Gabriel Axel

Born in Aarhus, Denmark, on 18 April 1918,{{cite book|author=Karin Mørch|title=Gabriels gæstebud|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvqAevpoa30C&pg=PA19|year=2008|publisher=Gyldendal A/S|language=da|isbn=978-87-02-06775-0|pages=19–}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.information.dk/157998|title=Halv franskmand, halv dansker, hel ildsjæl|work=Information|date=17 April 2008 }} 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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ePUDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA41|title=Billboard|date=3 January 1948|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|pages=41–|issn=0006-2510}}{{cite book|title=Billboard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfUiAQAAMAAJ|date=September 1949|publisher=Billboard Publications}}{{cite book|author=Ove Holger Krak|title=Kraks blå bog|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MYY3AAAAMAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Krak.|isbn=9788772251820|language=da}}

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.{{cite book|author=Michel Lécureur|title=Marcel Ayme|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XpcAAAAMAAJ|date=1 January 1997|publisher=Les Belles Lettres/Archimbaud|language=fr|isbn=978-2-251-44107-8|page=134}}{{cite book|title=Cahiers Jean Giraudoux|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fa1cAAAAMAAJ|year=1981|publisher=B. Grasset|language=fr|page=231}}{{cite book|title=Perspektiv|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sQLkAAAAMAAJ|year=1954|publisher=H. Reitzel|language=da|page=51}}{{cite book|author=Harald Engberg|title=Dansk teater i halvtredserne|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KN9AAQAAIAAJ|year=1958|publisher=Carit Andersen forl.|language=da|page=63}} Axel started directing for television in 1951, and, from 1951 to 1968, did some 48 television dramas.{{cite book|first=Morten|last=Piil|title=Danske filmskuespillere: 525 portrætter|publisher=Gyldendal|year=2003|isbn=978-87-02-02104-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uTfvg7es7VQC&pg=SL2-PA25|language=da|access-date=19 February 2018|page=SL2-PA25}}

From 1955, Axel was a director at Nordisk Film.{{cite book|author=J. R. Keith Keller|title=Karen Blixen og filmen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTLkAAAAMAAJ|date=1 January 1999|publisher=Aschehoug|language=da|isbn=978-87-11-11311-0|page=147}} 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.{{cite book|author1=Mette Hjort|author2=Ib Bondebjerg|title=The Danish Directors: Dialogues on a Contemporary National Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdn-Q6DUbBgC&pg=PT58|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Intellect Books|isbn=978-1-84150-841-2|pages=58–}}{{cite book|author=Birger Langkjær|title=Realismen i dansk film|year=2012|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b4SWzwYVgA0C&pg=PA152|publisher=Samfundslitteratur|language=da|isbn=978-87-593-1598-9|pages=152–}}

He went on to direct a string of lighter comedies and farces before making the epic Nordic saga The Red Mantle in 1967,{{cite book|author=Roger Ebert|title=Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews--1967-2007|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v43dJNPMJIkC&pg=PA311|date=15 June 2009|publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing|isbn=978-0-7407-9217-5|pages=311–}} 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.{{cite book|title=Danish Films|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sjUIAQAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Danish Film Institute|page=18}}{{cite web|url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2762/year/1967.html|title=Festival de Cannes: Hagbard and Signe|access-date=8 March 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}} 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.{{cite book|author=Ib Bondebjerg|title=Virkelighedsbilleder: den moderne danske dokumentarfilm|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGR0iGbfA4EC&pg=PA195|year=2012|publisher=Samfundslitteratur|language=da|isbn=978-87-593-1629-0|pages=195–}}{{cite web|url=http://www.information.dk/487684|title=Dansk films seje overlever|work=Information|date=11 February 2014 }}

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, {{Interlanguage link multi|Les Colonnes du ciel|fr}} (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.{{cite book|author=Leonard Maltin|title=Leonard Maltin's 2014 Movie Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sfw2AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT148|date=3 September 2013|publisher=Penguin Group US|isbn=978-1-101-60955-2|pages=148–}}{{cite book|author1=Maaike de Haardt|author2=Anne-Marie Korte|title=Common Bodies: Everyday Practices, Gender and Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YuU4avqzPoIC&pg=PA20|year=2002|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-5578-9|pages=20–}}

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).{{Cite web|url=https://www.ekkofilm.dk/artikler/gabriel-axel-er-dod/|title=Gabriel Axel er død|website=www.ekkofilm.dk}}{{cite book|title=Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae4QqlUDt9wC&pg=PA66|date=31 August 2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-5524-3|pages=66–}}{{cite book|author=Francisco Lafarga|title=Le XVIIIe siècle aujourd'hui. Présences, lectures et réécritures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_p3K-i5MqEC&pg=PA131|publisher=Editions Le Manuscrit|language=fr|isbn=978-2-304-23419-0|pages=131–}}{{Cite web|url=https://ugeavisen.dk/|title=Ugeavisen.dk → Din indgang til alle ugeaviserne under Jysk Fynske Medier | Ugeavisen.dk|website=ugeavisen.dk}}

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.{{cite news| last=Boas| first=Kirsten| title=Gabriel Axel hædret med Frankrigs fineste orden| work=Kristeligt Dagblad| date=18 October 2003| url=https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/kirke-tro/gabriel-axel-hædret-med-frankrigs-fineste-orden| language=da| access-date=19 February 2018}} In 2003, Axel received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/people-news/babettes-feast-director-gabriel-axel-dead-at-95-1201096161/|title='Babette's Feast' Director Gabriel Axel Dead At 95|work=Variety|date=10 February 2014 }} In 2012 he received the Rungstedlund Award.{{cite web|url=http://blixen.dk/en/rooms-and-the-building/the-rungstedlund-foundation/|title=THE RUNGSTEDLUND FOUNDATION|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226051956/http://blixen.dk/en/rooms-and-the-building/the-rungstedlund-foundation/|archive-date=26 December 2014|df=dmy-all}}

Axel died in his sleep on 9 February 2014 at the age of 95.{{cite web|url=http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Kultur/Oevrig_kultur/2014/02/10/060934.htm|title=Filminstruktøren Gabriel Axel er død|access-date=10 February 2014|work=Danmarks Radio|date=10 February 2014 }}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{IMDb name|name=Gabriel Axel|id=0002196}}
• {{Danish National Filmography name|381}}

{{Gabriel Axel}}

{{AcademyAwardBestForeignLanguageFilm 1981–2000}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Axel, Gabriel}}

Category:1918 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:20th-century Danish male actors

Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Category:Danish film directors

Category:Danish male screenwriters

Category:Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners

Category:Filmmakers who won the Best Foreign Language Film BAFTA Award

Category:Male actors from Aarhus

Category:Recipients of the Legion of Honour

Category:Writers from Aarhus