Babette's Feast

[Hans Deventer]

Some may know that Philip Yancey starts his book What's So Amazing About Grace? with this story. I watched the movie last night and it was worth it. Suitable for all ages, and truly a story of grace. Recommended!
It is a Danish movie, so it is subtitled, though there are also portions of French in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Babettes-Feast-St%C3%A9phane-Audran/dp/B000053VBK

From the Amazon page:

Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner--which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the pleasure of Babette's cooking? Babette's Feast deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope.

[Hans Deventer]

At the end of the meal, the general stands up and says:

"We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite..... But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it with gratitude."

Yancey continues: Twelve years before, Babette had landed among the graceless ones. Followers of Luther, they had heard sermons on grace nearly every Sunday and the rest of the week tried to earn God's favour with their pieties and renunciations. Grace came to them in the form of a feast, Babette's feast, a meal of a lifetime lavished on those who had in no way earned it, who barely possessed the faculties to receive it. Grace came to Norre Vosburg as it always comes: free of charge, no strings attached, on the house.

[Ryan Scott]

Hmmm. It seems I recall Mike Schutz using this movie as an illustration in chapel at ENC. Now I know he's stolen it from Yancey. And here I thought he was cultured for having stumbled upon the movie all by himself.

[Hans Deventer]

Hmmm. It seems I recall Mike Schutz using this movie as an illustration in chapel at ENC. Now I know he's stolen it from Yancey. And here I thought he was cultured for having stumbled upon the movie all by himself.

Ryan, what do we have that we did not receive? :basic03

[Mike Schutz]

Hmmm. It seems I recall Mike Schutz using this movie as an illustration in chapel at ENC. Now I know he's stolen it from Yancey. And here I thought he was cultured for having stumbled upon the movie all by himself.

No Ryan, I actually did stumble upon it prior to reading Yancey. I saw the movie right after it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.



Perhaps Yancey got it from me. :fav18

[Charles W Christian]

Some may know that Philip Yancey starts his book What's So Amazing About Grace? with this story. I watched the movie last night and it was worth it. Suitable for all ages, and truly a story of grace. Recommended!
It is a Danish movie, so it is subtitled, though there are also portions of French in it.

http://www.amazon.com/Babettes-Feast-St%C3%A9phane-Audran/dp/B000053VBK

From the Amazon page:

Some movies can only be described as delicious. In Babette's Feast, a woman flees the French civil war and lands in a small seacoast village in Denmark, where she comes to work for two spinsters, devout daughters of a puritan minister. After many years, Babette unexpectedly wins a lottery, and decides to create a real French dinner--which leads the sisters to fear for their souls. Joining them for the meal will be a Danish general who, as a young soldier, courted one of the sisters, but she turned him away because of her religion. The village elders all resolve not to enjoy the meal, but can their moral fiber resist the pleasure of Babette's cooking? Babette's Feast deservedly won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This lovely movie is impeccably simple, yet its slender narrative contains a wealth of humor, melancholy, and hope.

I love this movie, Hans! I've seen it four or five times (at least), and I show it to classes I teach, too! I figure many of the students I have won't go and see a foreign language film on their own. Also, it's such a beautful film that it always surprises (and blesses) those who see it.... There have been books and articles written about it, from Christians and non-Christian sources alike.

Thanks for sharing!

Blessings,
Charles

[Ryan Scott]

Perhaps Yancey got it from me.


That makes more sense.

[Ryan Scott]

Wow. I'm not even sure if that last post was sarcastic or not.

[Wanda Van Winkle]

One of a few movies I've watched more than once, on purpose, I discovered it years ago in a video rental store, and have not read Yancey at all, so I guess he must have discovered it like the rest of us :)