Dinner and A Movie...

Last night, I made sloppy joes, baked potatoes, peas, and a coconut cream pie for dessert. Not exactly a 5-course dinner in a 5-star restaurant, but a good meal for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary today and a snowy Saturday when I have nothing else to do except spend the day at home in my pajamas. 

Two of my favorite movies revolve around food, but also bring in elements of the Christian faith. One movie is Babette's Feast, a 1987 Danish film with subtitles directed by director Gabriel Axe, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie revolves around Babette, a refuge of the French Revolution who finds herself becoming the cook for two devout sisters in Denmark who have eschewed marriage in order to carry on the traditions of Christian sect founded by their deceased father. The sisters don't know that Babette's only tie to her home in Paris is a lottery ticket that one of Babette's friends pays to reactivate annually. When Babette learns that she has won the lottery, she decide to spend the money on creating a traditional French feast for the sisters and their community as a memorial to the father's 100th birthday. Joining the community for the meal is a Danish general, who had courted one of the sisters as a young soldier but whom she had turned away in favor of her religious convictions. The entire community feels guilty for enjoying such an extravagant meal, and the general's experience at this dinner reminded him of the meals he ate in a cafe in Paris. It's only when Babette reveals that she had been the head chef in the cafe the general ate at and shows kindness to the community members by revealing that she paid for the meal with her lottery money that they are able to drop their guards and enjoy both earthly pleasures while longing for the benefits of heaven. 

The second movie is Chocolat, a 2000 American film set in France in 1959 and starring Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Lena Olin, and Judi Dench. Juliette Binoche plays a single mother of a daughter. They move into a devoutly Catholic French village, rent an apartment and storefront that had been a former patisserie from Judi Dench's character, and open a chocolate shop in the storefront just as Lent starts. Alfred Molina plays a grizzly mayor who corners the local parish priest and a local pub owner to try getting the chocolate shop to close and to try getting a band of Irish gypsies led by Johnny Depp to leave the village. The chocolate shop somehow brings the community together while challenging and transforming Judi Dench's relationships with her family, the strict pre-Vatican rules of Catholic practice, and the community's distrust of outsiders. Oddly enough, the pub owner (who's married to Lena Olin's character) ends up being the one who's banished from the community because he's an abusive drunk who somehow cannot find the grace, love, and power from God and from others in the community to change from the inside out. 

I think there are several reasons why I like both movies. First, food and mealtimes often bring families and friends together to celebrate happy occasions, religious festivals, and even just a simple night at home or out on the town when you're watching a movie and eating dinner. Much like the Passover seders that help Jewish families remember the freedom of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery in the Old Testament book of Exodus or a birthday party or even going out for dinner after church to celebrate a person's baptism or confirmation, Babette's Feast and Chocolat use food and meals to inspire community and fellowship with those you're eating with. In Chocolat, Judi Dench's character is thrown a birthday party at the home of Juliette Binoche's character, with chocolate sauce covering baked chicken and side dishes that tempted the eyes as well as the mouth since all of them featured chocolate as an ingredient. In Babette's Feast, Babette's lottery money pays for exquisite dishes such as turtle soup, quail in a puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce, and buckwheat cakes with caviar and sour cream to commemorate the founding of the community and religious sect, opening the minds and hearts as well as the stomachs of those who dined to realize that life on earth can be enjoyed.

Food can also be used to bring hope to those who are mourning the death of a loved one and broken relationships or who need to feel connected to their own culture while in the midst of another. In Chocolat, for example, Judi Dench's character dies the day after her party and had only a partial reconciliation with her daughter and grandson. The daughter and grandson realize how short life is and agree to help Juliette Binoche's character prepare chocolate for an Easter Sunday festival to be held shortly after the funeral. And in Babette's Feast, the dinner allows Babette to be honest about her life in France that she misses by fully expressing her love of cooking quality food and not just the bland meals the sisters and their friends and family had been eating. 

I think one final reason why I love both movies is because cooking and eating are sensory experiences for all of us, especially me. I get hungry when I smell spaghetti sauce simmering or coffee brewing, and I prefer mixing pie dough or bread dough with my hands instead of with a mixer so I can tell when it's ready to be baked. To me, making a meal is an act of love and gratitude for everything I have and a gift for others to enjoy, just as it was in Babette's Feast and Chocolat.

Food is mentioned in the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments as an expression of God's provision and grace. In Genesis 1:29, God gives Adam and Even seeds, fruits, and vegetables to eat in the Garden of Eden, and in Genesis 9:1-7, God also allows men to eat meat from animals that have been killed and gives instructions to Noah on how to treat both humans and animals. And Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Passover in Matthew 26:17-30, remembering specifically events and commandments of celebrating Passover mentioned in Exodus chapters 1 through 12. 

Psalm 34:8 says "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one
who takes refuge in him". To me, enjoying a meal is one way I am truly thankful for how good God is. It's more than just the food, it's a way to be connected to more than just the apple or the sandwich on my plate by being connected to God who gave me the apple and to others enjoying it with me.