Babette's Feast

[bunzooh]

This movie is in my top five favorites. It's a foreign language film, and I think it won the Oscar years ago in that category. It is a sweet movie, about a strict religious sect in Finland or some far north place. The church was founded by a man whom everyone loved, and the teaching was to keep oneself chaste, including not marrying. The world's pleasures were all forbidden.

 

Though they reject the world, sometimes the world comes to them due to their location....for quiet stress-free time, for healing in the calm open spaces of a tiny fishing village. This is how an opera tenor and an officer in the military come thru town, and later the tenor, who knows a French chef that needs refuge, recommends that she run to the village in a time of political trouble.

 

Babette (the French chef) comes upon the two daughters of the founder, who bring her in and hire her as a servant. She brings her expertise with food into this strict, pleasure=sin household, and the whole community enjoys what Babette brings, though they would never admit it.

 

The background of this religion-meets-world story is the dour, stiff, unhappy gathering of believers. They are jealous of each other, and self-righteous under their veneer of fellowship and community. They are all old, too...without marriage, no children come into the community.

 

After many years as their servant, Babette wins the French lottery, to the tune of 10,000 Francs. She asks the sisters permission to create a feast, and they grant it. So Babette heads out, and soon returns with all the ingredients she needs to create an amazing six course gourmet meal. Live sea turtle, live quail, many cases of the finest wine. Delicious plants and herbs, the finest flours and butters, and fresh fruit of all varieties. It all passes before the sisters, as Babette brings it into their kitchen.

 

They begin to worry that this feast is of the devil, and enjoying it will send them straight to hell, so they make a vow with the whole community not to enjoy the feast, no matter what. It is permissible to eat it, but enjoying it is wrong. When the day arrives, the table is laid, wines are poured, and one course after another is brought out for the people to enjoy. (one of the guests is the military officer from back in the day, and his mother who is a member of this little church)...They have made a promise not to discuss the food or remark on it, and just to keep the conversation on things like the weather and other neutral (safe) topics.

 

Well, isn't it something, but as the feast progresses, they begin to get merry. Their hearts open up under the influence of the fine wines and delicacies that have been prepared for them. There is laughter...oops!...and one at a time, those with jealousies and bitterness toward each other begin to express remorse and ask forgiveness. At the end, while Babette and her kitchen helpers finish cleaning up, everyone in the church is gathering around the village fountain, joining hands and singing together.

 

At the end...well, watch and see exactly what it is that Babette has done in preparing this feast. It's absolutely poignant and heart warming. True love in action.

 

I love this story, because it tells how enjoying what is in the world for us to enjoy can break down the harsh walls that people build up around themselves. What a blessing pleasure can be.

[Overcame Faith]

Sounds like a good movie. I checked for it in Netflix and they said it was unavailable for streaming. I hope they make it available for streaming soon.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

I watched it years ago with a Bible study group. Some of them just wanted an action film, which this wasn't. I thought it was marvelous. Tried to watch My Dinner With Andre, but that was right over their heads, so never got to watch it past 15 minutes or so.

[bdp]

Babette's Feast is a beautiful film.