Brand new 2-disc Criterion collection edition featuring newly updated English subtitles for this Academy Award winner Best Foreign Film category. The case has a couple of tiny minor endentations on the back upper right. The blu-ray is Out Of Print (OOP) and no longer being manufactured.

Begining in the mid-1800s, the film spans decades, touching down with its characters at three seperate times.

The first period is when its main duo, daughters of a preacher in a remote Danish village, are young women. Martine and Filippa are denied suitors by their pious father, who sees their denial of the flesh as extensions of his own work. Both have opportunities for great romance, but both turn away from the possibility. For Martine, it is an attraction between herself and Lowenhielm, back when he was just a lieutenant; for Filippa, it's when a visiting singer hears her beautiful voice and tries to lure her away to a life onstage.

It's actually this singer that causes Babette to enter the sisters' lives. Years later, after their father has passed away, he sends the distraught widow to their shores for refuge. Though they can't afford to pay her, she stays on and joins their family, serving them for more than ten years, living on their bland mushy food while becoming a bright spot in the drab village.

The soltitude provides her with solace, and Babette is getting along just fine when she recieves word that she has won the lottery back in France. The sisters fear that now she has become a woman of means, she will leave them and return to her homeland. This concern is only encouraged when Babette announces that she'd like to splurge on a real French dinner for the village. Is it a farewell gift?

The elaborate meal affords her the opportunity to practice her craft. For her, cooking is an art form, and just as the preacher expresses his spirit through sermons or the singer through song, the chef expresses herself through her food. Adding to the metaphor, the feast takes place on the birthday of the girls' deceased father, so the village partakes in tribute to him--despite their private protestations that it may be a sin to enjoy such decadence.

They will eat to honor Babette, but they will refuse to enjoy it in honor of their late pastor. Naturally, this will be easier said than done, particularly as Lowenheilm has returned to visit for the first time since he left. Now a man of rank and experience, the General acts as a kind of teacher or guide, demonstrating how to appreciate Babette's cooking in full. By the final course, the diners are satiated, and the feast has served to bring them closer together.