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In Reply to: Bella Martha.... posted by patrickU on November 24, 2002 at 12:32:16:

...now I was starting to look for any comments in the net, as I wasn�t sure about its title -it was "Delicious Martha" in Spain; and I am not sure about it being already available to our US friends!
I must disagree with you, as it doesn�t share much with "Babette�s Feast": just that both girls are excellent cooks, and that both films sing on celebrating life, through the transformation of characters in them. Otherwise, they belong into quite different worlds, and I�ll say why I see it so:
1- "Babette�s Feast", which I think can be seen from two radically opposed, thus coincident, points of view (oh, how I love paradoxes!):
a) Babette�s: Taking sides with Babette herself, we find her (and I�m writing by heart, as I saw that film a few years ago) as a woman, a top rate cook, who had been delighting her customers in some well known restaurant in France (maybe Paris?) and who, for (political?)reasons I can�t remember now, is now working in literally another world: in the deep North (Denmark, Sweden?), in a country place which is dark, grey, never merry but deadly boring, religiously strict,..., well, for someone coming from the luminous South (Paris� charms are not exactly sunny, as they have made of rain an ouvre d�art, but there�s light a plenty: la Ville Lumi�re!), with all its gaiety, all that wide palette of colours, aromas, and tastes; all those beautiful women, charmantes as only a Parisian woman can be -oh, the memories!-, with their colourful dresses, the charming talk, the laughs, the feasts,..., the wide avenues, the beautiful boulevards, gardens, flowers, monuments,..., for anyone coming from there, Babette�s life as a servant to those two spinsters must be a Purgatory on Earth.
And Babette herself looks like a luminous soul who, I again can�t recall why, is kind of paying a debt, suffering for an unknown sin, or flying away from a terrible threat; a straight looking, honest woman, who accepts her present destiny without complaining, and who is able to keep her soul alive in that place barren of terrenal joy. Until the day comes when she, having received a considerable sum of money (inherited?), she decides to open the windows and gates of the house she is now living in, to the light of honest earthly pleasures and, on that purpose, she brings there everything necessary to prepare a joyful banquet, a true feast to the senses, which she cooks, and displays, in a wonderful way, bringing light, and joy, to those two women, who had lived in a world of constant denial of any pleasures for themselves. By doing this, she makes them to (literally) taste some portion of Heaven, thus redeeming their lives, and making them know some of the pleasures they had always denied to themselves, while she takes a most innocent revenge on the Purgatory her own life has been for the last times.
Looking at the story from Babette�s side, it has an open end, as if she had finally been allowed (or allowed herself) to come back to her own world, once she had covered some kind of spiritual mission, or paid for whatever it was. I can�t remember now if she goes back to her loved country, or if she finally decides to stay there, and see the seeds she has sown grow, for the best of all.
b) The two spinsters: These two, now old, women, are the daughters of a Protestant minister, who have denied themselves any right to enjoy earthy pleasures, dedicated as they are to the memory of their deceased father, to faith, and to chastity..., and then, just from there under, from the hearthy fires of their kitchen (that�s an alchemist�s allegory: the hearth where, through fire, things get transformed, from being earthy to sublime), there comes a transforming force, under the guise of their maidservant, to shake the very heart of their beings!
If memory doesn�t betray me (what is not so unusual, my friend) I recall something about those spinters� youth, when they closed themselves to life�s requirements, and didn�t accept a lover, or developing a career at singing, just because of their fears!, so closing the door to their becoming completely human, by not accepting their human needs, disguising their fears under the cloak of a higher spirituality, just "living their lives in this valley of tears", as a pair of nuns, chaste and religious, but never happy, until the time comes when, their maidservant acting both as an agent provocateur, and as a midwife, they finally are exposed to some innocent, but challenging, earthly pleasures, which will challenge the foundations of their beliefs, transforming them, once and for ever, into a different, more complete and thus better, kind of people: they can�t understand what their maid is doing, but they get trapped by what she has done, and their lives are changed, just by eating those delicious dishes...
There�s more than an allegory here: a rich metaphor (metaphor, from Greek "Meta"= "Beyond", + "Pherein", = "To carry", that is, something which carries us beyond its apparent meaning), for the transformation our souls can achieve through their na�ve, plain exposure to true earthly things; a deep, enriching call for us all to open ourselves to life, with all its dangers and excesses, as a necessary step for a higher spiritualization. I recall the film to be based on a short story by Karen Blixen (Isaak Dinesen), that fine raconteur who wrote that wonderful book which became another film, "Memoirs of Africa"...
All in all, this film is a fine exposition of true existentialism, a tribute to the best of Kierkegaard, through Blixen�s story, actualized by a wonderful movie, where every one is transformed, everybody becomes better, nobody loses anything but his own fears...: a true celebration of life!
Well, and now, let�s go with "Sweet Martha" ("Mostly Martha" for our US friends), which I have fresh in my memory, as it was only last Saturday that I enjoyed it:
I came to the theater without any previous references about this film, and I wasn�t especially enthusiastic about seeing a German film..., and, unfortunately, we came a little bit late, and lost the first minutes of it! But I was immediately caught by the excellent playing of that wonderful woman, Martina Gedeck, whom I never had seen before, and on whom I will keep an eye from now on: she is simply wonderful!
Man, this is an excellent film, too! It�s just the opposite to Hollywood films: just a plain story, pretty understated, with people living their lives, and how love, and affection, can come to make them pregnant with new meanings...
Martha is a wonderful chef, a woman in her thirties who has dedicated her whole life to the pursuit of perfection in the work she has chosen, in which she has achieved a high success,..., but who has lost most of her touch with life itself: she lives cocooned in her kitchen, where she prepares delicious food for everybody, while leaving her own vital needs aside, thus having a barren life..., to the point that she is undergoing some kind of psychotherapy (what proves she is anything but happy), until fate comes in, through a telephone call, saying that her own sister has just died in an accident, and she has to care for her eight year old niece, what will shatter all of her schemes. To crown the cake, there comes a new cook, an extroverted Italian, who is pretty anarchic, with no respect for timing, a liar,..., her nightmares come true!
Films with children are o so prone to cliches! And this one is no exception: only that it takes the situation to new heights and, through the interplay between this kid�s needs for affection, and her desperate need for order in her life, all seasoned by that crooky Italian cook, a true jester, the very trickster who, in Jungian Psychology acts as a Psychopomp, a mediator between consciousness and unconscious, it all puts her beliefs and convictions into a whirling machine, first torturing, later transforming her, making her question everything about her own life, and allowing her to blossom (and blossom is the right word, here) into a true woman, until she finally surrenders and accepts life, and opens herself to it, in an unashamed way (that piece of raw meat, thrown by her into the very face of that stupid pimp, is an invaluable scene), until she finally flies away in search of her own happiness.
This film is very well told, in a plain, most convincing way, and every actor plays its role as if touched by grace, with a most delectably economy of gestures, while showing their inner transformations to anybody who cares to look for them. And it celebrates life, its pleasures, and pains, as not so many are able to. I am not going into more details here, as maybe some of our pals will sure become interested in seeing it...
Both are, as said, films about soul alchemy through feelings. And both make us feel happy for being human. Both are so different, thus so alike...
Well, in the long run, you are right: they have more in common than I anticipated!
Hope not to have bored you, my friend; but I�m really excited!
Regards
BF

Films/DVD Asylum

My God, Patrick! I�ve just seen it, and...