| RATING: | 100% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
[Babette’s Feast]
Brilliantly-understated critique of those pious melancholics who claim that Christian fundamentalism is true Christianity because they believe goodness is merely a case of not doing bad rather than of actively doing good.
Such pious mystics believe in the salvation through self denial that leads only to celibacy and regret for what might have been. Instead, they simply deny the existence of physical pleasures by simply talking as if they do not exist when they plainly do. This explains their essentially one note emotional repertoire that the actors convey well. Stéphane AUDRAN, Bodil KJER and Birgitte FEDERSPIEL are luminous; easily carrying the film up to satisfy its numinous ambitions.
However, the main characters meet their match in Babette who teaches them through her self to unite faith with passion; body with soul; spirit with flesh through the food she presents them one evening. Offered as both a thank you for their hospitality & sanctuary and as one last expression of her vocation as chef de cuisine.
The style is slow and thoughtful and the archetypal characterisation serves the theme of living life to the full very well. The presentation of food is mouth-watering and it is very easy to be carried away with the sheer sensual pleasure of eating. Soul-food indeed.
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