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Babbette's Feast
(1987)
- 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:
-
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
-
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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