Over the holiday season I’ll be sharing streaming recommendations for movies for when you want to feel festive but not necessarily Christmassy, and also for Christmas movies that you may not have heard of before. Today: one of the former.
And as my holiday gift to you, if you become a paying Substack subscriber by December 31st, you’ll get 50% off your first year.
I recently had the very great pleasure of seeing the 1987 Danish film Babette’s Feast — Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film for that year — for the first time, and on a big screen to boot. What a sublime delight!
Based on a story by Isak Dinesen (aka Karen von Blixen, of Out of Africa fame), this is a gentle tale of sacrifice and giving that is very much in tune with both the story of Christ and the gustatory joys of the Christmas season. Many years after an austere religious community in 19th-century Denmark took in Babette (Stéphane Audran), a refugee from strife-ridden France, she ploughs an unexpected financial windfall into a tremendous multi-course gourmet meal she will prepare to thank her benefactors… and her secret past, now revealed, ensures she has the skills to pull it off.
The fulfillment Babette takes in giving is very much greater than that of her diners, who are almost to a one suspicious of all sensual pleasures, including those of the table… though one man is fully cognizant of the enormous treat he is being made privilege to. If you’re of any sort of foodie bent, you will also recognize — and drool to see — the sumptuous repast Babette serves.
US: stream on Max (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: stream on Curzon via Prime; rent on Curzon Home Cinema; rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
See Babette’s Feast at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
