BABETTE'S FEAST
A film review by Ben Hoffman
Copyright 1997 Ben Hoffman
In Denmark, a short story by Isak Dinesen is turned into an enchanting film.
BABETTE'S FEAST is a delight. The story itself is nothing much and doesn't even sound as if it would be anything one would care to make into a film. But the beauty is what's wrapped around the story and the characters in it.
Set in an isolated little. windswept village in Denmark, the residents are kept alive by their unquestioning belief in God. There are 2 elderly spinster sisters ("just past their youthful bloom") who, when their minister father dies, become the center of the spiritual community.
Babette, a Frenchwoman, leaves France where there is civil unrest, for Denmark. She is taken in as a maid and helper by the 2 sisters. For the 100th birthday of their deceased father, the sisters decide to give a nice dinner to about a dozen of their church friends. .and they allow Babette to make the dinner. As she has just come into some money she also insists on paying for the food. How that wonderfully funny feast transforms the town is the story.
You are warned not to go to the movie while hungry.
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Ben Hoffman
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