Babette’s Feast (1987): The Best French Meal You Ever Saw

 

“Quite definitely, this is genuine turtle soup.  Slurp. It is truly the best Turtle Soup I’ve had in years.”  Slurp-slurp.  This Danish film will awaken your taste buds and leave you dreaming of genuine Turtle Soup and Clos de Vougeot 1845, for many sleepless weeks.  The film is a feast for all senses.

I once wrote a very long film analysis comparing the film, Babette’s Feast (1987) with the book by Isak Dinesen.  I had to re-watch it multiple times, I mean really watch it on VHS because that was the only version I could track down after hunting through every library in the county.  Despite the whizzing of video rewinding, I’d watch it again with anyone who doesn’t mind sitting through a very slow, deeply moving, work of art, with sub-titles.

“General Galliffet, who was our host for the evening, explained that this woman, this head chef had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair— a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite.” But you have to watch it understand.

GIFF’S | HERASYED