Babette's Feast

Yesterday I watched an Oscar Award winning French film, Babette’s Feast. There are many aspects I could elaborate about the movie. For a starter, this movie is about simplicity and choices people make in life. Two protestant daughters of a minister in an isolated and sleepy village on an island feed the old of the village. The young women who are obedient, humble and self-effacing are very beautiful and endowed with talents like singing among others.


Two men come into their lives but for a brief time. Though the women do not overly indulge due to the upbringing of their father who doesn’t think much of earthly love and marriage, they have an inkling it is not all wrong but eventually give up their little impulse that could have changed their lives. They make peace with it. It is this peace they make that is so ubiquitously subtle in the movie yet so noticeable.


The protestant sisters are very pious and docile and always fostering the old community with hymns to God, to always sustain their gratitude that all bread and shelter comes from God who has mercy. In strike contrast are the two [possibly] catholic men who come into their lives. They are ambitious and believe in glorifying God in this life. Although this does not come out so clearly, it is very evident in their shock when the women aren’t willing to pursue their gifts or return their love.


And so enters Babette, another possibly catholic woman, who by turn of some events has lost her family in France and wishes to only work or serve the two old sisters. The protestant sisters are very humbled by the earnestness and labor of Babette. Babette takes care of all their needs and even more with a touch of love. So much so, the sisters realize that they have saved more money since Babette arrived.


And then one day Babette wins a lottery awarding her Ten thousand francs, enough to last her a lifetime and the sisters are sad that Babette will soon leave. Babette does make her intention clear but asks the sisters, a chance to prepare a French dinner in honor of the memory of their father whose 100th death anniversary is soon approaching. The sisters are initially reluctant but later agree.


And this is the place where the movie really reaches its fulfillment or should I say unleashes what the move is really about, Babette’s Feast. This is where Babette is really revealed to the world. The French dinner is something I haver never seen in my life but I am certain I would have wanted to be an ‘invite’ on that table. No wonder people say French cuisine is an art. Babette single handedly prepares a French dinner equivalent to trouncing an army alone. And she does it with a serene humility. The General, one of the dinners’ invite say it is a dinner that is capable of being turned into a love affair. The movie sees many of the old bickering men and women reconcile and love each other when they realize how they have been loved and touched by the beauty of God’s creation, food and human will to love. The songs continue, the dinner too and each one has a story to share.


This movie also explores or visits perhaps subtly the old misconception that Catholics do good works to earn their salvation. Papin writes to the protestant sisters how great they could have been but still will be when they enchant the angels in Heaven with their voice. The protestant sisters agree in the end, that many things in life cannot be pursued, many talents cannot be showcased or nurtured, often you have to leave it all to choose the better portion and it is then that God cares and always loves by his grace.


For the sisters, Babette was God’s grace and in the end, it reaffirms the saving power of Grace. Watch this movie simply to know how personal success hardly matters if one has not learned to love and our choices always bias us by worldly success but real success, the movie repeats again and again is when Truth and Mercy have merged. Some of the characters in the movie discover and preach it, others live it and a few others admit it in the end.