Luzon, Pauline Adrineth D. | 112374 | 4-BS Health Sciences | 11 July 2014 COM 115.5 | Babette’s Feast: Reflection Paper

Into Babette’s Feast: A Ticket to European Cinema

Whenever a major deadline is met, or a certain exam is aced, I usually find myself indulging in different types of films, depending on what my mood is or who I am with. Most of the time, I watch Japanese animated classics together with my roommates, as if we are reliving our high school memories filled with watching anime and reading manga. There are also times when I join Friday movie hangouts in cinemas, wherein we often watch Hollywood films and later talk about how amazing the action scenes are portrayed or how well-matched the main characters are. Indeed, the usual types of films I subscribe to are those that can divert me away from my heavy academic workload, and sometimes from my social problems - those films that can entertain me without making much of my nerve cells work.

Precisely because I see films as past-time or diversion, I tend not to indulge in the serious, quiet ones like European films. Topped with my lack of interest in European history and culture, I made myself believe that I will not enjoy, let alone appreciate, what a film from this continent can offer. However, watching the Danish film Babette’s Feast, I was literally caught off-guard by its overwhelmingly deep simplicity. Unlike most American films that rely on graphics, special effects, star-studded casts, and flawless execution of scenes, Babettte’s Feast uses heavy dialogues that do not need any background music to keep my attention, and to even keep me anticipating on what events will happen next. The realistic, episodic scenes that are interspersed with symbols allowed me to think, to be engaged with the film in an intellectual, interpretative, and reflective discourse. While American films, referred mostly as movies, are merely meant to hit the box office, European films focuses more on crafting literary works in action.

Babette’s Feast tells the story of Philippa and Martina, pious Christian sisters who live in a small village on Jutland, Denmark. Along with other devout members in the community, they deprived themselves of worldly, sensual pleasures - in the belief that they will attain salvation by leading a life of unhealthy simplicity and unreasonable meagerness. Such simple and puritan way of living, a life full of dreariness and lifelessness, was symbolized by the dried fish in the beginning of the film. Despite these two sisters crossing path with two men who could have potentially shaken their world, Lorens Loewenhielm and Achille Papin, they still chose not to be “devoured” by their earthly desires. As their father instilled in them, both did not marry as they adhere to the belief that earthly love and marriage were just illusions.

Decades later, Babette, a widowed woman struck by the horrors of Civil War in Paris, ended up in the sisters’ doorsteps. Even though it was Achille Papin who sent her to that place, the sisters were at first reluctant to let her in, because they were financially incapable of supporting another person. But upon Babette’s proposal to work as a servant without any wage, the sisters finally agreed. Such entry of Babette into the sisters’ lives, and even into the community, marked the start of the collapse of their world of seclusion and of blind simplicity - a collapse symbolized by the servant’s acts of buying fresh fish (in contrast to dried fish) and putting flavour in their porridge. In addition, Babette’s act of washing the windows from the outside signified an attempt to let the light and beauty of the outside, the sensual world, to enter the “dark interior” of their meager ways.

For around 14 years, Babette faithfully served the household of the elderly sisters, through which she already became an indispensible part of their lives. However, upon winning 10 000 francs in a lottery, she had the means to return to her old, more luxurious life in Paris. As her “first and last request,” she offered to prepare a real French dinner for the 100 th birthday celebration of the sisters’ father, who was the founder of the Christian sect to which they subscribe.

During the dinner itself, Lorens Loewenhielm, now a successful general married to a high-ranking family, made his appearance again. He was a crucial component in the gathering, as he was able to straddle both worlds: the pious, ascetical life in the village and the world beyond it. Aside from Babette, Lorens was the only one who knew what exactly they were partaking during the dinner. He was the only one who vocally expressed his enjoyment of the dinner, in contrast to the others who still adhere to their ascetic principles, thus refusing to acknowledge the pleasure brought upon by the luscious French meal. Signifying a man who had encountered both the sensual and the meager lives, Lorens then triggered the surrender of the devout people to the physical world long abandoned by the devout: “righteousness and bliss will kiss.” As he himself changed, from immense dubiety to receptiveness and understanding of his past, the other people in the dinner also transformed, from being skeptical and unappreciative to ones who embrace their past mistakes and short-sightedness.

Babette, having used up all her winnings on the French dinner for 12, told the sisters that she will remain as a servant in the sisters’ household. In addition, she also admitted that she was the head chef of Café Anglais. When Martina exclaimed that Babette is already poor, the servant responded that “an artist is never poor.” Indeed, she was financially poor, but as she prepared the meal that can be considered the peak of her pursuit of artistic excellence, she was already beyond fulfillment that any amount of money can never grant her. Quoting from Achille Papin, “throughout the world sounds one long cry from the heart of the artist: give me the chance to do my very best.”

With the grand stage set up by all the mishaps and sentiments of the other characters in the film, Babette had successfully created her masterpiece meal. Anyone can see how her art wielded such transformative prowess: the faces enlightened, the hearts converted, the rancor buried, the fellowship restored. Babette’s feast catalyzed the end of their old ways. Such end was symbolized by the candle being snuffed. From a lit candle that represents the pastor’s teachings that they had lived up to and their refusal to embrace the worldly sensations, the film concluded with a snuffed candle, leaving up to the audience’s imagination what exactly start anew from an ending that took place.

Indeed, Babette’s art had a transformative power, evident in the change that took place among the other characters. While at the same time, zooming out to my experience of partaking Babette’s Feast, I also felt the transformative power a European film possesses. Besides its power to make a simple film into a literary masterpiece, Babette’s Feast was successful as well in changing me into a person who can actually enjoy films that weave mysteries, cinemas that draw one to a cycle of thinking and reflecting.