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Babette's Feast Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 40 Reviews)

5-Star Meal, 5-Star Cinema
The feast of the title doesn't take place until well into the film. In fact, the majority of the film is spent telling the story of 2 godly sisters and the choices they made in life. Both sisters passed up true love and the promise of success in order to remain faithful to their religious beliefs. Instead they pass their lives assisting their minister father and carry on his work after his death. They continue their quiet lives past mid-life until one of the sisters' former suitors sends them a Parisian refugee, Babette. Babette spends 14 years with the sisters as cook, her only link to her former life being a lottery ticket that a friend in Paris renews for her every year. One day she wins the lottery and decides to use the money to prepare a sumptous dinner for the sisters and their small congregation. More than just an epicurean delight the feast is an outpouring of Babette's gratitude.

If the plot sounds thin, be assured it's anything but. The story is as rich and satisfying as the feast Babette prepares. We see the delicate romances that develop for each sister and understand their reasons for turning their suitors away. We see the lives the sisters, and their men, have led after making their decision. The feast comes at a time when the sisters are asking themselves questions that they never voice: Did they make the right decision all those years ago? Was it worth it? Reassurance comes in an unexpected and exquisitely romanitc way.

This film is such a wonderful example of what happens when filmmakers are interested in telling a good story and telling it well. It doesn't follow a 'formula' or cater to a demographic and is a perfect example of why independent and foreign films are so much more satisfying than Hollywood movies.

Gourmet cinema
Finely mounted, adapted, and acted.
Two elderly sisters live on an island, their entire lives having been devoted to religious piety and serving the community. An exiled French woman arrives and introduces finer cooking which unwittingly carry social and spiritual implications in the conservative and spartan setting. The movie is most remarkable when it counterpoises the dignity of spiritual propreity with the glory of sensual delight. The obvious thing would have been to ridicule the elder ladies as priggish, but the films opts for subtlety, sensitivity, and understanding.

" I HAVE NO MORE MONEY"
When you hear those words your heart immediately begins to melt. what is Grace? An unmerited favor. Babette gave ALL she had to bring joy and happiness in the lives of others. Who does that remind you of? Christ? The human mind responds when it is being touched by geniune love. May God help us to love unconditionally in this day and age.

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