Blog Entry 2

In Gabriel Axel's Babette's Feast, the power of food and the Protestant ethics is especially evident in the 3rd act of the film. After the death of the pastor and the girl's father, the already small conventicle starts to fall apart. There is a lot of tension within the group, with brothers fighting and a lovers quarrel. The group no longer seems tight-knit and focused on religion, and Philippa and Martine aren't their father, so they're at a loss on how to keep the group together. At the same time, their cook of 14 years, the titular character Babette, wins the lottery. With her winnings, Babette offers to cook the members of the conventicle a proper french feast for the pastor's 100th birthday celebration as a sign of appreciation. Philippa and Martine accept Babette's offer. Immediately, they start to suspect ulterior motives from Babette. Their Protestant views start to overshadow this kind act from Babette, and they start to suspect the meal to be some sort of sin and an act of the devil. Philippa and Martine gather the conventicle and agree to eat Babette's meal but are not to utter a single word about the food, no matter how pleasurable it may be. They are not to give in to the temptation. 
This is where the power of food starts to take effect. Babette serves her feast in various courses, or as I like to think of it, layers. It's like she's carefully layering all of her appreciation one course at a time. The food, and the alcohol served alongside it, is as pleasurable as the guest imagined it, though they still don't allow themselves to comment. The pleasure of the food slowly starts to break the tension within the group and by the end of the night, they've allowed themselves to be elevated spiritually. Babette's feast is the definition of the power of food. 

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