Reflection: Babette's Feast

Reflection: Babette's Feast

Babette's Feast is about two pious aging sisters living an extreme sense of Lutheranism in a small, isolated northern village; their very simple and mundane form of living is challenged when a French civil war refugee, Babette, knocks on their doorstep with a letter from Papin, the world renowned Opera Singer, who in fact was fairly astonished and infatuated by one of the sisters during his initial visit decades ago. The father of the two sisters was a delusional preacher, who believed in the ludicrous idea that for one to attain eternal salvation, one must renounce all physical and sensual pleasure life has to offer them, something that the sisters follow with the most unwavering dedication. Who knew a Stranger from the city could change all that through a 7-course meal.

The film centralized on its most prominent image: Food. No image could better fit comparing the joyless austerity of the Lutheran sect of the sisters, Martine and Philippa to what is coming to them after the dinner celebration than the meals. Before Babette's presence is felt, the village lived a very monotonous, dull and repetitious lifestyle. The sky is gray, the sea even grayer. The sisters sit indoors to eat their usual bowls of dried fish and dull brown mush with the most horrible excuse for bread one has ever seen. As viewers will soon find out, the food is the perfect measuring apparatus of change around the village.

Throughout the film, viewers see the daily fare of dried fish cut in half, hanging just outside the drying racks in the village, a constant reminder of local colorless and predictable existence. The dried fish represented the dull and archaic Lutheranism sect led by Martine and Philippa. The dryness of the fish symbolized the old, conservative and insignificant belief that paradoxically hinders their faith. The dried fishmeal usually served with mush and bread juxtaposes the grand and colorful French dinner Babette has prepared and shows the obvious transcendental occurrence after the meal.

Another significant event was the washing of the windows from the outside. In an aesthetic-seeking gesture that sets her apart from everyone else in the village, she washes the windows of the cottage of the sisters to let the light and beauty of the outside world into the dark interior. It symbolized Babette's disposition and influence on the village, with how she saw and embraced life in contrast to the villagers. Unlike the villager's task of breaking away from physical and sensual pleasure, Babette's view on the matter was the exact opposite, by bringing light into the dark "interior" of the village. Babette was also purposely washing outside the house to show that she was an outsider with different ideals and beliefs. Inside the house were the two sisters, the perfect representation of the absurd belief of the