Gabriel Axel Passes On

I love movies about food and its effect on our lives and Gabriel Axel, who passed away today at the age of 95, directed one of the best -- 'Babette's Feast'.

While we prance and primp and make a show of how above it all we feel ourselves to be, thinking nobody notices, the quality of our lives, in fact, hinges on the most basic things, food being primary among them. If our diet is plain our existence, no matter how we strive or pretend, is somewhat tedious, and if what we eat is of excellent quality, daily life, usually, is brightened and more fulfilling.

Movies that have food and its preparation and service at the center of their plot always revolve around this connection, even if it's not obvious. They may seem to be about cooking but they're about us, and our friends and loved ones, and how we carry ourselves through our days.

'Like Water for Chocolate' and 'Big Night', two of my favorites, may appear to be about the meal but, of course, their concern is with the human condition. Such films come along rarely and have a way of making you appreciate ephemeral nuances, and compel a person to elevate even mundane things like the preparation of food to a higher level, at least for a while. 'Babette's Feast' is certainly another such film. Here's a clip that, slowly but surely -- like a good meal perhaps -- charms, wins us over.



About sucking the brain from the quail's head, the NYT obit included this:

In producing the feast of the film’s title, he recalled, professional chefs prepared over 100 stuffed quails before he completed shooting the dinner for 12. Some birds lost their photogenic beauty under the hot lights and had to be replaced. Others were discarded because actors refused to suck the brains from the quails’ heads, as the script required. 

Since it was essential that characters “crushed by pain” be shown coming “alive to love” as a result of real culinary pleasure, he said, he ordered the chefs on the set to prepare substitute brains made from marzipan.

That, somehow, both diminishes the magic of the clip, yet enhances it -- like knowing the chef's secrets. Here's to Gabriel Axel and the classic grace of his movies.