Babette's Feast Movie Quotes
Martine
[after learning Babette spent 10,000 francs on the dinner]
Now you'll be poor for the rest of your life.
Babette
An artist is never poor.
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
Mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another. Man, in his weakness and shortsightedness believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risks he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when our eyes are opened and we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions. And lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we even get back what we rejected. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another.
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Babette
Throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me the chance to do my very best.
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
[last words to Martina]
I have been with you every day of my life. Tell me you know that.
Martine
Yes, I know it.
General Lorens Löwenhielm
You must also know that I shall be with you every day that is granted to me from now on. Every evening I shall sit down to dine with you. Not with my body, which is of no importance, but with my soul. Because this evening I have learned, my dear, that in this beautiful world of ours, all things are possible.
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[last lines]
Filippa
But this is not the end, Babette. I feel for certain that this is not the end. In paradise you will be the great artist God meant you to be... Ah, how you will enchant the angels!
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
Can the sum of a row of victories over many years be defeat?
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
One day in Paris, after I'd won a riding competition, some French officers invited me out to dine at one of the city's finest restaurants, the Café Anglais. The chef, surprisingly enough, was a woman. We were served cailles en sarcophage, a dish of her own creation. General Galliffet, our host for the evening, explained that this woman, this head chef, had the ability to transform a dinner into a kind of love affair, a love affair that made no distinction between bodily appetite and spiritual appetite.
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[first lines]
[in Danish, using English subtitles]
Narrator
In this remote spot there once lived two sisters who were both past the first flush of youth. They had been christened Martina and Philippa after Martin Luther and his friend Philipp Melanchton. They spent all their time and almost all their small income on good works.
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Achille Papin
The Emperor will come to hear you, and so will the modest seamstress. You have enough talent to distract the rich and to comfort the poor.
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Narrator
As young girls, the beauty of Martine and Filippa had been extraordinary, like that of flowering fruit trees. They were never seen at balls or parties, and the young men went to church in hope of seeing them.
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Babette
I have a favor to ask, ladies.
Martine
Certainly, Babette.
Filippa
Sit down, Babette.
Babette
I'd like to prepare the celebration dinner for the pastor's birthday by myself.
Martine
But dear Babette, we didn't intend to give a dinner party. My sister and I were thinking of a modest supper followed by a cup of coffee.
Filippa
You know we've never offered our guests anything more.
Babette
I'd like to prepare a French dinner.
Martine
A French dinner?
Filippa
A French dinner?
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
This is quite definitely real turtle soup. And what a turtle soup!
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Babette
Papin understood that.
Filippa
Achille Papin?
Babette
Yes. He'd say, "Through all the world there goes on long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost."
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Martine
We meant no harm. Filippa and I merely wanted to grant Babette's wish. We had no idea where it might lead. And now we've exposed ourselves to dangerous forces that may bring evil upon us. I can't even tell you what you may be given to eat and drink.
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Filippa
[singing]
Oh, watch the day hurry off once again, As the sun sinks into the western sea, The time for us to rest approaches, Oh God, you who dwell, In heavenly light, Who reign on high in heaven's hall, Be our infinite light in the valley of night, The sand in our hourglass will soon run out, The day is conquered by the night, The glories of the world are ending, So brief their day, So swift their flight, God, my your brightness never dim, Nor mercy's door be closed to man.
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
Amazing! An amontillado! And the finest amontillado I've ever tasted!
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Babette
After the coffee, in the small glasses. And light the candles in the sitting room.
Erik - Serving Boy
[reading the label on the bottle]
Vie-ux Marc feened champagne.
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Narrator
In the pastor's flock, earthly love and marriage were considered of scant worth and merely empty illusion.
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Pastor
In this calling of mine, my two daughters are my right and left hands. Would you deprive me of them?
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Young Lt. Lorens Löwenhielm
I am going away forever - and I shall never, never see you again. For I have learned here that life is hard and cruel and that in this world there are things that are - impossible.
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Swedish Lieutenant
Lorens, how can a lieutenant of the Hussars let himself be defeated and disarmed by...
Young Lt. Lorens Löwenhielm
By some long-faced sectarians who can't even afford salt for their soup? I can't forget the image of that lovely maiden.
Swedish Lieutenant
You're a dreamer, Lorens.
Young Lt. Lorens Löwenhielm
But I'd prefer to be like you. I will forget all that happened on the west coast. From now I shall look forward, not backward. I will think of nothing buy my career and someday I will cut a brilliant figure in the great, wide world.
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Filippa
Surely that's not wine?
Babette
It's a Clos de Vougeot 1845! From Chez Philippe on rue Montorgeuil.
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General Lorens Löwenhielm
This is Blinis Demidoff! And this most certainly is Veuve Clicquot 1860!
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Martine
Oh, how often I think of my father now. I feel he's looking down and watching his daughters use his home for a witches' sabbath!
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Martine
Well, it had to happen. The Lord gave...
Filippa
And the Lord took away.
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Narrator
At this very moment, he had a mighty vision of a higher and purer life, without creditors' letters or parental lectures... and with a gentle angel at his side.
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Filippa
Martine, I'm worried about this.
Martine
I'm not too happy about this French dinner either.
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[repeated line]
Christopher
Hallelujah!
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