665 Babette's Feast

[swo17]

Babette's Feast



At once a rousing paean to artistic creation, a delicate evocation of divine grace, and the ultimate film about food, the Oscar-winning Babette's Feast is a deeply beloved cinematic treasure. Directed by Gabriel Axel and adapted from a story by Isak Dinesen, this is the layered tale of a French housekeeper with a mysterious past who brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late nineteenth-century Denmark. Babette's Feast combines earthiness and reverence in an indescribably moving depiction of pleasure that goes to your head like fine champagne.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 2K digital film restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New interview with actor Stéphane Audran
• Karen Blixen: Storyteller, a 1995 documentary about the author of the film's source story, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen
• New visual essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
• New interview with sociologist Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson about the significance of cuisine in French culture
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu and Dinesen's 1950 story

[britcom68]

Amazed that Criterion seems to be optimistic about the lawsuit status and have annouced this. Along with Stanley Tucci's "Big Night," Babette's Feast has to be my favorite film where cuisine is both a labor of love for the filmmakers and an ever-present character in its own right as a plot-point.

I hope that Criterion will update its listing of Babette though, so far they have no announced any subtitles, and this film dearly needs some improvement from the old MGM dvd release where the subtitles do not even match the dubbing in several key scenes. Has Criterion ever released a mainline spine-numbered title that was entirely filmed in foreign, ahem, make that non-English, language without including optional English subtitles? Would Criterion even keep the original MGM release of Babette with optional English dubing? (I did not care for the tone of the dubbing job, but at times it was more acurate than the English subtitles on the dvd.)

I hope the interviews and documentary discuss the Orson Welles hour-long TV movie of another Karen Blixen short story, Immortal Story and his incomplete film of Blixen's The Dreamers.

[krnash]

I hope that Criterion will update its listing of Babette though, so far they have no announced any subtitles, and this film dearly needs some improvement from the old MGM dvd release where the subtitles do not even match the dubbing in several key scenes. Has Criterion ever released a mainline spine-numbered title that was entirely filmed in foreign, ahem, make that non-English, language without including optional English subtitles?

That seems unlikely to the point of silliness. I'm sure you can count on English subtitles for this release in America.

I cannot believe they're able to go through with this, but I'll be snatching this up the second it comes out at B&N. It's a downright masterpiece, a perfect realization of the interconnectedness of all arts as well as all senses. Truly a one-of-a-kind film that merits a blind buy from any member of this forum that hasn't yet seen it.

[Jeff]

It makes sense for them to go ahead and release it quickly as long as there is no injunction preventing it. They'll pay the royalties to the producer that they licensed it from, and if the director wins his suit, the producer will theoretically be forced to transfer those royalties and the license to him. If they're this far along in production, it would be crazy to cancel it now. Even if they're forced to discontinue it at some point, they might as well recoup some of their investment while the thing is tied up in the courts.

[britcom68]

On Criterion Hulu, they posted The Immortal Story about a year ago. If they do not add the Welles TV movie as an extra film to Babette (like The Report came with Certified Copy) when will Criterion ever release this title to dvd/Blu? It would be perfect alongside Babette.
Here's hoping that when Criterion updates the Babette page to include some subtitles that they remember to add Welles' The Immortal Story as well- it's possible, we didn't get the announcement that The Report was coming at the same time Certified Copy was officially announced. "Please sir, I want some more Welles!"

[aox]

Additionally, this is also timely as it is Pope Francis' favorite film.

[med]

britcom, you've twice now mentioned subtitles in relation to this film and I'm still not sure what you're getting at. I know you said this:

Has Criterion ever released a mainline spine-numbered title that was entirely filmed in foreign, ahem, make that non-English, language without including optional English subtitles?

but I think it's strange that you think a U.S.-based home-video company would release a movie in a language that isn't English without English-language subtitles.

[britcom68]

britcom, you've twice now mentioned subtitles in relation to this film and I'm still not sure what you're getting at. I know you said this:

Has Criterion ever released a mainline spine-numbered title that was entirely filmed in foreign, ahem, make that non-English, language without including optional English subtitles?

but I think it's strange that you think a U.S.-based home-video company would release a movie in a language that isn't English without English-language subtitles.

I don't think it's strange at all, for those of us that have to rely on subtitles daily, not just for the optional enhanced entertainment experience of not wanting to miss a single word of dialouge, but for our impaired hearing, it has always been an issue of whether or not to buy a film based almost solely on the inclusion, or lack of inclusion, of subtitles. Criterion has a good track record generally, but at the same time, it is note-worthy that Babette's Feast original OOP dvd has such middling subtitle and dubbing-track inconsistencies it makes watching the film a guessing game for someone like me unless I watch the film with the shooting script in my hands. If a company as dedicated to presenting films as best they can like Criterion can't resolve the language barrier for this film, I won't be able to buy it, no matter how much I want to considering how beautiful this film is. Subtitles are not life and death for a film fan, but it is rather like having perfect vision and suddenly watching a film while color-blind without your 3D glasses- no matter how much you like the film or want to like it, we always miss something.

[TMDaines]

I can't tell if you're being serious or trolling: of course, it is going to have English subtitles. When was the last time any major label in Britain or America released a non-English film without subtitles (and DVD authoring errors don't count)?

