- Information at Internet Movie Database
- "Images of God in the Movies," Andrew M. Greeley, Journal of Religion and Film, 1997.
- "Babbette's Feast: A Religious Film," Wendy M. Wright, Journal of Religion and Film, 1997.
"Kierkegaard at Babbette’s Feast: The Return to the Finite," Jean Schuler, Journal of Religion and Film, 1997.
Review, Matthew Prins, TheFilmForum: Christian Conversation about the Movies.
Themes:
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Call
- inviting the town to the meal - the varied responses.
- Conversion
- The change in character/attitude in the guests during the meal.
- Emmaus Road
- I reckon the wonderful "Babette's Feast" is worth mentioning in the context of Jesus' making himself known in the Breaking of the Bread. It's a great allegory of the one who gives all for those who have despised him, and who "turns them from enemies into friends", and the encounter of the "Emmaus Road Two" is as good as any story to connect with the movie. (submitted by John Stephenson)
- Eucharist/Communion
- pastor's memorial banquet seats 12, creates reconciled relationships among community.
- Babbette gives everything she has and serves the banquet for the 12. "Babbette herself is clearly a Christ-image, coming mysteriously and humbly to live with the community, taking on the role of a servant, finally giving all she has to provide a banquet in which the most profound longings of the heart are answered and hungers filled. Wine is poured out in excess. Bread quite literally mirrors manna in the desert. The specialty dish of the Cafe Anglais, which is the centerpiece of Babbette's meal, is a dish named "quail in a sarcophagus." Quail being a form of manna and sarcophagus meaning "flesh-eater," the film makes illusion to Jesus' discourse in John, "I am the bread of life . . . this is the manna that comes down from heaven . . . if you do not eat of the flesh of the Son of Man you will not have life . . . " ("Babbette's Feast: A Religious Film," Wendy M. Wright, Journal of Religion and Film, 1997.)
- Female Christ Figures
- Babbette sacrifices herself in order to feed and bring grace.
- Generosity
- Grace
- Babbette's banquet as a metaphor for the grace of God to each of us.
- Sacrifice
- Babbette sacrifices self/fortune for meal
- sacrifices two sisters make for each other.
- Surrender to the Divine
- community surrenders to the gift of grace and reconciliation given through the feast
- Trinity
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I think that Babbette's Feast demonstrates the Trinity better than any film I've seen. In the dinner a feast is given in honor of the Father. The servant is not seated but serving (the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve . . .) from the Kitchen - Babbette. The General is the Holy Spirit. He explains the Father and the Son. He quotes the Father and explains the significance of the meal and has only one reference point to compare it with -- the love feast back in Paris. Jesus said that the Spirit would remind us of everything Jesus taught us. And he came not to testify of himself, but of the one who sent him. (Steve Felton)
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