Isak Dinesen's Babette's Feast (1952) | Book and Film Review

A reflection on Isak Dinesen's "Babette's Feast" and its adaptation to film (Babettes gæstebud, 1987, directed by Gabriel Axel), which received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and is on the Vatican's list of great films. With this video I inaugurate a new series, "From the Page to the Screen," which focuses on cinematic adaptations of literary works. This video also continues an old series of mine that explores the films included on the Vatican's list of great movies. Spoiler alert: this video reveals aspects of the plot of both the written text and the film, so I recommend experiencing them before watching the video. Contents: 00:00 – Big changes 00:33 – Continuing an old series and beginning a new one 01:44 – Isak Dinesen's short story 03:11 – Plot and characters 04:48 – Themes 06:12 – Parallels with a famous novella 07:12 – Criticism about "Babette's Feast" 08:07 – A story about language 08:59 – Gabriel Axel's film 10:31 – Babette and Stéphane Audran 13:47 – Adaptation: from the page to the screen 16:22 – The ending (spoiler alert) 19:15 – The Academy Award 20:03 – The Vatican's list of great films and Pope Francis 21:33 – Bottom line 22:30 – A remake (?) and further watching