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Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast

1987
Drama, Music
1h 43m
19th Century Joy of Cooking. Babette is a French cook that flees from her home to Danish village. Fun, let alone the joy of food, is not part of village until Babette starts cooking. (DuaneNeitzel)
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Babette's Feast

1987
Drama, Music
1h 43m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 63.48% from 579 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(579)
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Rated 07 Feb 2007
62
20th
Not awful, but predictable and unsatisfying. Chocolat might be something of a rip-off of this film, but I find it much more charming and likable. The dominant feeling I had during Babette's Feast was that it lacked authenticity. Everything felt staged and predestined, and the period recreation didn't ring true either. The photography was pretty, but only in a postcard sort of way. Also, some of the dishes Babette prepares look truly vile.
Rated 21 Oct 2007
82
69th
The film's arc leads the viewer toward a fuller embrace of human life, one that includes both spiritual and material aspects. Set in the context of a Christian community, Babette's final meal serves as something like a Eucharistic rite, bringing the people together into a unified community and leading them to better embody their spiritual ideals. Overall, the narrative is a bit too pat and the visuals offer nothing remarkable, but the underlying idea motivating the film is still compelling.
Rated 09 Aug 2010
93
91st
A celebration of art and the artist, but also an autumnal meditation on the nature of life itself, how--although we seldom get what we desire--we often receive compensation for our losses in strange, marvelous ways.
Rated 19 Apr 2015
11
12th
Garbage. Watched with my mom, whose tastes are -questionable,- to say the least. It's ok, Mom! Also, IMDb says, "the favorite film of Pope Francis." Me, I prefer "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover," but, you know. Whatever floats your boat, Pope guy.
Rated 11 Dec 2007
38
14th
Good lord is this a slow movie. Perhaps it was trying to truly convey the slow life in a slow town in a slow society, but why torture your viewers? Also, it is all too easy to question the climax and why the characters do what they do--but the picture frustratingly asks none of the questions the viewer is dying to have it ask. This results in an ultimately unsatisfying production that is hard to recommend.
Rated 04 Dec 2010
48
5th
Makeup is fantastic at aging the characters, but that's about all the praise I can give this. It's not often that a film can be both a sprawling mess as well as utterly simplistic and mundane, but this film manages it by taking paper thin characters, doing nothing with them, and cutting up the sequencing of events. It drags everywhere and it doesn't even seem to have a purpose.
Rated 09 Sep 2012
82
58th
What is the relationship between spirituality and fleshly pleasure?
Rated 28 Dec 2012
77
86th
How I could have missed this classic for so long time is beyond belief. But the Danish Oscar winner is every bit as compelling and beautifully made as one could have hoped for. Not as touching as the following Oscar winner, Peller erobreren, though.
Rated 26 Mar 2017
99
99th
I thoroughly enjoyed the casual pacing, felt it complimented well both the story, which satisfyingly weaves together past events to culminate in the titular feast, but also the quiet out of the way town where its set and the plain steadfast characters who populate it. The period was excellently brought to life by the set and costume design. The feast itself looked amazing and was peppered with such amazing quiet subtle dry humor i absolutely loved it. Nice touching ending
Rated 02 Jun 2007
90
86th
Probably the best of the food films. (No, that's not a joke. This actually is really good)
Rated 14 Aug 2007
86
72nd
19th Century Joy of Cooking. Babette is a French cook that flees from her home to Danish village. Fun, let alone the joy of food, is not part of village until Babette starts cooking.
Rated 18 Apr 2008
60
55th
Babettes gæstebud
Rated 23 Sep 2008
73
60th
nice
Rated 30 Nov 2008
84
64th
The opulent, sensual dinner scene at the end clashes with the grim danish austerity that permeates the rest of the film - I find this whole atmospheric stuff very well rendered. I agree that some of the dishes look "truly vile" as I've read in another comment here, some of them hurting my animal-friendly sensibilities (turtle soup, for one), but it's part of the movie experience that I try not to look at it that way (hell, this is no 'Cannibal Holocaust' after all...)
Rated 11 Nov 2009
40
71st
The storytelling during the "how" parts gets mired in prolonged flashbacks, and turns for help to an intrusive and overly necessary narrator. It affords you, through all of that, plenty of time to wish anew that there were an accepted format for cinematic works shorter than feature-length. But the feast itself and the buildup to it are ample rewards for toughing it out.
Rated 06 Mar 2010
70
57th
Reassuring, satiating piety.
Rated 03 Nov 2012
90
96th
A good meal can be a work of art. A true feast for the eyes.
Rated 10 Mar 2013
80
79th
I didn't think I'd enjoy this as much as I did. The first half is rather stilted and possibly a bit lost in translation. But seeing the people find joy through good food and good booze was heartwarming.
Rated 14 Apr 2013
80
78th
A charming tale of humanity's need to embrace both sensual and spiritual pleasures.
Rated 10 Dec 2014
40
19th
The production values are high, but the movie is SUPER-uninteresting.
Rated 30 Mar 2015
76
68th
All those green eyes... felt almost like Dune. Pretty good for a movie about cooking, life and stars. Have a taste of 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' (1989) - a great vintage.
Rated 11 Apr 2015
80
71st
A foolish, intoxicating experience. Per Nørgårds music is used very scarcely and to an enormous effect. Frankly, I felt that it and the wonderful cinematography were the only aspects preventing the first half of falling into utter banality.
Rated 12 Apr 2015
74
32nd
Not badly made but boring and draggy.
Rated 16 Jan 2016
93
88th
The feast, as depicted, is a tribute to both spiritual and humanist impulses. There is a lot to think about when one considers the stark beliefs of the puritans, the self-denial, and the appreciation that comes from an amazing experience made possible by the generosity of your neighbours.
Rated 22 Jan 2016
77
80th
Will make you hungry
Rated 22 Oct 2016
100
50th
Jutlandia and danish village, french cooking, lovely family, intermediate shortcut film intro family. Babettes's Feast, Babette endless cooking ...
Rated 08 Mar 2018
73
39th
Royally peasant
Rated 29 Mar 2018
85
66th
Cozy and warm film in the best sense of the term. Can hardly be compared to anything else, so you will have to watch it to know if you like it.
Rated 29 Sep 2020
85
74th
Beautiful and uplifting. Artistic purpose and the joyous capabilities bring a nice story to the screen.
Rated 03 Sep 2021
4
63rd
Slow to get going but beautiful. Wish the feast could have lasted longer somehow.
Rated 12 Nov 2021
83
82nd
There is something about film that understands food and the power of a meal that is magical. We take for granted the joy of eating when seeing it on a screen and not being able to taste it. But when done right, and boy is this right, the power to unite and squash differences is laid out on the table. All the table setting (sorry) of the first two acts plays out beautifully in Babette's titular meal. Right up there with Big Night and Tampopo for food movies.
Rated 24 Jan 2023
9
84th
A dish best served over a quiet evening, without expectations of technical flourish or dramatic resolution. Paints the quiet intersection between a pious community and its benevolent invader as something to be savored rather than digested.
Rated 12 Mar 2023
38
30th
lmao this is just as bad as Chocolat.
Rated 19 Feb 2024
75
76th
There are undeniable strengths to the film such as assured cinematography and fine acting. There are also glaring editing fumbles, and while a certain amount of intrigue is sustained, I kept wondering what the parable was going to be. I'm still wondering, but all the same that "reassuring, satiating piety" that paulofilmo succinctly describes does feel like a small oasis of some kind. Flawed but I enjoyed it.

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