Reel Food & World Cinema

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 ...

 This semester, I chose to take Reel Food and World Cinema because I was very interested in the course description and I'm very interested in expanding my horizons and learning more about different cultures. I feel like for a long time I've lived in a sort of bubble and have only really paid attention to what's happening in front of me. I never really looked beyond that bubble, and it's causes me to become a bit ignorant and uneducated, so I'm ready to explore and see what I've been missing. Earlier last month at the Golden Globes awards, during his acceptance speech,  Parasite  director Bong Joon Ho said, "Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films." I'm trying to live by this quote and I'm excited about the amazing films this class will hopefully introduce me too. Also, I'm a cinema major, so seeing that this class was partially about world cinema, it immediately made me ...