[Matt]

I think the question this person is asking is not if the DVD will have English subtitles but if the English subtitles will match the dub track word for word. My guess is probably not. Subtitles are nearly always an approximation of the spoken dialogue, almost never a precise word-for-word translation. There just isn't enough space on the screen for that, and subtitles need to appear on the screen long enough to be read (people typically hear much faster than they read) and not cover up too much of the image.

Criterion doesn't appear to be including the dub track (which itself is probably only an approximation of the original dialogue), so it's a moot issue. Their subtitles will probably be an improvement over any previous English-subtitled release, but they surely won't account for every single word of dialogue, original or dubbed. If you're that much of a stickler for precision and can't hear the dialogue clearly, reading along with the shooting script in the original language(s) seems like the only way you'll be satisfied. Or you could just try to watch the movie as it is and enjoy it.

[TMDaines]

I think the question this person is asking is not if the DVD will have English subtitles but if the English subtitles will match the dub track word for word. My guess is probably not. Subtitles are nearly always an approximation of the spoken dialogue, almost never a precise word-for-word translation. There just isn't enough space on the screen for that, and subtitles need to appear on the screen long enough to be read (people typically hear much faster than they read) and not cover up too much of the image.

I understand now, but surely you mean "transcription" if we're referring to English audio and English subtitles simply replicating it?

[Matt]

I meant generally to refer to English subtitles that translate non-English dialogue, but was not quite clear enough about it. Your point is quite valid and seems to reflect what this poster is requesting of Criterion.

[zedz]

I think in most cases you're going to just be trading off different sets of compromises if you're comparing a dub script with subtitles. Subtitles will summarise and abbreviate so that they're legible and fit the available reading time on screen, but a dub track (in most cases) will be fiddled around with so that the words roughly match the lip movements of the actors. If the ideal translation of a three syllable line of dialogue is a sentence of ten words, subtitles should be able to handle it easily, but the dub track will probably have to find some much terser paraphrase. But if somebody's talking a mile a minute, the dub track can go with the flow whereas the subtitlers will be tearing their hair out and filleting the exchanges ruthlessly.

[manicsounds]

BlurayDefinition review

[Drucker]

DVD Beaver.

[martin]

The documentary Gabriels verden ("Gabriel's World") made by Gabriel Axel's daughter would have been a nice addition. It features a great interview with Chabrol who liked Babette's Feast very much, and, obviously, also liked the use of food in the film. Although he did question one of the recipes (hilariously so)!

They didn't cheat with the food in the film though: It was the real thing prepared by a master chef. I once got the recipes exactly as used in the film from someone at the Karen Blixen museum.

There was some debate in a Danish paper about the colors of the DVD release from Nordisk Film. Both Gabriel Axel and cinematographer Henning Kristiansen were critical of the colors. One article had the headline "Contempt for the audience". The CC and AE blu-rays are quite different color-wise. It would be great to hear Axel's view, but that's not possible anymore. But they're both too bright, I think. But I'm not going to moan too much; it's great to have another BD version of this great film. Christian Braad Thomsen's film about Blixen, Storyteller, is a great bonus, btw!

[MichaelB]

It would be great to hear Axel's view, but that's not possible anymore.

Why? He's still alive.

[martin]

I somehow thought he'd passed away Sorry about that. There's a scan of one of the articles, I was talking about here (in Danish).

[zedz]

Probably because he was very recently mentioned in our "filmmakers who are, like, really, really, really old" thread, which is easily mistaken for the obituary column.

[Flanell]

I'm sitting here and watching the Blu-ray and had to stop because of all these wierd "fishnet" patterns that keep showing up during some of the scenes (basically outdoor scenes connected to the village). For example around the 0.59.30 mark. I have read the reviews on this site, Blu-ray.com and Beaver and nobody makes any mention of this. Has anybody else noticed this? I'm watching on a Panasonic GT50Y/Oppo BDP-103 combo.

[MichaelB]

I'm sitting here and watching the Blu-ray and had to stop because of all these wierd "fishnet" patterns that keep showing up during some of the scenes (basically outdoor scenes connected to the village). For example around the 0.59.30 mark. I have read the reviews on this site, Blu-ray.com and Beaver and nobody makes any mention of this. Has anybody else noticed this? I'm watching on a Panasonic GT50Y/Oppo BDP-103 combo.

Yes, I see what you mean - it's very faint, but becomes more overt when the camera is panning. It must be inherent in the original materials (I can't see how the transfer could be to blame), but I don't have an alternative edition for comparison purposes.

[swo17]

Didn't Marnie have a similar issue? I mean, in addition to all the other issues it had.

[Flanell]

I was thinking about Marnie (or whichever Hitchcock movie it was) as well when i saw it. Strange that no reviewer has mentioned this, as i feel that it is very significant (now that i know that it's not only me, based on Michael B's comment) even if it's in the source material. I wonder if Artificial Eyes release has the same problem.

[Moe Dickstein]

if it's a net they shot with it's not a problem, you're just seeing the original photography

[Flanell]

Ok. I don't know that much about cinematograpy, but why use a net and what would the effect look like? I mean should it really be visible or is it the transition to a digital medium that makes it more apparent than it really should.