructed on how to handle stockfish and how to cook bread soup. In private, however, the food gradually increases in taste and quality, and because Babette negotiates tenaciously and skillfully with the merchant and fishmongers, enriches the menu by collecting herbs, even to the surprise of the sisters, the household budget is spared.
Fourteen years later - Babette has now settled into the village community - she wins 10,000 francs in a French lottery and could now return to her homeland.
Babette asks the sisters to be able to host a French-style feast to commemorate the pastor's 100th birthday. She would like to express her thanks for the hospitality of the sisters and the village community. She has the ingredients specially sourced from France. Little by little, a large live turtle, a cage full of quail, a huge ox head, a stick of ice cream and various other ingredients are delivered. Worried about the preparations and especially the wine deliveries, the sisters and guests decide to accept the invitation, but - in order to remain true to their simple, godly way of life - to meet the temptation of these worldly delights with iron silence and not to praise Babette's cooking skills.
During the feast, the villagers eat the food, outwardly unimpressed. Martina's former admirer Lorens Löwenhjelm, who is currently visiting his old aunt and has now made a career as a general, is invited. As a man of the world, he recognizes the exceptional quality of the food and praises the meal. Only once in his life had he seen a meal of this perfection, and that was in a Parisian restaurant hosted by General Galliffet; the cook there was a woman. She would have given the menus the character of a romantic love affair, where one could no longer distinguish between mind and body. His speech at the table is full of biblical quotations because mercy and truth meet, justice and joy kiss each other (according to Psalm 85:11). The other guests, who also had pious memories of the pastor during the table conversations, become one with the cook's love feast as their alcohol consumption increases, reconciliations and love scenes ensue.
After the party, Babette explains to the two stunned sisters that she financed the cost of this meal with all of her profits; Because that's how much a meal for twelve people in a top restaurant in Paris, where she was the head chef. She wants to continue to live in the community of the two sisters who have so graciously welcomed her. She wouldn't know anyone in Paris anymore.
The fixed menu
The menu in the film was developed by Jan Cocotte-Pedersen, head chef at Copenhagen's La Cocotte restaurant, based on the novella.
- Turtle soup
- Blini Demidoff with black caviar
- Quail in a sarcophagus with foie gras and Perigourdine sauce (truffle sauce)
- Baba au rhum with freshly glazed fruit salad and a fruit platter with pineapple, figs, Charentais melons , dates and white and blue grapes.
Amontillado is served with the meal , and only the general, who can hardly trust his tongue, notices which top wine and which top vintage is served here. On instructions from Babette, everyone receives only one glass, only the general receives refills as soon as the glass is empty. This is followed by Clos Vougeot , champagne, namely Veuve Cliquot , which the pious Pietists can drink with a clear conscience, since they consider the sparkling drink for lemonade and therefore harmless. With coffee, Marc de Champagne is served in tiny glasses , which the guests at the table take with pleasure and in the most cheerful mood.
Production background
Philippa and Achille Papin, played by the French opera singer Jean-Philippe Lafont , sing together in the film the duet Là ci darem la mano from Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . The well-known Danish opera singer Tina Kiberg can be heard as the singing voice of Philippa , the actual actress Hanne Stensgaard was dubbed for this. The clothes of Babette in the film were designed by Karl Lagerfeld , who tailored the clothes of the fashion-conscious Stéphane Audran in over 30 films.
synchronization
The dubbed version for Babette's party was made for the German cinema premiere.
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Babette Harsant | Stéphane Audran | Marie-Paule Ragheb |
| General Lorens Löwenhjelm | Jarl Kulle (old) / Gudmar Wivesson (young) | Randolf Kronberg (both) |
reception
The film premiered in May 1987 at the Cannes Film Festival , followed by its Danish theatrical release on August 28, 1987. On March 4, 1988, the film also opened in the United States, where it was praised by film critics and grossed over four million US dollars. The German theatrical release was on December 8, 1988.
The film was received positively by French critics and later broadcast several times on German-language television. It has been released on video and DVD .
