[Film Review]: Babette's Feast (1987)

*aku tulis untuk memenuhi tugas mata kuliah sejarah. dengan bahasa inggris yang masih jelek.

“An artist is never poor”

First of all , i recommend you to watch this film without empty stomach. Because i bet that you will salivating over the food, it means you’re gonna miss the point. “Babette’s feast” is a film by Gabriel Axel was first release in 1987 which is based on a short story by Danish author Karen Blixen. For me “Babette’s feast” is little bit kind of religious film. Because it reminds me of The Last Supper of Jesus with his twelve disciples. And so much Christian symbols in this film.

It sets in the second half of the 19th century on Denmark’s remote Jutand coast, in a small fishing village. Most of the villagers are a fervent Protestant pastor who lived with his two gorgeous daughters, Martina and Philippa. It shows us that their entire lives have been shaped by their religious convictions. You can see by how the way they pray, worship and conduct their affairs within the context of their faith. The two daughters has a beloved suitor, and they turns them down because of his father religious vision that the wordly concerns were not valued, therefore they never married (and never educated?). The suitor are Lorenz as a young officer and Papin as a famous French opera star who has been vacationing on the Jutland coast.

After their fathers’s death, the two young women slip into unmarried middle age, doing on the pastor’s work with saintly dedication. To feed  poor. And one day, in a stormy night, Babette knocks at their door house, bring a letter from Papin who has recommend Babette to ask the sisters (Martina and Philippa) for help, because there’s a civil war in french that year. Of course, the sisters accept her offer with pleasure. Then, Babette become their unpaid servant for cleans, washes, sews and cooks the split cod and ale bread that were the villager’s staple diet.

The death of the Pastor has affect the villagers to become more often quarrelling each other and split by old revenges and jealousies. There is a scene when the villagers start quarelling, and at the same time they start to sing a hymn “Jerusalem, my heart’s true home” which is recall the pastor’s eschatological vision of a world transformed but fail to kindle the former devotion and zeal.  The sisters plan a simple feast for honoring 100th birthday of their father. And Babette offer them to preparing the feast with french meal and willing to bear the cost because she’s just won 10.000 francs in the French lottery. Eventually, the sisters allow her to prepare.

Babette proceeds to order from the Paris supplies the likes of which the sisters never tasted, never dreamed. Such as wines, live-quail and turtle. To see Barbette cooks like torturing the living things, Martina and Philippa begin to fear that something akin to a witches Sabbath is about to take place and they fearfully alert the rest of the disciples. All agree that they will attend the dinner without comment anything about Babette’s cook, as if they had no sense of taste. Two other guests, they are Lorenz and his aunt did not know about this agreement.

Babette is immersed in the astonishing, sensuous and elaborate preparations for her meal. The guests arrive, their somber, otherworldly dress and demeanor in high contrast to the sumptuous table set before them. Lorenz alone, unaware of the group's strategy to remain disengaged, is overwhelmed by the exquisite fare which unfolds in magnificence before them, course by course and liquor by liquor. He speaks of a famous Parisian chef, a woman, who in the years before the civil war, was fabled for her culinary artistry. She had made dining a love affair in which there was no distinction between the spiritual and other appetites. Surely, the general remarks, these delicacies are the very ones he had savored at the fabled Cafe Anglais.

Finally, the gusets are warmed by fine meal by what Babette’s prepareing for. The guests begin to respond each other. Old revenges and sins are forgiven.  Lorenz, told the deceased Pastor’s words, aknowledges the reality of a wolrd illuminated by love. The guests going home one by one. And make a circle and dance spontaneously as an grateful expression to God. Inside, the sisters thank Babette for her feast and learn that she was the fabled chef of the Cafe Anglais and that she will not be returning to her French again for she has spent her entire lottery winnings on the meal. With Martine and Philippa aghast, she explains that she had given everything not simply for them but because within each artist's soul is the cry to be given the chance to be the best they can be. Philippa, speaking the words Papin had spoken to her, promises that in paradise Babette will be the great artist God intended her to be.

The first minutes of the film voices raised in song: "Jerusalem, my heart's true home ..." its the most fundamental Christian symbolism comes into play. Jerusalem, as the image of a transfigured world where at the end of time, all the deepest human hopes and longings will be fulfilled. And Babette who comes mysteriously to live with the villagers, and taking on the role of servant, then finally giving all of her got to them is like a reflection or image of resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then, Ale bread as a staple diet for villagers is a symbol of Christiant too. In bible, jesus once said that ‘He is a bread of life’. Then. we can see in every church when the Christiant pray, the pastor will give a ‘thin bread’ for them, its the same what Jesus did when He gave people bread and fish in the desert. And also wine,  Most of Jesus parables were about vineyards. He used wine, wineskins, vines and winepresses to illustrate spiritual points. His fisrt miracle was turning water ini wine, isn't He? Gallons and gallons of the best wine for a party.

The appearance of Lorenz and Papin are symbols of secularism who has open minded for looking at things. Its different with the villagers who has concervative minded then it leads the villagers to prejudice for what Babette do with the meal. The things of the soul for them are paramount and soul and body are clearly demarcated. Romantic love, fine foods, aesthetic indulgence, high office and achievement are considered as negligible, even as sinister lures. This world is a passing place in which ultimate salvation is assured through the practice of works of charity, the restraint of "worldly" desires and constant vigilance against temptation.

Why this film reminds me of The Last Supper? Because the last scene of this film is the pastor’s memorial becomes a symbol of The Last Supper. Then, we can see how much people whose attend at the table, ya, they are twelve. Its the same with the number of people in ‘The Last Supper’ painting by Leonardo Da Vinci. The villagers proceed to recall the days of their early inspiration, when their Pastor was with them and life was filled with promise and miracle. Then the supper begins in earnest with Babette in the kitchen, supplying a meal her guests scarcely have eyes to see or tongues to taste. But gradually as they are fed, they awaken to the miracle taking place in their midst. That miracle resides not only in the food itself but becomes embodied in each other. Not only are the sins of their past mutually forgiven, these past lapses are seen in a new transfigured light.