![]() ![]() This registers, unconsciously, as a sin against the spirit, and one is not surprised to hear that, after the pastor’s death, the little circle of believers becomes riven by disputes. ![]() The girls, who are pretty and talented as well as pious, would in the natural course of affairs seek husbands-except that the pastor, who is in other ways not a bad man, claims that he needs them for his ministry, and selfishly drives off their suitors. ![]() The tale takes us into the milieu of a little Scandinavian fishing village toward the end of the nineteenth century, where a widowed pastor, aided by his two daughters, Martine and Philippa (christened, we are piquantly told, “after Martin Luther and his friend Philipp Melanchthon”), has set up an informal religious network devoted to hymn singing and local works of charity. There isn’t as much pruning to do as there is with a novel, so that, other things being equal, there is a fairer chance of the cinematic outcome being faithful to the spirit of the original. On the whole, stories are easier to adapt for cinema than novels: their quality of succinctness seems to expand rather naturally into the running time of the average art-house movie. ![]() The movie Babette’s Feast (1987) is adapted from a short story by the famous Danish writer Karen Blixen (1885–1962), who wrote under the pen name of Isak Dinesen. ![]()
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