Born in
Aarhus, Denmark, on 18 April 1918, Axel spent most of his childhood in Paris in
a wealthy Danish manufacturer's family In 1935, at age 17 following the
family's economic collapse, he moved to Denmark and trained as a cabinet maker.
In 1942, Axel was admitted to the acting school at the Royal Danish Theatre in
Copenhagen. After graduating in 1945, he returned to France where he spent five
years on stage in Paris, including at the Théâtre de l'Athénée under theatre
director Louis Jouvet. During the winter of 1948–1949 he produced Ludvig
Holberg's Diderich Menschenskraek (Diderich the Terrible) at Théâtre de Paris.
Axel returned
to Denmark in 1950, and broke through as a stage director in the early 1950s.
His productions included La tête des autres (Other People's Heads) by Marcel
Aymé, Le Cid by Pierre Corneille, and Pour Lucrèce by Jean Giraudoux. Axel
started directing for television in 1951, and, from 1951–1968, did some 48
television dramas.
From 1955,
Axel was a director at Nordisk Film. His debut feature, the social-realist
drama Nothing But Trouble (1955), was highly praised, and the breakthrough came
with the TV film A Woman Not Wanted in 1957.
He went on to
direct a string of lighter comedies and farces before making the epic Nordic
saga The Red Mantle in 1967, which was selected for Cannes Film Festival
competition and won a Technical Prize (Mention spéciale du grand prix
technique) at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. His other films include the
popular comedy The Goldcabbage Family (1975) and its sequel, and a series of
sexually oriented features including the campaigning Det kære legetøj (1968)
which advocated the legalisation of pornography in Denmark.
With some 16
feature films to his credits Axel returned to France in 1977, where he directed
several large projects for French television, culminating in 1985 with a
historical five-episode series, Les Colonnes du ciel (Heaven's Pillars).
In 1987, Axel
returned to Denmark to direct what had been his dream project for over 15
years, and is considered his masterpiece, an adaptation of Karen Blixen's
Babette's Feast. After screening at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 60th Academy Awards among
others.
His next
films, the youth drama Christian (1989), the historical drama Prince of Jutland
(1994), after the legend of Prince Amleth, and starring Helen Mirren, Gabriel
Byrne, and Christian Bale, and Leïla (2001), a love story set in Morocco,
failed to achieve the same international resonance.
Alongside his
directing career, Axel acted in a dozen Danish films, mostly in colourful
supporting roles in popular comedies in the 1950s and 60s. He played the lead
as the elegant charlatan Marcel de Sade in The Reluctant Sadist (1967). Axel in
1995, was made a Knight of the French National Order of Merit, in 2000
Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2003 was made Officer of
the Legion of Honour. In 2003, Axel received a Lifetime Achievement Award at
the Copenhagen International Film Festival. In 2012 he received the
Rungstedlund Award.
Axel died in
his sleep on 9 February 2014 at the age of 95.
Films :
Babette's Feast
Produced by : Just Betzer, Bo
Christensen
Benni Korzen, Pernille Siesbye
Screenplay by : Gabriel Axel
Story by : Karen Blixen
Narrated by : Ghita Nørby
Music by : Per Nørgård
Cinematography : Henning
Kristiansen
Edited by : Finn Henriksen
Production company : Nordisk
Film
Release date : 28 August 1987
Running time : 102 minutes
Country : Denmark
Language : Danish, Swedish, French