Reviews
The film magazine VideoWoche praised the film as a “contemplative, calm drama”, as a “cinematic masterpiece” and as a “feast for the eyes that delights the discerning audience”. The French Stephane Audran delivers a brilliant performance.
Andreas Kilb wrote in Die Zeit on December 9, 1988 , that the film has a slowness that one would no longer expect in today's cinema. The festival at the end of the film would then cancel all the stories and bring them together: “Anyone who rejects literary films on principle will also be able to dismiss them with pious truths. But for those who long for the fragile unity of word and image that still sometimes reaches the cinema, the table is set. "
The American film critic Desson Howe wrote in the Washington Post on April 8, 1988 that Gabriel Axel had succeeded in making a "beautiful and unobtrusive" adaptation of the story by Karen Blixen. The end of the film, the feast, is "glorious" (glorious).
Awards
At the Academy Awards in 1988 , Babette's Fest won in the category “ Best Foreign Language Film ” and was able to prevail against Louis Malles Goodbye, Children and Nils Gaup's The Revenge of the Tracker, among others . The following year the film was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category .
The film won the British Academy Film Award in 1989 for "Best Non-English Language Film". He was also nominated in the categories “Best Film”, “Best Director”, “Best Actress” (Stéphane Audran), “Best Adapted Screenplay” and “Best Cinematography”. Stéphane Audran won the Danish Robert Film Award in the category “Best Actress”.
The film received the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award at the first Nordic Film Festival in Rouen , France . The film won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival in 1987 .
In 1995, Babette's Festival was included in the Vatican 's film list, which comprises a total of 45 films that are particularly recommended from the perspective of the Holy See.
Praise in a papal instructional letter
Pope Francis quoted a scene from the film in § 129 of his teaching letter Amoris laetitia of March 19, 2016:
The joy of this contemplative love must be cultivated. Since we are created to love, we know that there is no greater joy than that of a good shared: "Do not fail you the happiness of the day [...] Give a present to your brother and treat yourself too" (Sir 14:14 a .16a). The most intense joys in life arise when one can make others happy, in anticipation of heaven. Remember the successful scene in the film “Babette's Feast”, where the generous cook receives a thankful hug and praise: “How will you delight the angels!” The joy of giving and seeing other pleasure is sweet and invigorating as they enjoy.
This is the first time that a Pope has referred to a movie in a teaching letter.
literature
- Tania Blixen: Babette's party . Translated from the English by WE Süskind. Manesse Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-7175-4034-3
- illustrated edition: Illustrations by Nanna Max Vonessamieh. 176 pages with 20 mostly full-page pencil drawings. Book guild Gutenberg, ISBN 3-7632-5334-3
Web links
- Babette's Feast in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film page on the Danish Film Institute website (Danish)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for Babette's party . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2005 (PDF; test number: 61 043 DVD).
- ↑ The plot of the novella is set in Norway.
- ↑ Aoife McElwain: Movie Bites: Babette's Blini Demidoff au Caviar The Irish Times, August 8, 2014. Retrieved on May 8, 2017
- ↑ Tina Kiberg - Soprano. Retrieved April 11, 2020 (English).
- ↑ Tina Kiberg at the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved April 11, 2020 .
- ↑ FOCUS Online: Obituary for Stephane Audran. Retrieved April 11, 2020 .
- ↑ wilfried hippen: Bauerntöffels Haute Cuisine . In: The daily newspaper: taz . December 10, 1988, ISSN 0931-9085 , p. 27 ( taz.de [accessed on April 11, 2020]).
- ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Babette's feast. Retrieved June 2, 2018 .
- ↑ Cinema for readers: "Babettes Fest": The great meal . In: ZEIT ONLINE . ( zeit.de [accessed on June 2, 2018]).
- ↑ Desson Howe, 'Babette's Feast' , in: Washington Post , April 8, 1988
- ↑ Apostolic Letter Amoris Laetitia (German translation)
- ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/papst-zitiert-in-amoris-laetitia-tania-blixen.265.de.html?drn:news_id=600840