Babette's Feast (Gabriel Axel 1987)

I love a food movie.  The more elaborate the better.  Slow motion chopping of vegetables.  Elaborate steaming dishes and sometimes just a close up of a glass of bubbly.  I don’t remember how I first found Babette’s Feast (Gabriel Axel, 1987) but once seen, it was hard to forget.  This is a lovely period film that takes place in Denmark in the late 1800s.  Stephane Audran plays Babette, a refugee who takes shelter with the two sisters who are daughters of the small village’s much loved and respected pastor.  What they don’t know is that she is a chef and soon the old and infirm are treated to more than just thin soup and bread.  After a windfall Babette goes back to France to buy ingredients for a multi-course thank you dinner for the kindness that surprises not only the elders but also a mysterious guest.  Lovers of food and quiet period films will be very hungry by the end.

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