Dating - Wine - Lady

[aston]

There is a lovely alternative to Rose; try a Demi-Sec, with something rich and sweet. Gateau Tropezienne would be an amazing accompaniment. She will melt in your arms!!

[Costi]

Nicholas, it is Babette's feast, not the puritans' - although all she does is work and all they do is eat throughout the feast

Or maybe the feast is not the diner a la Francaise itself, but Babette's everyday inner celebration: "An artist is never poor."

She opens the doors of Heaven on Earth to the puritans right where they expected the gates of hell to lie, having buried them under masses of prejudice and misconception. However, had they not been the puritans that they were, the diner may not have turned into a liturgy of the spirit through the delight of the senses, remaining a mere banquet.

I am glad that I caused you to watch it again I, too, testing if the links I had posted worked, watched again the second half of the movie with the same pleasure as before.

[NJS]

Costi, thanks for the above. I did not really mean that I did not follow the point of the film; just that I find the puritans' point of view - their starting place - rather difficult wholly to grasp and I have an inner irritation in trying to grasp it; although, maybe, given the happy outcome, a full empathy with the puritans' starting place is not necessary. Seeing it again, I thought that the scenery was extremely austere and see that it was an especially manufactured one horse town into which the exotic feast caravan was brought.

Nicholas.

[Costi]

Nicholas, I was, of course, not presuming to explain the point of the film to you I was thinking for myself and just putting it in writing (which always creates an interesting feedback loop, because I have to look for words to EXpress my IMpressions and words sometimes enrich - if they do not denature - the initial feeling).
Puritanism relies a lot on SUPpression, no?... hence your irritation, perhaps

[NJS]

Nicholas, I was, of course, not presuming to explain the point of the film to you I was thinking for myself and just putting it in writing (which always creates an interesting feedback loop, because I have to look for words to EXpress my IMpressions and words sometimes enrich - if they do not denature - the initial feeling).
Puritanism relies a lot on SUPpression, no?... hence your irritation, perhaps

I didn't mean that I thought that you were explaining it! I certainly agree that my irritation with the puritan ethic springs from enforced suppression. Generally, this results in sour, censorious, unfriendly and ungenerous people; quite different from those who choose to live a simple (but not rigorously ascetic), life. It amused me that the General was the only one of the guests properly able to appreciate the fare and, apart from his aunt, the only one not sworn to silence in relation to the sinful enjoyment of it. The reactions of the rest had to be judged from their telling expressions!

NJS

[Costi]

Exactly, Nicholas. It was the delight of their senses that won their hearts over.
Strange that the aunt is silent throughout dinner, isn't it? Nobody stops her from speaking. And she is not silent throughout the film. On the contrary, she is the one who, after coffee, feels that the experience had been so complete that all that was left to do was go home, so (beyond etiquette) she gives the end signal. I am tempted to believe that she is enjoying the experience so much that she finds talk would only spoil the pleasure - what do you think?
I find that the general is privileged in one more way than not being sworn to silence: he has memories. To him it is all deja vu - miraculously so in that place.
As for the puritans... it appears that they may succeed in suppressing sinful enjoyment, but they are defenseless to bliss - however it may come!

[NJS]

Costi - The aunt was the one to whom the (now) general had been bundled off in his prodigal youth, to be 'sorted out'; so she is, probably, a puritan too. Your theory on why she calls proceedings to an end is, certainly, a possibility and, also, the fare had run out! The general's memories are shared by the sister whom he had pursued and, despite the fact that he is now married, she goes so far as to entertain his continuing remembrance of their (probably shared) affection; which is, maybe, the most striking thing about it all.

NJS

[Luca]

Costi - I watched Babette again today and it is a great film. Something of it is lost on me because, apart from the 'puritan work ethic' which used to be hammered into young Britons, I do not really understand the puritan 'take'
NJS

I spent many years in the US Midwest. Though obviously nothing as extreme as the 19th century folk depicted in Babette's Feast, I can certainly identify with the concept of people with a love for plainnness, lack of "fancy notions" and an appreciation for extreme simplicity verging on austerity.

[NJS]

Costi - I watched Babette again today and it is a great film. Something of it is lost on me because, apart from the 'puritan work ethic' which used to be hammered into young Britons, I do not really understand the puritan 'take'
NJS

I spent many years in the US Midwest. Though obviously nothing as extreme as the 19th century folk depicted in Babette's Feast, I can certainly identify with the concept of people with a love for plainnness, lack of "fancy notions" and an appreciation for extreme simplicity verging on austerity.

I too have perceived puritanism in action but I can never understand why people are taken-in by it. It is not by Lenten fast or Ramadan (and all their equivalents in abstinence) that we are truly virtuous; it is by cheerful, positive and benevolent action. Often, for 'plainness' we may read 'artlessness'; for 'fancy notions' read 'philosophy', and for 'austerity' read 'sternness and avarice'.

Surely, the point of the film is that Babette's feast shows the ascetic brothers and sisters of the piece that their love exclusively (even obsessively) for plainness and austerity might well be misplaced; since they should be loving each other! The good fellowship generated by good food and drink leads them into a truer path of righteousness, than frightened abstemiousness (resulting from puritanism which, like some other religions and sects grew out of control-freakery).

We can only be generous to others if we know how to be generous in, and to, ourselves: ''Love thy neighbour as thyself'' doesn't have any real and benevolent potential in the case of pisse-vinaigres.

NJS

[Luca]

[Often, for 'plainness' we may read 'artlessness'...
NJS

I tend to agree. I wasn't endorsing an ascetic outlook, merely confirming its enduring existence.

[NJS]

[Often, for 'plainness' we may read 'artlessness'...
NJS

I tend to agree. I wasn't endorsing an ascetic outlook, merely confirming its enduring existence.

Oh! it's certainly alive an' kickin'. I know this from the non-conformist community in Cornwall - largely, a sour bunch, I fear; all puckered-up at the very idea of fun!

NJS